Four Players Booked in Cliff Hanging Tie

Slough Town are in the last 16 of the Amateur Cup yet again, but Saturday's victory over St Albans City cannot be described as clearly decisive. It was left to a late hotly disputed penalty to put the Rebels through and so send the crowd of 1,800 home happy. There was plenty of excitement with play erupting violently at times and four players were booked, three of St Albans after the penalty incident, and D'Arcy of Slough.

The most explosive incident in a game full of turbulent flurries was when Ray Eaton was guilty of a late tackle on Neville the St Albans captain and the couple spent some time on the ground kicking and punching each other. As Eaton emerged from the fray raced across and

Ratty punched him and then for good measure became entangled with Roger Day and the upshot of this was Ratty had to leave the field with a broken jaw and minus several teeth. He was taken to hospital. Day denied punching Ratty. Referee Nathan saw nothing of these off play incidents.

The arctic conditions and sticky pitch did not make for good football but taking the game through Slough were possibly a shade the better side.

Slough looked very edgy at the back and a poor back pass in the 14th minute almost let Ratty in but he was as surprised as the rest and Wolstenholme managed to clear. With play going from end to end it was Slough who looked the more dangerous and in the 24th minute they were in front. The very industrious Ritchie raced down the right flank but miskicked at the vital moment. However, Amos was on hand to hammer the ball against the body of ex-Wycombe keeper O'Brian, the rebound being pounced upon by Ritchie who made no mistake with his second chance.

For 10 minutes Slough were well on top but they could not convert their superiority to goals and the visitors got back into the game and in the 41st Burgess missed an easy chance to equalise. In the middle of this activity we had the "incident" which occurred in the 19th minute.

The second half started with Hogwood substituting for the injured Ratty and the change seemed to do the Saints a favour as they looked far more dangerous and they pressed forward putting the Slough goal under pressure with only the coolness of Mead and D'Arcy keeping them at bay.

For his trouble D'Arcy found his name in the book for obstruction in the 61st minute. This sort of pressure had to bring results and in the 69th the score was levelled. A corner on the left was headed to the far post by Oxley and Neville was on hand to knock the ball home.

The Saints' jubilation was short lived as Slough were back in front within three minutes with one of the best goals seen at Slough Stadium this season. Turl outpaced Mitchell on the right and easily eluded two defenders before crossing about waist high into the goalmouth for Day to dive forward and send a glancing header between O'Brian and the post.

Surely Slough were through now as the Saints looked completely dejected after all their efforts to equalise but they managed to pull themselves back on level terms in the 82nd minute. Turl gained the ball in a goalmouth scramble and ran out to wards the corner flag pursued by Mitchell, but instead of clearing the ball Turl tried to play his way clear and was bundled off the ball with what looked to me a fair shoulder charge, although many Slough supporters will disagree, from Mitchell who passed in to Oxley who ran across the goal before bending a shot around the Slough defenders and into the far corner of the net.

Slough were not dismayed and immediately set about regaining their lead but as time ticked away and an 87th minute shot from Amos hit the crossbar a replay at Clarence Park next week looked on but in the 88th Ray Hill dribbled his way into the area and was brought down only yards in front of Mr Nathan who had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The ice cool Roger Day made no mistake with the kick and Slough were guaranteed their place in the last 16, their unbeaten run extended to 27.

That was what you might think, but no, St Albans’ Burgess found his name in the book for arguing before play restarted, a minute later Hogwood was booked for throwing the ball at Cruse who collapsed under the "weight" of it, and in the third minute of injury time Neville joined his colleagues in the book for dissent.