FOOTBALL: Parsons hat-trick not enough as Cirencester ship five goals

Cirencester Town 3 Slough Town 5

SLOUGH TOWN who had scored just two goals in their previous eight games, hit five past Cirencester to record one of the shocks of the day in a breathless Southern Premier encounter.

Despite some kindly results from two of the other clubs pitching for the fifth and final play-off place, the reverse has severely dented Ciren’s promotion chances with six games remaining.

Ciren’s Josh Parsons hit a hat-trick, his team-mates hit the woodwork on three occasions and they had what looked a legitimate early penalty turned down, while Slough’s resolute defence and keeper pulled off a number of brave blocks.

On another day Ciren could have had a hatful of goals themselves but their normally frugal defence looked shaky from the moment they conceded in the 12th minute against the run of play – patently missing the protection that absent veteran midfielder James Mortimer-Jones normally offers them.

Inside 60 seconds of the start Nat Jarvis had forced Luke Williams into a save and within another minute Aidan Bennett had been hauled down in the box when about to pull the trigger, before a Leigh Henry header on seven minutes came back from the underside of the bar.

The Rebels took a surprise lead in the 12th minute: Reece Yorke won a knockdown header far too easily from a free kick and the alert Scott Harris nipped in to slide the ball past Glyn Garner.

With the shell-shocked Cirencester defence suddenly in disarray Slough could have been 2-0 up after Ed Smith’s goal-bound effort was hooked off the line by Ian Herring.

Williams somehow kept out a Herring strike in the 17th minute after a Ciren corner but the hosts were level on 20 minutes when great persistence from Bennett led to him laying on a simple side-foot finish for Parsons.

Ciren were level for less than three minutes: Garner came needlessly for a Jake Parsons cross near the penalty spot and in clashing with Chris Henry the ball broke for the diminutive winger to roll it into an empty net.

With Ciren pressing at an attacking set piece on the half-hour mark, a lumped clearance to the halfway line seemed to find Smith a couple of yards offside. Unforgivably, Ciren failed to lay a finger on him as he raced 30 yards, drew Garner and slid the ball home.

What Ciren didn’t want two minutes into the second half was to go 4-1 down. The tricky Henry made space for a cross from the left and Harris beat a flat-footed Ciren defence at the near post for his second.

Within a minute, Bennett slammed a shot against the post and Brad Hooper’s follow-up was well saved by Williams.

It took until the hour mark for Ciren to get back in the game, when Jarvis helped on a pass into Parsons’ path and he finished accurately past the Rebels keeper.

Manager Brian Hughes threw caution to the wind and went 4-2-4, with Jacob Davidge replacing Hooper and suddenly Slough were under siege.

On 71 minutes, Ryan Parsons made brave goal-saving block to deny Jarvis and the ball broke to the luckless Bennett who crashed a pile-driver against the bar, with Parsons on hand to acrobatically complete his hat-trick from the rebound.

Five minutes later came the pivotal moment of the game.

Jarvis looked set to equalise only to be denied by a fine Williams parry and Davidge could not keep his follow-up effort under the bar with the goal gaping.

Had they scored at that point Ciren would have been odds-on favourites to go on and win the game. Instead Slough went up the other end and Henry was able to benefit from a stretched defence with a tap-in goal which more or less sealed the points.

There was still time for Smith to force Garner into a fine save with his feet and you have to feel sorry for striker Bennett, without a goal since Boxing Day.

He made Ciren’s first goal, twice struck the woodwork and then flushed a stoppage-time volley from which Williams made yet another fine save.

Cirencester Town: Garner, Herring, Jones, Pritchett. Liddiard, Henry (capt), Hooper (Davidge, 67), Wells (Knight, 81), Jarvis, Bennett, Parsons.

Unused subs: Ricketts, Pitts, Bevan.