Fontenelle's frustration at Clarence Park as Slough Town go 'toe-to-toe' with St Albans City

Tony Fontenelle was left to lament the opening 20 minutes of Slough Town’s match with St Albans City on Tuesday night as the Rebels succumbed to their first defeat in the National League South since early September.

Goals from Ibby Akanbi (two) and Dylan Fage helped deliver the Saints a 3-2 win at Clarence Park this week with defenders Dan Bayliss and Josh Jackman on the scoresheet for the Rebels.

Akanbi grabbed his first goal in the 13th minute with Fage scoring just five minutes after as Slough struggled to get to grips with their high-flying hosts in the opening stages.

Though they entered the break on the back foot, Scott Davies’(above)men began the second half with confidence and Bayliss managed to halve the deficit in the 61st minute before Jackman levelled matters with a fine strike.

However, a lapse in concentration from the Rebels, coupled with some smart football from the Saints, rewarded the home side with a winning goal 15 minutes from full-time – Akanbi the scorer and inevitable recipient of the man of the match award.

After the game, Slough Town assistant manager Fontenelle said: “It’s going to sound strange but when we played St Albans last season at their place, we won 2-1 (February 25) and we were nowhere near to the levels we were at on Tuesday night.

”I think we were a lot better against St Albans on Tuesday than we were in February, but we obviously lost. Ultimately, it was the first 20 minutes of the game where we didn’t quite get to grips with their shape. They caused us a lot of problems early on.

“At this level of football, mistakes get punished, and we found ourselves 2-0 down. We were contemplating changing the shape or formation and potentially personnel at half-time. But, as silly as this sounds, we all thought we were well in the game after that poor start.

“The message at half-time was to begin the second half how we finished the first and see where it takes us. The lads really galvanised after the break and once that first goal went in, we kept up the pressure and scored a fantastic, well-worked goal to level the game.

“At that point, it looked like it there was only going to be one team that was going to go and take all three points. But football is as much of a cruel game as it is beautiful, and they scored next. There was a lapse of concentration but in fairness, the passage of play that led to St Albans’ third goal, I just have to tip my cap and say: ‘fair play’.”

Fontenelle added: “You don’t enjoy losing and no one ever sets up to lose a a game of football. But if you are going to lose a game, then for me, there is a way to lose. You give a good account, you put up a good fight, and I believe that’s what we did.

“We just fell short, we weren’t a million miles away, and we went toe-to-toe with one of the big guns within our division. Let’s not forget St Albans were play-off finalists last season.”

As a result of the loss, Slough Town sit 21st in the National League South table now three points from safety.

They will hope to bridge the gap to the sides above them this Saturday, when they go head-to-head with Eastbourne Borough who sit 19th, on 15 points, and have the same goal difference as the Rebels (-5).

“Look, we are still playing catch up with regards to the start to the season that we had,” said Fontenelle. “In my opinion, that was unprecedented to have six defeats after seven games. In fairness, I think five of those defeats were by the odd goal and that showed we weren’t a million miles away.

“Now the players are starting to gel, they are buying into how we want to do things and the results and the performance levels – more importantly – are speaking for themselves.

“Yes, we are going into this game at the weekend and for me it’s a must-not-lose. When we are looking at the unbeaten run we’ve been on, the pleasing factor is how many clean sheets we’ve had.

“I’d say, Chelmsford (0-0, Saturday, October 21) could have gone either way so a draw on reflection was a fair result. I think the game against Weymouth (0-0, Saturday, October 7), we feel that was two points dropped just because of the way they set up and made our lives difficult.”

On team selection, Fontenelle added: “We’ve got training on Thursday night. We will come together and we will make an assessment of players’ niggles and injuries then.

“We will see where they are at and see how we can set up against Eastbourne in order to give us the best opportunity to get three points.”