Turl called off - fans rage

SUTTON United gained their first ever Isthmian League victory at Slough on Saturday and became the third team in a week to secure a cash scoring bonus against the Rebels to leave Wexham Park a 'distressed area'.

After the match gloomy club officials had drawn faces as they wondered where the next point - or even goal - would come from. Most supporters had left before the end after seeing their side crash to a third successive defeat.

Despite a poor performance, there seemed a chance of Slough saving a point until half way through the second-half when Tim Turl - one of the few successes of the day - was called off. The transfer-listed Turl, who had been recalled in midfield, was substituted by Peter Feely as the crowd showed their disapproval by booing and giving Turl sympathetic applause.

As strikers Barry Metcalfe and Paul Lee had contributed little to the game, they would have appeared the most obvious players for manager Joe Arpino to pull off.

New centre-back Gary Corkish, a representative player with the RAF and Combined Services, had a disappointing league debut. He lacked mobility and did not achieve a good understanding with his fellow defenders, but he should improve when he reaches full match fitness.

Slough started the game brightly enough and the best chance fell to Metcalfe, who had a clear sight of goal but he missed an easy header. Shortly after this a well-taken corner from Friend dropped just out of reach of Lee. Lee then became the sixth Slough player to be booked this season when in frustration he caught Waldron as he followed through.

Slough were prone to error and Sutton took the lead in the 32nd minute. Cooke failed to clear and Pritchard gave McKinnon an opportunity that he could not miss.

Within a minute Cooke - who was to provide virtually all of Slough's goal bound shots in the match - beat ex-Town keeper Dave Collyer but the ball shaved the wrong side of the post. Then he cleared off the line at the other end when Teale had been beaten by Pritchard.

The crucial miss for Slough was to come in the 58th minute when Alan Gane, with the empty goal in front of him, somehow hit Collyer's feet from three yards and in endeavouring to poke the rebound home kicked the post!

Eventually, in the 72nd minute, the visitors scored again following a free-kick awarded wrongly against Mackay who seemed to be the victim rather that the offender. As the ball was floated in from the left with the whole defence flat-footed, Teale committed himself and McKinnon flicked on for Bobby Southam to touch into an empty net.

The final goal four minutes from time summed up the whole match. Cooke had a good shot deflected wide, and his resultant corner kick was easily cleared by Sutton. Micky Stratford found Cornwell who was given the freedom of the park as he bore down on Teale and shot past the advancing keeper.

Afterwards manager Joe Arpino defended his decision to bring off Turl and said: "Tim had been playing well but we were 1-0 down and I wanted to send on an extra striker. It was a tactical move, I was certainly not displeased with his performance."