Three men booked, one sent off

The Athenian League Cup, the competition in which Slough's only other appearance last season ended in a heavy defeat, could cost them very dearly this term. Three bookings and one player sent off, as they entered the next round in a very unsatisfactory manner.

In all there were six bookings in this game. The first to go down was Gamblin in the twenty-fourth minute for persistent fouling. Perhaps a lecture at this stage would have been enough. Number two was John Connell in the fortieth for going in for the 'keeper with his elbows out, probably a justifiable entry. Then in the fiftieth Reardon joined the list for kicking, although a hard tackle would have been nearer the truth. This booking could be very serious for Terry because of his suspended three-week sentence.

Five minutes later a free kick to Eastbourne saw Gamblin very foolishly kick the ball away and out came the book again and off he went. In the sixty-eighth and seventy-second minutes Taylor and Wilson became the home sides entries in the referee's manual for fouls which were strong but hardly bookable material.

All in all what could have been a good afternoon's football entertainment was completely spoiled by one of the most puzzling displays of refereeing that any of the Slough or Eastbourne supporters have ever witnessed.

In between the strangest moments of odd refereeing we did get some football. Slough looked very good in the early minutes, moving the ball about well but it was the home sides first attack that produced the first goal of the match and showed once again how weak Slough are at the back. A floated cross from Beasley was headed home by Pettigrew without so much as a challenge from the defenders.

Slough did not permit themselves to get excited and allowed the home side to do the pushing for some minutes before levelling the score after 15 minutes. A cross from Adams was only parried by the very efficient Cullen in the Eastbourne goal and Hill ran in to push home.

The rest of the stop-start first half saw only two good shots at goal, the first from Droy in the twenty-first minute was intended to be a back header but brought a fine save from Woltensholme.

At the other end a good effort from D'Arcy was turned for a corner and in between Pettigrew was guilty of missing an open goal.

The first few minutes of the second half were alive with action. A D'Arcy special pushed around for a corner in the forty-seventh minute but as the football got better the stoppages increased and slowly the football died.

As the half progressed Slough with only ten men after the departure of Gamblin, slowly got on top. Swain, who must have been the man of the match really began to pull the home defence to pieces with his excellent control and running off the ball.

For all the Slough pressure we had to wait until the eighty-second minute before Slough went in front. An Adams corner was headed goalwards by Droy and in the mix-up a defender smashed it into the roof of the net.

Slough completed the scoring when Connell smashed home a free kick which Cullen could only finger as it went into the back of the net.

Two minutes later referee Jackson made his best decision of the day when he blew for full time.