Slough Town
4
West (17 pen. 58), Baron (64, 71)
Farnborough Town
3
Harlow (5), Boothe (37 pen), Gavin (79)
FA Trophy
Attendance: 742
Alan Paris
A home tie with Kettering is the Rebels' reward for a tortuous FA Trophy first round match, which they finally won only after an energy-sapping Tuesday night replay.
As with the first game three days previously, there should have been no need for Slough to stretch the game out for so long, but despite braces from Mark West and Trevor Baron they were kept hanging on right until the end before finally taking their reward for a gritty 90 minutes.
Just like Saturday, Farnborough went into the lead, this time on five minutes as Andy Clement tapped the ball feebly back to Chuck Moussadik and Harlow was played clean through. He walloped the ball past the helpless 'keeper.
Fortunately, the equaliser took 12 minutes, not an hour, Clement being tugged down by the arm in the box and West tucking the penalty away cleanly in the bottom corner.
With Barry Rake in particular running with intent and tormenting grey-haired full-back Baker where Garfield Blackman had previously failed, it seemed the conditions large expanses of mud and constant rain - which called for grit rather than flair - would suit the Rebels down to the ground.
Instead, it was the visitors who prospered as Brian Lee was adjudged to have pushed Williams in the back in the 37th minute, meriting a penalty which Boothe slotted past Moussadik, injured two minutes previously in a collision with Harlow.
The search for another took slightly longer than expected. West fluffed his lines embarrassingly from Mark Fiore's typically perfect cross, heading well over the bar from a few yards, and Catlin also blasted high from 12 yards.
But Ross Pickett's arrival on 58 minutes changed all that - his first touch was to turn Fiore's corner into West's path and the top scorer bagged his 22nd of the season with a well-judged finish, though Ansil Bushay had some case for claiming the goal as he appeared to touch it In on the line.
And then, six minutes later, Fiore provided again from the corner spot, and Trevor Baron exposed some risible marking with a thunderbolt header past MacKenzie - no more than the toil deserved.
A repeat header one minute afterwards was cleared off the line by Wingfield. Baron's second on 71 minutes should have sewn it all up but didn't. He pounced when Fiore's ball fell at his feet and slammed home, but a quick break eight minutes later shook things up again - Gavin looped a header over the 'keeper after being set up by the unmarked Boothe.
And so the strain continued. Bushay was handed a golden opportunity to end It all when Pickett broke from the halfway line on the left, carried the ball into the area and slipped it across to him from six yards. He spooned wide after hesitating far too long - a familiar sight.
Fortunately, it didn't matter and Slough can take heart from the fact that you almost always encounter hard slogs like this on the way to Wembley.
As with the first game three days previously, there should have been no need for Slough to stretch the game out for so long, but despite braces from Mark West and Trevor Baron they were kept hanging on right until the end before finally taking their reward for a gritty 90 minutes.
Just like Saturday, Farnborough went into the lead, this time on five minutes as Andy Clement tapped the ball feebly back to Chuck Moussadik and Harlow was played clean through. He walloped the ball past the helpless 'keeper.
Fortunately, the equaliser took 12 minutes, not an hour, Clement being tugged down by the arm in the box and West tucking the penalty away cleanly in the bottom corner.
With Barry Rake in particular running with intent and tormenting grey-haired full-back Baker where Garfield Blackman had previously failed, it seemed the conditions large expanses of mud and constant rain - which called for grit rather than flair - would suit the Rebels down to the ground.
Instead, it was the visitors who prospered as Brian Lee was adjudged to have pushed Williams in the back in the 37th minute, meriting a penalty which Boothe slotted past Moussadik, injured two minutes previously in a collision with Harlow.
The search for another took slightly longer than expected. West fluffed his lines embarrassingly from Mark Fiore's typically perfect cross, heading well over the bar from a few yards, and Catlin also blasted high from 12 yards.
But Ross Pickett's arrival on 58 minutes changed all that - his first touch was to turn Fiore's corner into West's path and the top scorer bagged his 22nd of the season with a well-judged finish, though Ansil Bushay had some case for claiming the goal as he appeared to touch it In on the line.
And then, six minutes later, Fiore provided again from the corner spot, and Trevor Baron exposed some risible marking with a thunderbolt header past MacKenzie - no more than the toil deserved.
A repeat header one minute afterwards was cleared off the line by Wingfield. Baron's second on 71 minutes should have sewn it all up but didn't. He pounced when Fiore's ball fell at his feet and slammed home, but a quick break eight minutes later shook things up again - Gavin looped a header over the 'keeper after being set up by the unmarked Boothe.
And so the strain continued. Bushay was handed a golden opportunity to end It all when Pickett broke from the halfway line on the left, carried the ball into the area and slipped it across to him from six yards. He spooned wide after hesitating far too long - a familiar sight.
Fortunately, it didn't matter and Slough can take heart from the fact that you almost always encounter hard slogs like this on the way to Wembley.
Slough Town Lineup
- 1 Chuck Moussadik
- 2 Barry Rake 14
- 3 Brian Lee
- 4 Alan Paris
- 5 Trevor Baron
- 6 Neil Catlin
- 7 Andy Clement
- 8 Mark Pye
- 9 Mark West
- 10 Ansil Bushay
- 11 Mark Fiore 12
Substitutes
- 12 Steve Bateman 11
- 14 Ross Pickett 2
- 15 Delroy Preddie