Slough Town
0
Tooting
0
FA Trophy
Attendance: 470
Jeff Bateman
Just what Slough didn't want to happen on Saturday, happened.
It was very much a case of after the Lord Mayor's show, as the Rebels found it impossible to crack a defensively determined Tooting, four days on from magnificently winning their FA Cup second round place.
The goalless 90 minutes immediately signalled the postponement yet again of the GMAC Cup clash with Cheltenham. And with Yeovil and Wycombe involved in league action and winning the necessity of another replay underlined the daunting fixture backlog already facing Slough.
The price of cup success has meant the championship chasers have each played four games more, and that number is set to increase by Christmas. Slough have only three league commitments in the next four weeks, and the recent diet of midweek cup replays has often forced Alan Davies to rely on not fully fit players getting through 90 minutes.
On Saturday, for example, there were doubts against Brown, Waites, White and Tilley, but they all declared themselves fit enough to complete a line-up unchanged from the one that famously won the Bognor replay.
But it just wasn't the same Slough. Tooting, without an away league win but with a goals-against-column that demanded respect, never made it easy. They got eight or nine players behind the ball with frustrating regularity and the Rebels just couldn't find a way through.
White's free-kick that missed by a whisker early on; Brown's similarly close header, and Jacob's fierce shot which Taylor saved with the help of an upright, were the chief first half reminiscences. And Cox twice needed to deny the visitors' Dunne in a 45 minutes which generally did little to warm the hearts of the 470, who braved the bitterly cold conditions.
Slough tested Taylor's uncertain aerial ability straight after the break, but all that resulted was a right hook which the 'keeper landed plumb on the head of one of his unsuspecting defenders.
Then, the visitors had their best spell. But when they couldn't conjure up a decent opening, the game seemed destined to be goalless. Brown forced Taylor to go full-stretch before Dodds was denied in probably the Rebels best chance by a fine point-blank stop five minutes from time.
"Just what we didn't want," was manager Alan Davies's verdict. "We came back down to earth and it wasn't a good performance, although we were better in the second half."
It was very much a case of after the Lord Mayor's show, as the Rebels found it impossible to crack a defensively determined Tooting, four days on from magnificently winning their FA Cup second round place.
The goalless 90 minutes immediately signalled the postponement yet again of the GMAC Cup clash with Cheltenham. And with Yeovil and Wycombe involved in league action and winning the necessity of another replay underlined the daunting fixture backlog already facing Slough.
The price of cup success has meant the championship chasers have each played four games more, and that number is set to increase by Christmas. Slough have only three league commitments in the next four weeks, and the recent diet of midweek cup replays has often forced Alan Davies to rely on not fully fit players getting through 90 minutes.
On Saturday, for example, there were doubts against Brown, Waites, White and Tilley, but they all declared themselves fit enough to complete a line-up unchanged from the one that famously won the Bognor replay.
But it just wasn't the same Slough. Tooting, without an away league win but with a goals-against-column that demanded respect, never made it easy. They got eight or nine players behind the ball with frustrating regularity and the Rebels just couldn't find a way through.
White's free-kick that missed by a whisker early on; Brown's similarly close header, and Jacob's fierce shot which Taylor saved with the help of an upright, were the chief first half reminiscences. And Cox twice needed to deny the visitors' Dunne in a 45 minutes which generally did little to warm the hearts of the 470, who braved the bitterly cold conditions.
Slough tested Taylor's uncertain aerial ability straight after the break, but all that resulted was a right hook which the 'keeper landed plumb on the head of one of his unsuspecting defenders.
Then, the visitors had their best spell. But when they couldn't conjure up a decent opening, the game seemed destined to be goalless. Brown forced Taylor to go full-stretch before Dodds was denied in probably the Rebels best chance by a fine point-blank stop five minutes from time.
"Just what we didn't want," was manager Alan Davies's verdict. "We came back down to earth and it wasn't a good performance, although we were better in the second half."
Slough Town Lineup
- 1 Graham Cox
- 2 Kevin Tilley
- 3 Gary Woodcraft
- 4 Tony Knight
- 5 Jeff Bateman
- 6 Keith White
- 7 Paul Waites
- 8 Jimmy Jacobs
- 9 Rowan Dodds
- 10 Jimmy Brown
- 11 Kenny Wilson
Substitutes
- 12 Paul Gardam
- 14 Devon Petty