SLOUGH Town have climbed back into the Southern Premier Division play-off spots after a 1-1 draw against Basingstoke Town on Tuesday.

There was a minutes silence before kick-off at Arbour Park in memory of Dave Carpenter, a long-time Rebels supporter and matchday volunteer, who sadly passed away last Thursday.

Slough were unfortunate not to take the lead inside 10 minutes when Guy Hollis hit the crossbar with a header from a corner.

Basingstoke broke the deadlock as Jack McKnight found the top corner with a free-kick on 70 minutes.

The Rebels equalised nine minutes later when Simon Dunn carried the ball into the box and found Chris Flood, who fired into the top corner for his 19th goal of the season.

The point means Slough move up one place to fifth position in the league table with at least four games in hand on all the sides above them.

The Rebels joint-manager Jon Underwood told the Observer: “Obviously it’s always disappointing when you don’t win because we’re in a position where we need to win games to finish in the play-offs.

“But, on the face of it, it was not a bad point because when you’re a goal behind after 70 minutes you would take a draw.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Rebels defender Guy Hollis reacts after seeing his header hit the crossbar inside the first 10 minutes.

“Basingstoke are a decent side that train full-time on a 3G surface, so maybe we didn’t quite have that advantage as we do over other sides.

“It was a pretty even first half. We made a few mistakes and I think that was down to match sharpness. We’ve not had any football in the previous 10 days and that showed.

“We tried to do the right things but there were a few miss-placed passes.

“We had a really good spell for 10 minutes in the second half but then Basingstoke got a great goal from a free-kick against the run of play.

“We got a deserved equaliser and were the only ones pushing for a win late on, but Basingstoke defended really well and it didn’t quite work for us.

“We’re happy to settle for a point and I have no complaints about the performance from the lads.

“I was pleased with how fit we looked against a full-time side.

“A draw was a fair result but we had more chances over the course of the game.”

The Rebels welcome Frome Town to Arbour Park this Saturday (3pm) before making the trip to promotion rivals Kings Lynn Town next Tuesday (7.45pm).

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