Hemel Hempstead Town's hopes hit by loss at Slough

Hemel made the slightly brighter start at Slough but, on eight minutes, conceded a horror goal completely out of the blue.

They had a throw in on the right hand side, Gus Scott-Morriss threw it short to Jack Westbrook who nodded it back to him, the Tudors full back laid it back towards the goal but Craig King had moved out to the side and the ball rolled towards the empty net, King tried to get across but it clipped the post and rolled over the line to give Slough the lead.

To be fair, Hemel kept their heads and pressured the Slough goal with Sam Mantom bringing a decent save out of Jonathan North who then made a double stop to keep out Craig Fasanmade and then Charlee Hughes who fired in from the angle.

The second half saw manager Mark Jones make a positive sub by bringing on Pierre Fonkeu to go three up front.

Hughes shot high and wide just before the hour mark but Hemel were hit by a sucker-punch when a dubious free-kick was taken quickly but it led to a throw which was fed into the box where it was laid back to an unmarked Josh Jackman who drilled past King to give Slough a two-goal advantage.

Things went from bad to worse a couple of minutes later when Wishart was dismissed for a foul on the halfway line, he took a heavy touch and as he went to block Jackman’s attempted interception he caught the Slough fullback with his follow through. He looked to have got there first but his foot landed on top of the ball causing him to catch Jackman high on the shin.

There was only going to be one winner after this and despite the 10 men working hard to get back into the game they rarely threatened North’s goal.

But there was still time for Hemel to see another player sent off when Cole Kpekawa saw red for appearing to strike Ben Harris off the ball.

It was the end of a disappointing day for the Tudors and their fans who had once again turned out in numbers to support their side only to be on the end of a result that all but ends any play-off ambitions.