Sat. 10th March. Evo-Stik Southern Premier Slough Town 2 Frome Town 1

Frome Town’s poor run of results continued as they were beaten 2-1 on Slough Town’s 3G pitch and despite Frome taking the lead in the 11th through George Miller, Slough were the better side in the second half and goals from Chris Flood and Simon Dunn resulted in a fairly comfortable victory for the hosts.

For possibly the first time this season, Frome were able to travel to 5th placed Slough with a full complement of players and substitutes as both Mitchell Page and Joe Raynes returned from suspension and nobody was injured. After a couple of weeks’ break due to the weather, they were keen to halt the run of four successive league and cup defeats that had followed a run of five unbeaten games.

Surprisingly, due to Slough’s FA Cup run and weather-related factors, this was the first time the two sides have met this season. Slough were looking to score more than one against Frome and win against them for the first time since 1982.

On a mild day, the match kicked off on the immaculate-looking 3G pitch and after Frome had managed to survive three successive corners right at the start of the match, they took the lead in the 11th when they  scored with their first real attack of the match. Raynes fed the ball to Jon Davies who then whipped in a sublime right wing cross onto the head of George MIller, who scored with ease. They could well have doubled the lead a few minutes later as Mitchell Page set up Joe Raynes who only just failed to get to the ball and push it over the line.

Stung into action, Slough responded as Manny Williams volleyed a Lee Togwell cross just over the bar, and shortly after, Williams headed a George Wells cross into the arms of Kyle Phillips. Frome were playing well in the first half and despite not creating that many chances, they restricted Slough to just one more chance, as Wells shot wide in the 39th.

Unfortunately, Frome don’t seem to do as well in the second half as they do in the first these days and once again, the opposition moved into the driving seat for the duration of the second half.

Slough equalised after 3 minutes of the second half as  Chris Flood headed home a James Dobson corner. He nearly took the lead 3 minutes later as  Flood found Williams and his shot was only denied by a strong hand from Phillips and Williams again brought another good save from Phillips in the 55th as he hit a low shot that was going into  the corner.

Phillips again denied Slough in the 58th as he saved from Guy Hollis, but the writing was on the wall and sure enough, Slough took the lead in the 66th as Simon Dunn latched onto the ball to shoot low into the bottom corner, for a lead that they deserved.

Phillips again brought off an amazing save to prevent an own goal by Connor Roberts as Dobson hit a testing cross into the box in the 71st. Frome then managed to carve out a rare chance in the 85th as Davies latched onto a loose ball to hit a shot into the side netting and with Slough surviving a big shout for a penalty in the 88th as Ryan Bath seemed to go down in the box, Frome’s chances were gone and it was left to Phillips to produce another top class save in the 89th, to deny Matt Lench.

Marcus Mapstone was awarded the H&B Tyres Man of the Match Award.