Maidstone United
0
Slough Town
0
FA Trophy
Attendance: 888
Trevor Porter
Manager Joe Arpino was ready to admit that Slough needed a little luck to stay in the F.A. Trophy at Maidstone on Saturday when they fought a desperate rearguard action in the second-half.
"I think we could have played much better and I feel we shall have to do so in the replay", he said. "Maidstone were very impressive all round and played the right type of game for the difficult conditions but we worked hard and defended extremely well."
The man who did most to deny Maidstone victory was keeper Trevor Porter. The Southern League title challengers dominated much of the second-half but they just could not get the ball past Porter.
Even though he looked vulnerable in the air and dropped the greasy ball a couple of times, the keeper earned his side a replay with two tremendous second-half saves from Glenn Coupland - the danger man in the home attack.
The first came in the 65th minute when Coupland accelerated past left-back Underwood and sent in a superb cross shot. Porter flicked the ball up on to the face of the bar, and over, for one of a whole string of corners Maidstone forced after the break.
Ten minutes later Dave Crush found Coupland with a quick throw and despite the close attentions of three defenders Coupland managed to fire in another brilliant effort that Porter touched away one-handed.
With Glenn Aitken pushing some fine balls through from midfield and Phil Stonebridge working non-stop upfront, Maidstone kept up the pressure right till the final whistle.
Porter earned further cheers from the 888 crowd by making another fine save from Gary Russo, and in injury time a header by Crush was cleared off the goal-line by Mackay.
Slough, whose central defenders Phil Beal and Tim Turl got through a tremendous amount of work, never played well enough to look like winning after the opening half hour.
They were always quick to break away, however, and Lee often caused the Maidstone defence concern. He put left back Frazier under a lot of pressure and his accurate crosses provided the main threat to keeper Barry Watling who seldom had a direct shot to save, apart from one good effort by Somers immediately after the interval.
It was always heavy going through the middle and both sides made better progress when they switched the ball out to the drier wings where players like Coupland and Lee could use their skills more effectively.
With Russell ruled out by injury, it was left to Friend to support Lee and Somers in the Slough attack which he did well. But Somers was subdued by central defenders Merrick and Hill.
"I think we could have played much better and I feel we shall have to do so in the replay", he said. "Maidstone were very impressive all round and played the right type of game for the difficult conditions but we worked hard and defended extremely well."
The man who did most to deny Maidstone victory was keeper Trevor Porter. The Southern League title challengers dominated much of the second-half but they just could not get the ball past Porter.
Even though he looked vulnerable in the air and dropped the greasy ball a couple of times, the keeper earned his side a replay with two tremendous second-half saves from Glenn Coupland - the danger man in the home attack.
The first came in the 65th minute when Coupland accelerated past left-back Underwood and sent in a superb cross shot. Porter flicked the ball up on to the face of the bar, and over, for one of a whole string of corners Maidstone forced after the break.
Ten minutes later Dave Crush found Coupland with a quick throw and despite the close attentions of three defenders Coupland managed to fire in another brilliant effort that Porter touched away one-handed.
With Glenn Aitken pushing some fine balls through from midfield and Phil Stonebridge working non-stop upfront, Maidstone kept up the pressure right till the final whistle.
Porter earned further cheers from the 888 crowd by making another fine save from Gary Russo, and in injury time a header by Crush was cleared off the goal-line by Mackay.
Slough, whose central defenders Phil Beal and Tim Turl got through a tremendous amount of work, never played well enough to look like winning after the opening half hour.
They were always quick to break away, however, and Lee often caused the Maidstone defence concern. He put left back Frazier under a lot of pressure and his accurate crosses provided the main threat to keeper Barry Watling who seldom had a direct shot to save, apart from one good effort by Somers immediately after the interval.
It was always heavy going through the middle and both sides made better progress when they switched the ball out to the drier wings where players like Coupland and Lee could use their skills more effectively.
With Russell ruled out by injury, it was left to Friend to support Lee and Somers in the Slough attack which he did well. But Somers was subdued by central defenders Merrick and Hill.
Slough Town Lineup
- 1 Trevor Porter
- 2 Roger Mackay
- 3 Bob Underwood
- 4 Terry Reardon
- 5 Tim Turl
- 6 Phil Beal
- 7 Alan Gane
- 8 Ian Cooke
- 9 Paul Lee
- 10 Barry Friend
- 11 Kieron Somers