Chip on their shoulder, magic in their boots: Slough stun Altrincham in the FA Cup

Photo credit: Zak Rana

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Johnny Goddard admits Slough Town had ‘a bit of a chip on their shoulders’ heading into Saturday’s FA Cup first round tie at home to National League Altrincham, but they used that niggling feeling to good effect as they claimed a fully deserved 2-1 win to claim their place in tonight’s (Monday) second round draw.

The Rebels came into the tie off the back of a heavy league defeats at Weston Super Mare and home to Maidstone United, poor performances which had left them languishing in the National League South relegation zone.

There were mitigating factors for that of course, a lengthy injury list that had robbed the side of much-needed quality and experience and an illness bug that had gone through the camp and taken down certain players, including player manager Scotty Davies.

But those misfortunes had fired the Rebels up for the visit of Alty and they repaid their supporters’ faith with an excellent performance against a team from the level above.

“We had a bit of a chip on our shoulder from last week,” said Goddard.

“Last week was a reality check for us, and we owed the fans a bit of a bounce back today. We showed just what we’re capable of. Obviously, a great day for the club, the supporters and the players.

“The focus now goes back onto the league, but this is a lovely distraction.

“The staff had been brilliant in terms of what them (Altrincham), having a game plan and we knew what we needed to do.

“But then it’s up to us to go and deliver on the pitch and I felt that we did that. To beat a team that’s a level above you on you need 11 players that are really at it, and then we had the subs that came on. Some weren’t expecting to come on that early as we had some injuries. It sums up where our season has been a little bit in terms of players going down. They contributed massively as well though.”

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— Slough Town FC (@sloughtownfc) November 2, 2025

New signing Ansu Janneh - who’d only been introduced from the substitutes bench following another unfortunate injury to Tarik Gidaree - volleyed the home side in front in the 32nd minute, before Wiktor Makowski helped himself to another FA Cup goal, turning in Tyrese Dyce’s low cross from the left from close range a few minutes later. They might have gone into half-time three goals to the good, had Jaiden Drakes-Thomas’ shot from outside the box not struck the inside of the post,

Altrincham responded to a triple substitute made by their interim boss Neil Gibson just after the hour mark, with one of those subs, James Gale swivelling to score in the 65th minute. But Slough’s defence was imperious in the final stages, and they managed to navigate nine minutes of stoppage time - thanks mainly to the 82nd minute dismissal of Elliott Osborne for an elbow on Makowski - to take their place in the second round of the competition.

“Football is all about momentum,” he added. “2-0, you hear it all the time, is a horrible scoreline because if they get the next goal, they’re right back in it.

“We saw that today, but we defended the box brilliantly for the last nine minutes of additional time. Full team effort, showed a lot of different qualities, attacking wise and defensively. We put our bodies on the line and now we’d like to show a bit more consistency with our league form.”

Goddard would love another winnable home tie in the second round, with the prospect of a third-round tie against one of the ‘big boys’ now tantalisingly within reach. However, the midfielder, who was back to his elusive best on Saturday, knows the Rebels also need to find some form in their league campaign to go alongside this welcome FA Cup distraction.

He said: “I’d like to get a home tie in the next round and get someone we’d fancy our chances against. Third round, that’s where the big boys come in, so if we could get through and maybe draw someone like Tottenham, that would be nice.”

*Slough will be ball 25 in tonight’s FA Cup second round draw. 32 non-league sides will be dreaming of getting to the third-round stage.

The draw takes place this evening (Monday, November 3) at approximately 6.45pm before Tamworth’s home tie with Leyton Orient. It will be shown on TNT Sports 1 and Discovery+ and on free live streams on their social media channels and YouTube.

The second round proper will take place around the weekend of December 6.