Hill ends Town hopes

SLOUGH TOWN'S hopes of earning a visit to Wimbledon in the first round proper of the F.A. Cup were ended by their former striker Steve Hill whose fourth minute goal gave Woking victory in Tuesday's replay at Wexham Park.

A delighted Hill said afterwards: "That goal meant a great deal to me. I had to put up with a lot of barracking from supporters when I was at Slough last season and they never treated me fairly even though I got several decisive goals.

Perhaps tonight's goal was the most decisive of all - it was my 13th of the season and 13 was certainly unlucky for Slough."

Woking manager Tommy Tranter, who was formerly coach at Slough, commented:

"We knew that Paul Lee and Dave Russell were the Slough danger men as they can turn opponents so well. I told our full-backs to mark them tight and got the nearest player to give the full-backs support."

The move worked a treat and if Lee and Russell got past the first man they usually lost the ball to the supporting player who was often Ray Poole.

But Slough manager Joe Arpino, who succeeded Mr. Tranter as coach of the club, said: "We still created chances - the trouble was we didn't take them. A few of our team didn't play up to scratch but I'm not complaining."

The Slough team was bitterly disappointed at not getting brought to meet Southern League Wimbledon. It would’ve been a return to their old club for striker Kieran Somers, Brian Hall and trainer Ben Harris.

Slough's undoing was that they took too long to recover from the shock of Hill's fourth minute goal. It followed a free kick by Roberts, with Alexander cleverly touching the ball across to leave the alert Hill with the formality of heading home.

It might have been 2-0 because in the 10th minute Slough left Roberts with room to pick his spot but Porter dived full length to pull off a great save.

Terry Reardon, having returned despite injury in place of Hans van den Berg, tried to get Slough going but only succeeded in involving himself in some heated exchanges with his opposite number, Cottrell.

The game often developed into a frantic midfield muddle and Slough's only scoring attempts in the first 35 minutes were two off target efforts from Gane.

Slough looked a different side in the second-half in which Russell charged down Poole's attempted clearance and ran through from the half-way line to fire inches wide.

In the 51st minute Somers put Russell through again but he was a fraction too slow in taking the ball around the advancing Overton and the 'keeper pushed it away.

There was still plenty of needle in the game and ex Slough defender Micky Stratford was booked in the 63rd minute for kicking Russell. Russell continued to come in for some tough treatment - a lot of which was not punished by the inconsistent referee, Jenkins.

Russell was obviously feeling the pressure and he miskicked when presented with a fine chance. The ball fell to Somers but Overton somehow stopped his shot from point blank range.

In throwing everything into attack Slough were leaving themselves open at the back and Woking almost scored on two occasions. First Hill shot a fraction wide and then Roberts broke clean through, only for Porter to dive at his feet to save.

Roberts was substituted by Godfrey 15 minutes from the end and Godfrey played a big part in helping Woking to survive.

Slough might have been able to use a substitute to equally good effect but manager Joe Arpino did not bring van den Berg on for Gane until five minutes from time.