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2002/03 season review Season Review 2002/03 by Nathan on 09/07/2003 A review of Slough Town's 2002/03 season. A very turbulent season with several highs and lows. Season Review 2002/03 Here, we take a look back at the 2002/2003 season for the Rebels that saw us finish 4th in the league and Slough in the 1st round of the FA Cup. The pre-season provided some much needed match practice after our disappointing league campaign the previous year. It would have been much more effective had it been better organised as the friendlies were few and far between. No big league sides were included so we had to battle with teams of similar quality to ourselves. A disappointing draw with Didcot was followed by defeats to local rivals Hayes and Maidenhead before an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at the hands of Rugby United and yet another draw with Diss Town before our final game of our pre-season campaign. This was our only victory of our pre-season campaign. Although the game wasn’t important, it provided the team with some much needed confidence, 4-1 to the Rebels away to Brook House. Our opening game of the new season saw Slough unveil a new home strip in a game against newly promoted Hornchurch that saw Slough lead for much of the second half before the Urchins equalised at the death. It wasn’t the first time Slough let a lead slip in injury time. The rest of the month saw Slough notch up 4 straight victories, including an FA Cup preliminary round victory away to league rivals Thame United. September saw Slough lose only once in 6 games, including an FA Cup victory against St. Leonards and a draw away to AFC Totton. October turned out to be a very good month for Slough, especially in cup competitions. In the replay against AFC Totton we won easily with a convincing performance. We notched up magnificence victories in the FA Cup against Ryman Premier sides, Hampton and Canvey. Again, Slough lost only once, a disappointing result away to Barking. November was the complete opposite to October, with Slough only winning once in four cup games. We lost away to Lewes 6-4 in the FA Trophy after we breezed past Wembley. We lost 3-1 at home to Kingstonian in the Bryco Cup (league cup) and a heartbreaking result at home to lowly Harrogate Railway Athletic in the 1st round proper of the FA Cup. Our only victories in the entire month both came at home first to local rivals Wycombe in the Berks & Bucks cup, and then a superb 4-0 victory against Great Wakering in the league. December saw a change of fortunes with the signing of Tony McNally from Harlow Town and Deji Davies from Wembley. Slough won 4 games out of 6, our only defeat came away to promotion chasing Hornchurch in a far from impressive display in which we were lucky to lose by only 1 goal when it should have been more. We drew at home to fellow promotion chasing Wealdstone, the score finishing at 1-1. Our Boxing Day game was a 2-0 away victory to Yeading. January saw Slough win only once in 5 games, a convincing 3-0 win at home to Oxford City. Slough lost away at Wealdstone and at eventual league champions, Northwood. February saw Slough win 3, draw once and lose once. All of our 3 victories came at our only 3 home games against Thame, Arlesey and Barking. Slough bowed out of the Berks & Bucks Cup away at Maidenhead (who else?), Tony Boot scoring a last minute consolation from the spot to make it 3-1. The crisis surrounding Slough’s Wexham Park Stadium was beginning to sink in, and there appeared to be severe doubt as to where the Rebels would be playing their games next season, if anywhere. March wasn’t a very good month for the Rebels whatsoever. Again, Slough won only twice, a good 3-1 win away at Hertford and a epic 5-1 victory at home to Tilbury. April was better. 4 home games and 4 away games saw Slough win 4, draw 3 and lose only the 1. The only problem was that Slough had already been confirmed in 4th place and couldn’t go higher or lower. And Slough still hadn’t sorted out the problem surrounding The Wexham Park Stadium. May saw the season end and Slough travelled to Berkhampsted, bringing a group of festive fans along. The game was generally scrappy with Rebels manager Steve Browne in his last game for the club coming on for the last 15 minutes, much to the disgust of the Slough fans, but much to their enjoyment too, as the Slough fans jeered him as he came on, whenever he got hold of the ball and when the game ended. Later that night the end of season presentations took place inside the club house with Tony Boot (pictured left) and Sammy Winston snatching most of the awards. All in all, a mixed season for the Rebels. The season saw some excellent, and some poor performances and the season was dogged by the uncertainty surrounding the future of the football club.