05:00PM, Friday 15 December 2017
SLOUGH Town’s players have been urged to move on after luck conspired against them in Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to Bishop’s Stortford.
On paper the defeat looked like a bad one for the promotion-chasing Rebels, and had many thinking a hangover from their FA Cup exit to Rochdale was lingering at Arbour Park.
But those that were there on Saturday will know that’s far from the full story, as just about everything that could go wrong for the Rebels, did go wrong, to hand the Southern League Premier Division strugglers a precious victory.
Nathan Smart’s dismissal was only the start of their problems. Matt Lench and Sean Fraser both limped out of the game injured while Stortford were buoyed by fortunate own goals and wonderful strikes, neither of which the Rebels’ defence could do much about.
James Dobson and Brad Wadkins scored to keep the Rebels – who were effectively playing with eight men at the end – in touch, but it wasn’t to be.
“It was just one of those days,” said Baker. “I think that we have to put it down to bad luck. We started quite well and should have been 1-0 up in the first minute but they then scored when the guy’s header was going off target but hit Smart and rolled into the bottom corner.
“It was nothing bad defensively, just bad luck.
“We then made it 3-2 with 15-20 minutes to go. I thought we were going to get back into it, as we were so much in control, but then Lenchy (Matt Lench) got injured and Wellsy (George Wells) picked up a knock but carried on. We were still pushing even though we were effectively down to eight men, but they finished us off in the 92nd minute.”
Baker put Saturday’s result down to ill fortune rather than any malaise caused by the Rebels’ efforts in the FA Cup.
Tomorrow (Saturday) they have the chance to get their title challenge back on track when they travel to leaders Kings Lynn Town, but they’ll be going there without Lench, Smart and Fraser. And Baker and Underwood’s sides have underperformed at King’s Lynn in recent seasons, highlighted by the fact they conceded five in the first half there last year.
“I feel that we did ourselves proud with eight or nine players but it was one of them where the luck construed against us,” said Baker.
“But we won’t worry too much about it. It’s one of those where we haven’t played that badly. We didn’t get any luck in the game at all. When you win games you need an element of luck and we didn’t get any of it on Saturday.
“But we go to Kings Lynn on Saturday and have to make sure we don’t get beat. They’re top of the league and it’s a difficult place to go. We’ve beaten them on our last two visits. Last season we were 5-0 down at half-time, so we know we’ll have to be right on our mettle.
“We have one or two concerns with injuries so have spoken to a player about potentially coming in. I don’t think that will happen before Saturday, but we’re looking at one or two additions.”
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