Another Slough-Croydon clash ends in a draw

A cold windy winter's day brought little to cheer the Slough fans at Wexham Park on Saturday when the spoils were shared between the two clubs for the eighth time in 15 meetings, in a Servowarm Isthmian League, Premier Division match that will be quickly discarded from the memories of those who braved the whole 90 minutes of this shapeless game.

Indeed, at one stage some spectators seemed to me more engrossed in the activities of the seagulls following a tractor on the nearby allotments than in the game they had paid to watch.

Oddly enough, Croydon, who have been scoring plenty of goals lately came armed with a defensive policy that was not really suited to the task of beating an off-form Slough side who were unable to serve up much in the way of physical strength in attack, or in midfield for that matter.

With Gary Attrell injured the diminutive Steve Roberts, who has been performing well for the reserves recently, came in up front. Kevin Hill returned in midfield and the desperately out of touch Vaughan Powell was relegated to substitute, while Dave Yerby replaced the injured Francis Araguez at right back.

There were however, some bright facets to the Slough performance. Frank Parsons, acting almost as a second captain marshalled his defence superbly in front of him, and with the aid of two goal-line clearances from Yerby kept his second consecutive "clean sheet" despite injuring himself in a collision with Rod Ward early in the game.

And Tony Doherty had his best game so far in the heart of the Slough defence showing excellent ability in the air, although his enthusiasm tends to take him out of position on occasions.

In the early stages the home defence looked to be under stress as the Croydon attack found a way through their lines, and the "W" formation of Ward, Whitton and Whitney looked full of attacking ideas, and the league's leading scorer Les Whitton, was robbed when he seemed certain to score.

Croydon continued to press, and a tremendous shot from Phil Smith was fortunately stopped by Hill's face.

Slough mounted their first real attack down the right when Hill and Derek Sweetman neatly found a way through the visiting defence but Roberts' shot was high and wide.

Then midway through the first half a beautiful clearance from Eddie Hutchinson set Rowan Dodds on his way to beat two defenders and shoot just wide. Then Ian Pattison broke through for Croydon only to see his shot well saved by Frank Parsons.

Slough almost had the last word at the end of the first half when Dave Russell escaped down the right wing and his low pass was met by Doherty with a rasping shot that was saved at the expense of a corner.

Early in the second period came the main talking point of the day when Dodds, in full flight, was brought down a yard inside the penalty area. Referee Malcolm Cotton, who up to that time had had a good match despite poor work from his linesman, was clearly mistaken when he gave a free kick on the edge of the Croydon penalty area which was easily cleared by the tall visiting defence.

Following this came a period of sustained pressure that was competently dealt with by the Slough defenders, although it needed a good clearance from under the bar from Yerby to do the trick.

As the game drew to its final stages both substitutes were called upon at the same time, Croydon's Jon Warden standing a good six inches taller than Slough's Powell who replaced Roberts.

The match continued much as before with both sides desperately needing to break the deadlock without ever seeming capable of doing so. Dodds did escape his marker, but his effort was saved by Dungey, the ball running loose to Dave Russell whose hurried shot struck Dodds before bouncing clear while at the other end Jon Warden shot over the bar when he was clear.

And so the "Davids" of Slough held the "Goliaths" of Croydon showing a certain amount of fight but looking light years away from the team who started the season with such confidence and aplomb, as the Rebels' hopes of maintaining a serious challenge for the title took another knock.