Slough's Town's FA Cup high fades as Bath City battle back to claim 3-2 win

Wiktor Makowski. Photo: Zak Rana

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Slough Town 2, Bath City 3

Slough Town remain in the National League South relegation zone on goal difference after second half goals from Jake Tabor and Brad Ash carried visitors Bath City to a 3-2 victory at Arbour Park.

The Rebels came into last night’s (Tuesday) clash buoyed by their impressive performance and victory over Altrincham in the FA Cup first round on Saturday, however, their league form has been languishing of late, with this their fourth league defeat on the spin.

So far at least, the Rebels haven’t been able to transplant their cup form into the bread and butter of their league matches, and, while this was a much closer affair than their previous two league defeats to Weston Super Mare (5-1) and Maidstone United (4-1) - it was still a loss.

Wiktor Makowski was on target in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Alty and he kept the good mood going initially when he fired the Rebels in front in the 13th minute.

After an initial half chance, the home side worked the ball well between Luke Holness and Jared Myers to feed Makowski who fired home to make it 1-0.

Harvey Walker came close to a second a minute or so later when his cross come shot stung the gloves of Bath keeper Harvey Wiles-Richards.

Slough had a measure of control throughout the half, with the Romans only really threatening on the counterattack. A mistake from Dan Roth in the 33rd minute almost allowed them to respond, but the visitors couldn’t make Slough pay.

Holness lashed a decent chance well over the bar for Slough in the 36th minute and in the 41st minute the lively Myers sent in a dangerous ball that no one in amber and blue gambled on to get a decisive touch.

Slough looked to be going into the break with a deserved lead to defend, however, in stoppage time they were pegged back by a fine free kick from Will Jenkins-Davies.

Player manager Scott Davies won’t have liked what he saw from his side in the opening 20 minutes of the second half as Bath managed to get a stranglehold on the game.

Tabor nodded the visitors in front for the first time in the 48th minute as the Romans took full advantage of a strong start to the second half.

Slough were clearly struggling to match the visitors’ intensity, with Tabor firing another attempt wide of the post in the 54th minute and Reiss Greenidge having to battle hard to keep tabs on Tabor, who forced Adam Desbois into another save in the 57th minute.

Their pressure paid in the 64th minute through when Ash netted a third and it looked a long road back for the Rebels from there.

To be fair to them, Slough showed the character and quality to attempt that fightback, with Jaiden Drakes-Thomas firing narrowly over the bar in the 66th minute before Myers caught Wiles-Richards’ off-guard with a shot that slipped through the keeper’s clutches and into the net in the 70th minute.

With more than 20 minutes still to play, the comeback was very much on, however, they couldn’t fashion another really good, clear-cut chance.

The closest they came was in the 88th minute when Johnny Goddard and Greenidge exchanged headers and the former nearly scored, only for Bath’s Kieran Parselle to clear the ball close to the goal line.

Slough slip a place to 22nd ahead of Saturday’s trip to sixth placed Horsham.