Town Bundled Off Wembley Trail

Slough made their exit from this season's FA Cup at Banbury on Saturday when they served up one of their poorest displays of the season against a side who nine times out of ten would not have lived with them. Banbury were a one-man team, relying on striker Foster to blast his way through. The rest were a mixture of young. enthusiastic players and veterans whose rough, hard tackling and kick-the-ball anywhere tactics were too much for a very lethargic Slough side.

Despite their lethargy and the heat of the afternoon Slough were still the better of the two teams even if they did not reach anything like their true form but two goals against after 60 minutes was too much to pull back.

A blatant penalty decision that was overlooked by the referee should have given Slough a chance to get back into the game but this particular official overlooked the hand ball in the area which was in keeping with his general lack of control of the game, allowing both sides to commit harsh fouls without so much as a word.

Following the poor display of the first half Slough substituted Laurie Churchill for Allan Tottman, the latter being a little unlucky as it could have been any of the Slough players who could have been pulled off on their showing.

For Churchill the game must have been a nightmare, despite getting in a few crosses and having a hand in Slough's late goal, his obvious lack of match fitness coupled with his lack of mobility made this once brilliant forward the butt of the crowd, and crowds can be very unsympathetic to a losing side and with no Ray Hill to shout at Churchill received their full frustrated cat calls.

From the whistle this game had all the hallmarks of boredom; the home side could well have gone in front in the third minute when a defensive mix-up let Jacques in but thankfully he hammered the ball over the bar. A minute later Slough had their first chance when a Reardon-Turl-Day move was well saved. With Slough the better side, Banbury looked unlikely to trouble the defence but in the 15th minute Foster raced down the centre of the pitch with O'Sullivan in hot pursuit and despite two attempts by the Slough player to tackle, Poster ran on, was pushed wide by Meade, rounded D'Arcy, drew Wolstenholme off his line and slotted home a perfect goal.

After this the ball rarely entered the Slough half but all they had to show at half-time was seven corners and a lot of half-hearted shots at goal.

After the interval Slough continued to press but after 15 minutes Banbury were in again; Foster held the ball on the right and with the Slough defenders rushing at him chipped it over to the unmarked Lines who pushed it easily into an empty goal Slough kept coming forward but it was not until the 70th minute that they got any reward, a good ball from Churchill to Reid who crossed for Day to score with a fine diving header.

At last we thought Slough would get some goals but apart from a good run and shot from Churchill in the 85th the game was over and Slough had lost all interest in the FA Cup.