Two Ritchie Goals KO The K's

Slough Town made a satisfactory start to their Amateur Cup pilgrimage to Wembley on Saturday, when they defeated Kingstonian by two goals to nil at the Stadium. This was the Rebels 23rd successive game without defeat, both goals were scored by John Ritchie in the space of nine minutes in the first half.

The only jarring note the game was the injury to John Ritchie in the second half. He went to hospital after the game and an X-ray disclosed two broken ribs, which means a lay off for at least a fortnight.

The opening minutes were relatively even the ball flowing in midfield as both sides tried to come to terms with the slippery conditions, the first corner coming in the third minute to Kingstonian but this was wasted.

Slough slowly got on top pushing the visitors back and the first chance fell to Ritchie in the 8th minute when he shot past the upright with Penney, the K's keeper, stranded in the mud.

Three minutes later, after much pressure Slough went in front, D'Arcy intercepted a poor pass, pushed the ball for ward to Reid who passed diagonally across the park for the overlapping Turl to race clear of a slow defence and cross low for Ritchie to drive home.

With the K's reeling under the pressure Slough pressed forward, in the 16th Ritchie hir a shot against the outside of the post and in the 19th came the second goal, a long ball from Meade to Amos on the left flank and the Slough striker easily outstripped Adaway before crossing for Ritchie to burst through a crowd of defenders to smash home his 18th goal of the season.

For a period after this the K's tried hard to get back into the game and their best chance came in the 23rd when Mapp raced through but the stopped in the mud and Wolstenholme did well to pluck the ball off Mapp's feet. Play raced straight to the other end but it was not until a period of midfield play had seen Slough get back on top that we saw the next goal attempt, this in the 29th when Hill had a shot parried by Penny for Ritchie to race in and push the ball home but referee Lane disallowed this because of an infringement that was not immediately obvious.

With Slough now very much in control Kingstonian attacks became rare but in the 34th they brought Wolstenholme's one save of the game when Doyle weaved his way through on the right but his shot was blocked by Wolstenholme's legs and cleared. The second half was one-way traffic, corners for Slough in the 48th and 54th minutes, a Cruse free kick in the 55th was hit over an empty goal by Turl, and so Slough pressed forward, Kingstonian substituted Hennesey for Mapp in the 61st but this made little difference, in the 63rd Ritchie headed a Cruse free kick against the crossbar the rebound was pushed out for Amos to lob back and Ritchie again headed goalwards but Penney just managed to finger the ball over for a corner.

In the 81st Ritchie had to leave the field to terrific applause from the 1,500 crowd and O'Sullivan came on to play out the last nine minutes but apart from Turl hitting another shot over an unprotected goal in the 83rd the game was all but over.