Duncan Gardner shares the latest edition of Facts of the Match ahead of this afternoon’s fixture against Slough Town.
Coincidence strikes today for our final home game of the season, as the last time we played The Rebels, it was also our last home match of the campaign in the 2019/20 National League South season. That game was famously not meant to be our curtain call that year but alas the small matter of a global pandemic curtailed the season early on 14th March! On that pendulous afternoon, a Josh McQuoid penalty was followed up by a late Andreas Robinson penalty that secured the three points and third place on points per game, cementing a semi-final playoff place and the rest is history!
Since then we have faced the Berkshire-based-outfit two further times, but both in the royal county. First, a pre-season friendly in 2020, when a Robinson brace was added to by a Cody Cooke strike – then a Jake McCarthy finish to seal a 4-2 victory. But most recently this season, we achieved a notable league win. With 26 minutes left on the clock and 2-1 to the good, we attempted to press the self-destruct button when Nathan Carlyle received his marching orders. Just three minutes later and the hosts equalised, but we dug deep and the visiting Terras fans went into pandemonium when Cam Murray hustled and bustled his way through the defences to score the winner for the ten men just two minutes before the end of normal time.
Overall our record against today’s visitors is good with 6 wins to 4 losses with the two draws in all games. Our recent meetings tip the balance even further in the favour of the Claret & Blues with 5 games unbeaten including just the one draw. We have also scored in each of the last five meetings, which is in stark contrast to the previous six encounters when we only manged to unlock their defences once, although that was at least a handsome 6-1 hammering in 2015, legend-in-the-making Ben Thomson bagging a brace that day with Evans, Shepherd, Cooper & Rigg all gilding the lily.
Despite both clubs being formed in the same year in 1890, it took some 124 years before we first locked horns and that was in the 2014/15 Southern League Premier campaign – a 3-2 win at the Bob Lucas in September followed up by a 3-0 loss in the new year on the road.
Some of the more notable names to feature for both clubs are: Danny Bailey, Will Dennis, Mick Doherty, Jefferson Louis, Ralph Miller.
Doherty was a prolific striker for the Terras in the mid-80’s, scoring 93 goals in 142 competitive games after signing from Yeovil, but it was Slough where Mick plied his trade before he moved to our Somerset rivals.
