Cup Progress For Slough

Slough finally redeemed themselves when they cruised to victory at the Croydon Sports Arena on Monday evening.

This was ultimately a satisfying win particularly after Saturday's struggle and in more difficult circumstances. The atmosphereless sports stadium in Croydon where the teams play each other in the centre of a running track is never an easy place to gain a result. A tricky wind caused a number of problems and Croydon were going to have to be more open as the hosts on this occasion.

Slough were expected to win after Saturday's poor result and they did this with ease. Without ever going into top gear, they dominated proceedings and took the enthusiasm and sting out of the home side before knocking home three second half goals which cased them into the next round and a trip to Yeading on September 28.

The Rebels almost took the lead after eight minutes when Paul McKinnon's powerful far
header was headed off the at the far post. McKinnon seems to be just an inch or two out of luck at the moment and had fortune gone his way this season he could now be totalling around six goals.

Steve Thompson was then clean through after a neat one-two with McKinnon but a soft finish was poked off the line by Trevor Franklin. Mark Turkington came back into the squad in place of Mick Putnam, who was left out with Mark Hill linking with Darren Anderson in the centre of defence and skipper Allan Pluckrose reverting to left back.

Turkington strangely found himself in the book for dissent following a corner, when he was no where near the referee.

Matt Norris caused the only problems up front for Croydon but that was marginal and Phil Burns dived low to parry his shot. The Croydon defence kept tight on the Rebels forward line and kicking into the wind Slough had trouble in easing forward.

When they did however they found a packed Croydon defence and were left to fire in a few long range efforts which failed to test keeper Gary Moseley. The second half continued in much the same way but this time the Rebels had the wind in their favour and found more width.

Croydon did cause trouble at times but the Rebels defence was up to whatever they threw forward, though sometimes it took a late touch to defy them.

Slough gradually pushed forward and got on top more convincingly, winning a number of corners as they teased Croydon on the edge of their penalty area but couldn't find the right ball into the box.

The deadlock was finally broken when Turkington looked as though he was body checked in the box, but Thompson picked up the loose ball as Turkington went sprawling and crossed for Anderson to send a delightful diving header into the far corner, just past the hour.

Minutes later McKinnon was clean through but he delayed too long and the keeper was quickly off his line to deny him.

Burns repeated the trick at the other end when he robbed the tricky Norris who looked offside.

Though they were dominant, Slough still found possession football difficult though the chances still came. Colin Fielder was put through by Thompson but his finish was saved, though on 72 minutes Croydon were effectively killed off.

McKinnon's shot from a corner thumped off the post with Moseley beaten but Stanley was alert to blast the rebound into the roof of the net.

Croydon's heads went down, they started arguing amongst themselves and the Rebels took total control. They forced the pace and slowed the proceedings down and soon the gaps between the teams opened up as the home resistance went.

Slough scored a superb goal with five minutes remaining. Pluckrose fed Anderson, who then picked out Eammon O'Connor on the left, with O'Connor racing into space before sending a fine far post cross to the incoming McKinnon, who blasted the ball into the net on the Croydon blind side.

Burns then pulled off a good close range save to deny Neil Missen's overhead kick just before the final whistle.