Town's play their last friendly match tomorrow night when they visit Slough Town. The Rebels currently ground share with Beaconsfield SYCOB (something I have always wondered is what that stands for??? - The Answer?? Slough Youth Centre Old Boys) at Holloways Park.
So, even though it'll be a bit of nightmare rush hour traffic wise on the M25/M40 it's a chance to visit a new ground.
Enfield FC fans from the 1990's will of course know Slough Town very well. Their promotion after our Championship in 1995 following the 'irregular balance sheet' seems a distant memory now. I'll never forget going to Wexham Park and stuffing them 4-1 when we had just been crowned champions. I think we sang 'George Borg's Blue and White army' for the whole of the 2nd half...This was accompanied with their fans singing about why they were going up to Conference. We were the best team in the league that year by miles although they did nick a 1-0 win at Southbury Road in front of 1132 in October 1994. Slough were to spend 3 years in the Conference following this promotion finishing 17th, 16th and 8th, they were then relegated/demoted as their ground didn't meet conference ground grading rulings.
'Distant memories' is a bit of an understatement for both clubs as Southbury Road is now gone as we all know and Wexham Park was vacated by Slough during the summer of 2003 due to financial disagreements with the stadium owners. Since then they have shared Stag Meadow, Windsor & Eton and have been at Beaconsfield since 2007.
The season's ground sharing were some of the worst Slough fans had ever seen. In 06/07 they finished bottom of the Isthmian Premier winning only 4 out of 42 games conceding 123 goals. The following season (07/08) in the Southern Divsion One (S&W) wasn't much better as they finished 21st out of 22 teams with a points total of 32. Initially relegated the Rebels benefited from the demise of Halifax Town and were given a reprieve in the pyramid reconstruction.
Last year they finished 16th in the Southern Division One (S&W), Our opponents from last week AFC Hayes finished 9th, 16 points above them. Ex Coventry, Luton, Southampton and Celtic player Paul Telfer turned out for the club towards the end of the season.
This year the club have been moved to the Midland Division and will play against their landlords, Chesham United, Arlesey Town, Hitchin Town and Marlow to name a few clubs.
Some good news for Rebel's fans is there are plans to build a new 'state of the art' stadium in the Arber Vale area of the town. What is very sad is that Wexham Park is still there but has fallen into a state of disrepair (link - http://www.rebelsonline.co.uk/index.asp?stid=9000618 ).... The once tidy terracing has now gone and has been replaced with weeds and vandalism.
Slough last appeared in the FA Cup proper in 2004 when they giant killed Walsall at home 2-1 subsequently loosing to Yeading 3-1 in the 2nd round. Last year they lost to Farnborough 1-0 at Cherrywood Road in the 1st qaulifying round.
Manager Steve Bateman has had a very busy pre-season with the following set of results:
11/07 Penn & Tylers W 6-1
14/7 Holyport W 3-2
17/7 Hillingdon Borough W 1-0 *
18/7 Hendon L 1-0 *
21/7 Flackwell Heath W 3-1
25/7 Camberley Town L 2-1
28/7 Leverstock Green L 1-0
1/08 HARROW BORO L 4-0
4/8 Chipstead L 4-0
8/8 Ashford (Middx) L3-1
* denotes Hillingdon tournament matches only 40 minutes each way.
Slough have amongst their team this year Dean Sinclair who scored lots of goals for Bovingdon in the Herts County League last year, He scored a hat-trick on his debut in the 6-1 win against Penn & Tylers. His brother Steve Sinclair (Ex Hemel, Boreham Wood and Chesham) and pacy striker Yashwa Romeo (an ex Oxford City fans favourite).
New Town signing Rory Smith played in the games versus Penn & Tylers, Hillingdon Boro, Hendon, Flackwell Heath and Chipstead.
Comedian Jimmy Carr was born and raised in Slough. He pokes fun at the town in his shows - "I grew up in Slough in the 1970s, if you want to know what Slough was like in the 1970s, go there now".
The game kicks off at 7.45pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment