Southern League Premier Division
Arbour Park, Slough
Admission: £11.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 514
Match Rating: 3
With the threat of waterlogged pitches yet again looming today, following heavy rain on Friday, a hard frost overnight and rain arriving in the south-east late morning, I decided to head to Burnham, with the plastic pitch of Slough Town as a convenient back-up. With no sign of any issues at Burnham, despite light rain continuing to fall, I decided to stay on the train one stop beyond Slough and embark on the half hour walk to The Gore. Just before I arrived at the ground, I noticed that the game had indeed been postponed, and so I hastily turned around and headed back to the station and got on the train back to Slough, eventually arriving about 5 minutes before kick-off.
Arbour Park is about a ten minute walk from Slough station, and is a very impressive and attractive stadium. Opened in August 2016, the outside fascia welcomes visitors to the complex, although it is noticeable that there are no permanent club signage present at this council owned facility, so the club puts up various banners to give their matchday home some identity. There are turnstile blocks in each corner, and just inside the one open today, there was a gazebo offering programmes, while team line-ups are posted with various other fixture and supporters club notice on a board by the corner of the pitch. Straddling the half way line on one side is the main stand, which is pleasantly designed with some nice colour to it, steep rows of seating with no obstructing pillars to get in the way, and at the top of the seating, there is an indoor area with a bar and refreshment outlet. On the opposite side, there is a shorter stand with four rows of seating, whilst behind both goals there are identical covered terraces, with six rows of steps to stand on. The 40 page programme was a decent read with all of the necessary information contained inside.
Slough came into this game in fifth place, and although they have between three and six games in hand on all teams around them, they were ten points behind fourth placed Kettering. They had won 16 and drawn six of their 26 league games. Banbury were in ninth place, having won 14 and drawn eight of their 33 league games. When the two teams met in late November, the game finished 2-2.
With fine rain continuing to fall through most of the match, the visitors had to wear a former away kit of Slough's, after the referee deemed that their red and yellow strip would clash with Slough's kit. Slough would have the better of the first half, having most of the possession but neither team really looked like scoring, at least from open play. On 23 minutes, James Dobson struck a free kick which hit the top of the crossbar and went over, whilst on 30 minutes Banbury were denied what looked like a penalty when Elliott Sandy was bundled over in the area. Dobson drew a good save from the keeper from another free kick on the stroke of half time, but a goalless scoreline was a fair reflection of a half in which both teams really cancelled each other out.
The second half continued in much the same vein, although Slough looked even less likely to score, and it was Banbury who scored what proved to be the winning goal. Sandy dinked the ball down the middle for Ricky Johnson to sprint through defenders to run onto the ball and towards goal, and he showed good composure to fire the ball past the keeper. Slough did manage to come close a couple of times in the closing minutes, and in stoppage time, they had a goal disallowed when the ball was bundled over the line but only thanks to a foul on the keeper, and with the last kick of the game, a free kick was drilled into the defensive wall.
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