Horsham Upset Rebels

This was the most surprising result so far this season. Most people thought that Horsham would be lucky in taking one point from the Corinthian League’s top goal scorers. But with two reserves in the forward line, they battled their way to a wonderful win.

The hero of the game was Colin Penticost, a reserve player on the right-wing in place of Dennis Stillwell who had tonsillitis. He displayed excellent ball control and twice beat the Slough left-back to present another reserve, Jimmy Carter, and Keith Brister the chances to make Horsham’s third and fourth goals. Ron Hartley was on top form, stemming many Slough attacks and presenting a problem to Slough left-winger Betts. In fact the whole of the Horsham defence was in commanding mood, even if they became a little high-spirited towards the end of the game.

With two reserves in the forward line, Horsham’s initial hopes were not very high and for the first five minutes they were on the defensive, conceding two corners. But in Horsham’s first attack, on six minutes, Penticost began to show his worth as a long shot from him went across the Slough goalmouth. By the tenth minute Slough were on the defensive when a neat move between Penticost and inside-left Carter gave Brister a chance but he was offside.

Before long it became obvious that Slough were playing good football in their approaches. Their passing cut large gaps through Horsham but their finishing was poor and centre-forward Morley had little support from the rest of the forwards. In the 15th minute a shot from Slough’s inside-left, Jakubiec, hit an upright with goalie Ron Watson at the other end of the goal. Within a couple of minutes a Carter shot was headed out for a corner by centre-half Symons and Mobsby had a good shot from a Penticost free-kick neatly taken by goalie Prunty.

The Horsham attacks became faster and forced the Slough defence back on their heels. In the 32nd minute Jock Mearns passed to inside-right Gordon New who clipped in Horsham’s first goal off an upright. Five minutes later Slough equalised when Roy Mosby, in attempting to clear, headed the ball to inside-right Driver who took full advantage of this mistake. Within a minute Horsham were in the lead again and it was New again who scored off the upright with goalie Prunty making a desperate dive to reach the ball.

Horsham were in fine fettle and, within three minutes of their second goal, the ball was again in the Slough net, this time from left-winger Brister after collecting a perfect centre from Penticost. Just before half-time, Penticost presented the same opportunity to Carter, who gave Horsham a 4-1 lead at the interval.

For the first quarter of an hour of the second half, Slough desperately tried to catch up. Their midfield play was stylish but their finishing lacked punch, and the defensive trio of Hartley, John Browning and Geoff Crowther was an effective barrier. Twenty minutes into the half, Horsham were back on the attack, with Prunty punching a Brister header over the bar from a corner and saving a Mobsby shot after a second corner. New nearly had his third goal but, this time, it went just the wrong side of the upright and Mobsby took another crack at the goal.

Near the end of the game Slough‘s centre-forward Morley tried going through on his own to score but his feeble shot was saved by Watson, and he was offside anyway. In the closing minutes both the Slough attack and the Horsham defence became a little ruffled and this led to Horsham giving away a penalty, scored by Jakubiec, to give Slough their second goal.