Hendon Double Over Rebels

Slough may be Hendon’s bogey team in cup ties but in the league the North London side always seem to have the edge. They have now beaten the Rebels four times in two seasons when points were at stake.

On Saturday, at Wexham Park, Hendon were successful by two clear goals and became the first Rothmans Isthmian League side to complete the League double over Slough this season.

After their success against Barking the home team started confidently enough with the midfield of Davies, Gane and Horastead looking dominant, and after twelve minutes Bartlett who had come into the side in place of Pattison glided on a lift wing cross to the feet of Gane who posted the ball wide of Dalrymple to hit the inside of the post. The ball appeared to carry into the net but it was cleared quickly and the referee waved play on.

Within another six minutes a beautiful pass left John Baker in possession and he played a fine centre across the Slough area where it eventually reached Rod Haider who was able to take the ball in his stride and hit first time past Barron.

It was a goal of beautiful simplicity and an object lesson to the Slough team who seem to find scoring a tortuous experience at times.

Slough did not look too worried about this setback and they continued to pressurise the Hendon defence. Garry Hand was spoken to by referee Cox and then Dave Yerby was lectured for talking out of turn. Slough started the second half full of confidence and soon had Hendon at full stretch again.

A free kick awarded just outside the penalty area after 55 minutes saw Brown dribble through but finish weakly, then Yerby again incurred the referee's displeasure when he handled a through pass to Lee and found his name in the book.

Alan Gane, who was having a fine match confirmed his recently improved form by dribbling through from the halfway line and passed to Paul Lee who was unable to control his shot.

Brown attacking down the left was tripped by Yerby who was beckoned over to Mr. Cox. With everyone expecting him to be sent off as Beyer had been on the previous Tuesday, all we saw was a further lecture delivered by the referee a situation which must have seemed unbelievable to Beyer following his summary dismissal following one mad moment and a further example of the-remarkable inconsistency of referees in the league.

Second goal for Hendon With a quarter of an hour left Ray Davies dribbled into trouble on the halfway line and from Alan Philips' free kick the ball was pumped way upfield to Jefferies who, unmarked, had a free header past Barron to tie the game up for Hendon.

Slough subsequently had a goal disallowed for hands by Brown and Dalrymple made another fine save from Brown before the referee brought this very unsatisfactory game to a close.

Again one felt that the match had been largely spoilt by the wind that always seems to be more prevalent on Saturdays, but Slough seemed to find no way past Philips and his unorthodox style that most referees would penalise more severely than did Mr. Cox on Saturday.