Rugby Town 5-2 Bedford Town

Southern League Premier Division

Saturday, 5th November 2005

Attendance | 304

Photo Gallery | Kevin Slinn nets his hat-trick

A first half hat-trick from Rugby striker Kevin Slinn condemned high-flying Bedford to their first defeat in five and helped Rugby to record their second consecutive home win.

Rugby welcomed back midfielder Steve Evans from Grantham to make his first appearance on the left in place of Danny Williams, while Matt Green also returned to the Valley midfield after missing the last few weeks through injury.

The home started well and never gave their opponents a look in during the first half.  Valley took the lead after twenty minutes, when the visiting defence failed to deal with a long Green throw-in and David Stone was upended in the box.  Kevin Slinn smashed the ensuing spot-kick into the top right hand corner off the goal.

Just five minutes later Rugby doubled their lead when another Matt Green long throw-in caused all sorts of problems in the Eagles penalty area and Slinn was on hand to swivel and fire low into the net from six yards.

Valley continued to dominate with Karl Lewis in the Rugby goal a virtual spectator during the first half.

Rugby added their third just before the break as substitute Danny Williams and Stone combined to cause havoc down the left hand side before cutting the ball back to a delighted Slinn who slid in to notch a superb twenty-minute hat-trick.

After the break, Bedford came out with a little more fight but could not really get through the Rugby defence.  However, Lewis was called into action to make two outstanding saves to keep the score at 3-0.  

Firstly, the young goalkeeper made a breath-taking save as he scooped the ball from underneath his own cross bar and then diverted a powerful shot from smashing into the top corner.

Rugby were still dangerous on the break, and so it proved when they forced a corner, which Steve Evans saw headed straight back out to him, but his second cross was whipped in, and Delroy Gordon got a head to the ball to divert it into the net to make it 4-0.

Bedford made a game of it with fifteen minutes to go as midfielder Dave McElroy capitalized on panicking in the Rugby area to score two goals in three minutes, however, the game was killed off when David Stone took advantage of a defensive error to run through on goal and coolly finish.

Rugby could have had more in the final few minutes, with substitute Ryan Byrne failing to find the target from 30 yards with the goalkeeper stranded outside the area, while fellow-sub Andreas Kattos rattled the crossbar from 25 yards.