Another Clean Sheet

This was a much better win for Slough than it looks on paper for the re-organised Leytonstone side, now under the control of Ted Hardy, have in their previous three league games beaten Ilford, Hitchin, and Staines without conceding a goal.

Bob Underwood was still out of the Slough line up, injured, and Roberts continued to deputise with Patison on the substitute's bench.

The ground was in poor condition after heavy rain on Thursday and the pitch had been well sanded. The High Road end was exceptionally sticky and the most difficult for defenders, as Slough found out during the early stages when the ball skidded and stopped to cause confusion in their ranks and Barron was forced to make some awkward saves.

Leytonstone penned Slough tightly into their penalty area for the first quarter of an hour until suddenly a quick break saw Tim Smith shoot the ball narrowly over the bar.

Two minutes later Roy Davies was almost on target with a fine shot. As the half progressed Slough settled down to their task well despite conceding some free kicks in dangerous areas.

In the 31st minute Grant made a brilliant save from Smith, but on the stroke of halftime a superb dribble from Paul Lee saw his hard drive beat Grant completely only to hit Steve Hill on the line and rebound back. The return shot was diverted wide by Grant's legs and half-time came with no score.

In the second half Slough began to take advantage of defending the day and making every opportunity to push the home defenders back into their own morass. However, Leytonstone were by no means out of the game and Roy Mitchell began to get his strikers moving with some industrious work from midfield.

Most of the home team's attacks were down the left wing where Steve King showed moments of brilliance and utter pathos. However Tim Turl who had a quiet match began to get on top and Barron remained comparatively undisturbed.

Several attempts were made particularly by Lee, Brown and Davies to get their shots on target, but with the lethargic Steve Hill almost played out of the match the likelihood of the goalless draw became more apparent as the game wore on.

Suddenly with nine minutes of the match remaining Slough went into the lead. A good ball found Terry Brown on the right wing and Smith moved intelligently outside, Brown backheeled to the midfield man who centred from near the corner flag to Roy Davies just on the edge of the area. Roy ran on and managed to slip the ball past Grant as he rushed out, both players being injured in the process.

After some three minutes the game resumed but Leytonstone never really looked like equalising and then in the 89th minute the visitors went further ahead when a massive clearance by Dennis Malley found Brown well inside the Leytonstone half with a clear run for goal. Mick Smith chased him and just outside the area locked him in a half-nelson but miraculously Terry still got his shot in, beating Grant, which ended up with the referee applying the advantage rule; a goal of considerable satisfaction for this greathearted player.

So now Slough head for Merseyside having a defence that has not conceded a goal over the past 430 minutes, with their tails up, and hopefully a good number of supporters.