Barton come from behind twice to earn a point in grudge match

Barton twice came from behind and could have claimed victory as they held high-flying Slough Town to a 2-2 draw at Sharpenoe Road in Evo-Stik Southern League Division One Central on Thursday night.

Fuelled by the long-running Twitter rant by Slough Town’s ex-Luton Town man David Deeney, Rovers manager Dan Kenney needed no pre-match team talk as Deeney had already done that.

The game started brightly as both teams tried to show their supremacy. Slough had an early effort fly wide on 12 minutes followed, while Barton’s Bilal Hassan saw his shot turned round a post.

The visitors claimed the lead on 24 minutes when a scuffed shot by Adam Logie sailed through a crowded box and evaded goalkeeper Kyle Forster to nestle in the bottom corner.

Fired-up Barton battled well for the remainder of the half, but still trailed 1-0 at the break.

Rovers started the brighter in the second half as Hassan levelled five minutes in when he tapped in from five yards after some deft build-up play.

The fight continued by both sides as promotion chasing Slough needed to claim all three points to maintain their play-off push.

George Brinkman and Aaron Lansiquot put chances wide before Slough retook the lead when a mix-up between defender Tommy Hull and Forster saw the ball sail over their heads to allow Ed Smith to slot home into an empty net with minutes to go.

Barton injected some pace with the introduction of Ray Antcliff and Sam James as tiring Slough, who had played on Tuesday, held on for grim life.

The deserved equaliser came with five minutes to go though as a great run down the right freed up James to fire home past Jamie Jackson from 20 yards.

Rovers pushed for the winner, but spent Slough held out to claim a point as Barton put a massive dent in their promotion push.

Barton host Guildford in another tough game on Saturday before making the short trip to Leighton Town on Monday.

Meanwhile, Rovers’ reserves thrashed local rivals Berkhamsted 9-2 on Wednesday night.

They travel to Horley on Saturday and go to to Hartley Wintney on Monday.