Slough Town brought down to earth by Welling United's injury-time winner

Temi Eweka. Photo credit: Glenn Alcock

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Welling United 4, Slough Town 3

After the highs of last week's FA Cup draw with Grimsby Town and 4-0 home win over Truro City, Slough Town were brought back down to earth with a bump by Welling United's injury-time winner on Saturday afternoon.

The Rebels looked to have pulled off another rescue act as they fought back from 2-0 down in the first half to make it 3-3 with half an hour to play, but that resilience petered out in the final minutes as their hosts claimed victory through Taylor Curran's 91st minute header.

Slough now need to dust themselves down and go again for Tuesday's first round FA Cup replay against League 2 Grimsby Town at Blundell Park.

The defensive discipline which characterised much of their play against both Grimsby and Truro were sadly missing on this occasion, with the players perhaps having one eye on Tuesday's replay in Cleethorpes.

There were elements of misfortune to some of Welling's goals, however, the Rebels will know they'll need to improve to stand any chance of reaching the FA Cup second round where they could take on League 1 high-flyers Oxford United.

There wasn't much to separate the sides in an even opening 10 minutes, however, the Rebels game plan began to fall apart in the 12th minute, when captain Josh Jackman's last-ditch challenge on Jephte Tanga resulted in a penalty that Tristan Abrahams converted to make it 1-0.

This was an away performance similar in style to the Rebels recent matches against St Albans (3-2) and Weymouth (3-3) and they found themselves further adrift when Temi Eweka was dispossessed and Kain Adom raced through to put the ball beyond Rohan Luthra.

If the first goal wasn't an alarm call for the Rebels, the second goal certainly was, and they managed to force a series of chances before profiting just before the interval.

Johnny Goddard's long free-kick wasn't dealt with by the hosts' defence and Tyrese Dyce controlled the ball in an instant before hammering it left-footed past Jayarn Pitterson. Nathan Minhas and Dan Bayliss came agonisingly close to forcing home an equaliser before the interval before Abrahams missed a sensational chance to restore Welling's two goal buffer, firing narrowly wide of the target when he should have made Luthra work.

Slough looked much more like their old selves at the start of the second half, forcing their opponents back and eventually their pressure paid when Eweka made amends for his earlier error to turn the ball home from a corner. However, composure in this game had long since gone out the window and within minutes the Rebels were behind once more, Cameron Green firing home form the edge of the box with the strike taking a deflection to wrong-foot Luthra as it travelled through the busy penalty area.

Welling's lead also lasted no more than a couple of minutes as Goddard lapped up the chance to fire home from a set piece just outside the area in the 60th minute.

The final 30 minutes ebbed and flowed, with both sides coming close to edging in front. Bayliss made a brave challenge to prevent Abrahams from scoring and the same player smashed a shot against the Rebels' crossbar a few minutes later.

Slough had their moments, but Welling showed the greater desire to grasp the three points and did so when a cross was stood up to the back post and the unmarked Curran had the simple chance of nodding home the winner in the 91st minute.

The Rebels' eighth defeat this season leaves them outside of the relegation places on goal difference alone.

After tomorrow night's FA Cup replay, they will return to league action at home to bottom of the table Havant & Waterlooville on Tuesday week (November 21).