Slough Town's 10-match unbeaten streak comes to an end at Clarence Park

St Albans City 3, Slough Town 2

Slough Town’s 10-match unbeaten streak (in all competitions) came to an unfortunate end this week as St Albans City emerged narrow victors on home soil.

The Rebels looked on course for a share of the spoils at Clarence Park as Dan Bayliss and Josh Jackman cancelled out Ibby Akanbi and Dylan Fage’s early strikes.

However, Akanbi was on target again less than five minutes after Jackman’s finish with the Saints holding firm thereafter to secure all three points.

The defeat keeps Slough Town in 21st of the National League South, now three points from safety.

Scott Davies brought Jeamnal Prosper, Nathan Minhas, and Dom Hutchinson into the starting XI for this clash on Tuesday night with Davies taking a seat on the bench alongside David Ogbonna and Matt Lench absent with a minor injury.

The referee’s stopwatch was a mere 13 minutes old when the deadlock was broken, as Giorgio Rasulo played a well-weighted pass into Akanbi who had no trouble beating Rohan Luthra in a one-on-one.

It was 2-0 on the 18th minute when Mitchell Weiss, sprinting down the left flank, got to the byline and fired the ball across the face of the Rebels’ goal for Fage to emphatically turn in.

St Albans continued to apply pressure on the Slough defence and Luthra had to be at full stretch to deny a long-range strike from Akanbi next.

George Alexander had the ball at his feet before the half-hour mark, whipping in a cross that was comfortably claimed by Sam Bentley, before Johnny Goddard had it in the back of the net with the linesman silencing the ensuing celebrations with the raise of his offside flag.

As the first half drew to a close, Weiss was afforded the time and space to test Luthra, Minhas flicked an effort marginally wide down the other end, and Akanbi cracked off another shot that Luthra had to be on his toes for.

Into the second half, the Rebels started well with Alexander sending a shot narrowly wide before Bayliss sent a powerful header past Bentley, assisted by a Goddard corner, to make the score 2-1.

It could have, and probably should have, been 2-2 very soon after as Jackman’s deep cross caused chaos inside the Saints area with Bentley forced to claw the ball over the woodwork.

Nevertheless, parity was restored in the 71st minute as Jackman coolly found the back of the net from just outside the box, teed up nicely by Alexander.

Slough were afforded just four minutes to reflect on that goal as Akanbi fired the hosts back into the ascendancy with a tidy finish.

Davies turned to his substitutes, bringing on Tom McElroy, Ogbonna, and Leon Chambers-Parillon, to try and salvage something from the game.

But, with shrewd football, St Albans navigated the dying embers well and very nearly put another goal past their opponents in added time.

Next up for Slough Town is an encounter with Eastbourne Borough at the SO Legal Community Stadium (Saturday, October 28).