Slough Town 2 Tonbridge Angels 1

Match 67/21/1931 - Saturday, 4th December 2021 - National League South

Slough Town (1) 2 Tenconi 45 Kuhl 77
Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Embery 8
Attendance: 526

Admission: £9 Senior
Programme: £2.50
Mileage: 74/3,882

Luck is a difficult thing to evaluate in the context of a football match. As a for instance if a shot hits the post that’s unlucky, but if that shot comes in from two yards out, it’s not really is it? To evaluate a whole game into terms of whether you were unlucky is even harder. Jon Underwood, the joint manager, of Slough Town, considered his side lucky that at half-time they were not 3-0 down and Tonbridge certainly had the play and chances to be at least that score line in front. Underwood is right they were lucky but as those chances came and went to add to Jake Embery’s opening goal after eight minutes, to say Tonbridge were unlucky is a bit more debatable.

Where Tonbridge were unfortunate was with injury, firstly to Ricky Modeste, always a potential match winner, after 31 minutes, in what looked a bad one that could keep him sidelined for some while and in the second half, after 59 minutes, the highly influential Doug Loft limped out of the action.

Tonbridge started well, got there noses in front when Embery, making his first start, capitalised on poor defending to lob the Slough goalkeeper, Jonathan North and proceeded to completely dominate the half from that point on.

Embery, who was looking the answer to the Angels’ attacking prayers, had a shot well saved by North; Loft narrowly shot over and Tom Beere had a couple of efforts that were not too far away.

But, into the first minute of stoppage time, Slough found an equaliser that they far from deserved. A long throw into the box wasn’t dealt with by the Tonbridge defence, bouncing a couple of times before Alfonso Tenconi stabbed it home. It was an ugly goal, a lucky break for Slough, but from the visitors point of view, you make your own luck by simply clearing the ball.

After donkey’s years of watching this game, I’m still baffled by how a game can turn in the duration of the half-time break as Tonbridge produced a second half performance polar opposite to that of the first 45. Slough obviously improved, gaining confidence from the fortunate half-time scoreline, but were they that good? My eyes tell me otherwise.

Where I will lay claim to unlucky is that Tonbridge had a bench of forwards and the loss of two midfielders unbalanced the team completely and where there had been cohesion now there was a muddle.

The home side saw a shot saved by Henly and on 53 minutes, following a corner, they had the ball in the net but it was ruled out for a foul on the goalkeeper.

At the other end, following a free kick into the box, Sonny Miles saw his effort cleared from the line by Aaron Kuhl.

Henly produced a point blank save after 74 minutes when a cross into the box fell to Tenconi but his close range effort was blocked by the body of the Tonbridge goalkeeper.

With 13 minutes remaining, Slough took the lead when the ball switched from a Tonbridge free kick into their box to a punt forward that saw Kuhl clear to finish. It was a disappointing way to concede what ultimately proved the winner, but can the Angels bemoan their luck, it’s hard to make the case.

Embery had worked himself into the ground and Tommy Wood came on to try to salvage something out of the game but the major opportunity came in the last minute when Ibrahim Olutade had the goal at his mercy with a stooping header but it went wide and the game was lost.

Cliche time, football is a game of small margins and misfortune plays its part but sometimes, good luck is only made by yourselves.