Slough initiated their league campaign with a challenging fixture away at Marlow. Not only had Slough been thumped 8-2 in the previous meeting in March, this time there was a considerable crowd including current GB striker and Olympian Alex Danson.

Marlow got off to the better start and although Slough were able to parry the first few flurries, Marlow opened the scoring after the defence allowed a ball to reach a player who had advanced beyond the back line. This was a theme throughout the afternoon - although the face to face defending and particularly the attacking of the 2 wingbacks (James Dixon and Sachin Sehdev) was great, once this was done they seemed to switch off as though their job was done, thus failing to notice that the players that they were marking had drifted 10 yards behind them, giving them no chance to challenge.

Slough soon got back into the game, their newly implemented 4-4-2 formation giving a strong spine to the team with youth adding pace to the wings. Taranjit Singh and Surjit Sandhu worked hard in the middle to break up play and feed Ravinder Laly and Mac Ahmed up front. Slough then equalised when Laly combined with Ahmed, then Slough made it 2-1 when Steve Dixon's pass to Ahmed was deflected in by a defender. Hoewever Marlow brought it level once again after another defensive lapse let them take another soft goal. The disappointment wasn't that Marlow didn't deserve to score but more that the way they achieved it once they had breached the preliminary defence was so easy and unchallenged. Something for the Slough defence to work on.

Slough could then have been awarded a penalty stoke when an Ahmed shot lifted off the keepers pads towards Sandhu who parried it waist height into the midrift of the defender on the line, but inexplicably neither a stroke nor a short corner for the lifted ball was awarded. Amends were quickly made when Man of the Match, Navidu Vithana, forced anotehr corner after another scintillating J run down the right made mincemeat of the defence. This time Ahmed slotted the rebound with aplomb to make it 3-2 at half time.

In the second half Slough continued to press and made a raft of chances but could not convert them until Ahmed applied a characteristic finish. Vithana had chance after chance due to his great workrate and positioning but could only put them wide from close positions. Eventually he got his reward when he put in a rebound from a corner on the right (with maybe some help from the back of the defenders stick). Marlow then scored a spectacular (but soft) goal when a ball came tot he left wing closely patrolled by Sehdev. The ball was controlled under pressure but lifted a foot off the ground and was quickly dispatched int othe top left corner when more pressure might have avoided the shot. Slough scored again when Sandhu drilled a shot accurately across the keeper to make it 6-3 and Marlow took another soft consolation when the right wing was allowed to drift free for a simple 1 on 1 tap in.

Special mention needs to go to debutant Risabh Suny who almost snatched the MoM from Vathana, he may have been marked down for the swan dive that resulted from his attempted tomahawk shot but that is open for debate!

All in all a good victory in an enjoyabvle game. With some improvement in the defensive concentration, things look good for the season.