Slough Town
4
West (26, 28), Bushay (54), Ferguson o.g. (86)
Thatcham Town
0
B&B Senior Cup
Attendance: 247
Mark West
The talk around Wexham Park on Tuesday night was not so much whether Slough would win this one, or even by how much, but whether the game would be allowed to finish at all.
Conditions were appalling a boggy pitch, a swirling wind and driving rain made for two very unhappy managers.
Everyone in the stands knew what had to be done of course - don't try to play football, just keep knocking in the long balls and play straight to the box.
But as usual, the ones doing the shouting weren't the ones out there having to try to get the job done. And to their credit Slough settled by far the quicker of the two teams, and ereated practically all the chances.
They showed they had the goal clearly in their sights from the first minute when Ansil Bushay fired a shot into the side netting.
He had an even better chance 10 minutes later when a good long ball left him one-on-one with the keeper. He managed to round Stuart Boswell in the Thatcham goal, but took one step too many in the mud, and his shot was never going to be on target.
But at least Slough had seen that the long ball was going to be their best chance, and promptly produced two goals in two minutes.
The first came from a well worked build-up starting with Andy Sayer deep in his own half, somehow managing to keep his feet and turn his marker before finding Tony Dell to his right. His ball found Bushay deep on the right, who crossed well for Mark West to sidefoot home in the 26th minute.
Sayer was behind the second strike two minutes later when his long ball into the area from the left this time was nodded on for West to head in.
By now Slough were doing all the work and fully deserved their half-time lead, Trevor Bunting only being called into action once or twice in the whole 45 minutes.
And they nearly extended the lead in the first minutes of the second half when Bushay jumped on a poor back pass from Kevin O'Leary. But again he couldn't find his feet in the mud, took too many steps, slipped, still managed to beat the keeper, took a few more steps, then saw Thatcham keeper Boswell recover to toe poke the final shot away.
Bushay, fortunately, was given the chance to atone for his miss in the 54th minute when Neil Catlin set him up on the edge of the box and he drove home.
With the third goal the game began to sag, though Thatcham created their best chances with both Andy King and Richard Grist forcing saves from Bunting.
Slough's fourth came with just four minutes to go, Sayer again providing the telling ball, a cross from the corner flag. Catlin was there ready to meet it but Thatcham defender Jamie Ferguson slid in first, sending the ball past his own keeper.
Conditions were appalling a boggy pitch, a swirling wind and driving rain made for two very unhappy managers.
Everyone in the stands knew what had to be done of course - don't try to play football, just keep knocking in the long balls and play straight to the box.
But as usual, the ones doing the shouting weren't the ones out there having to try to get the job done. And to their credit Slough settled by far the quicker of the two teams, and ereated practically all the chances.
They showed they had the goal clearly in their sights from the first minute when Ansil Bushay fired a shot into the side netting.
He had an even better chance 10 minutes later when a good long ball left him one-on-one with the keeper. He managed to round Stuart Boswell in the Thatcham goal, but took one step too many in the mud, and his shot was never going to be on target.
But at least Slough had seen that the long ball was going to be their best chance, and promptly produced two goals in two minutes.
The first came from a well worked build-up starting with Andy Sayer deep in his own half, somehow managing to keep his feet and turn his marker before finding Tony Dell to his right. His ball found Bushay deep on the right, who crossed well for Mark West to sidefoot home in the 26th minute.
Sayer was behind the second strike two minutes later when his long ball into the area from the left this time was nodded on for West to head in.
By now Slough were doing all the work and fully deserved their half-time lead, Trevor Bunting only being called into action once or twice in the whole 45 minutes.
And they nearly extended the lead in the first minutes of the second half when Bushay jumped on a poor back pass from Kevin O'Leary. But again he couldn't find his feet in the mud, took too many steps, slipped, still managed to beat the keeper, took a few more steps, then saw Thatcham keeper Boswell recover to toe poke the final shot away.
Bushay, fortunately, was given the chance to atone for his miss in the 54th minute when Neil Catlin set him up on the edge of the box and he drove home.
With the third goal the game began to sag, though Thatcham created their best chances with both Andy King and Richard Grist forcing saves from Bunting.
Slough's fourth came with just four minutes to go, Sayer again providing the telling ball, a cross from the corner flag. Catlin was there ready to meet it but Thatcham defender Jamie Ferguson slid in first, sending the ball past his own keeper.
Slough Town Lineup
- 1 Trevor Bunting
- 2 Tony Dell
- 3 Andy Clement
- 4 Brian Lee
- 5 Trevor Baron
- 6 Neil Catlin
- 7 Dave Lay
- 8 Andy Sayer
- 9 Mark West 12
- 10 Steve Bateman
- 11 Ansil Bushay 14
Substitutes
- 12 Garfield Blackman 9
- 14 Danny Nwaokolo 11