Slough Drop Vital Points At Harwich

Slough’s quest for the final points to complete the Athenian League championship was halted at Harwich on Saturday when the Essex team got the only goal in a scrappy end-of-the-season struggle. Slough missed Ritchie and Cruse, now with Arsenal, their striking power being blunted with only Amos up front to finish off the attacks.

Even with this lack of forward power Slough were still the better of the two sides, defensively well on top and controlling the midfield they set up chance after chance but failed to take advantage leaving the home side to net just one goal in the 55th minute to take both points.

The missing striking pair was not Slough's only problem, Ray Eaton and Alf D'Arcy were unable to play due to injury and a groin knock relegated Terry Reardon to the substitutes bench, Polson going into the back line, Yerby into the midfield with Hill and Day while O'Sullivan continued his new role as a striker with Amos and Jamieson.

This defeat leaves Slough with the job of taking three points t from their last four League games, a task that looked so easy a couple of weeks ago but one that could now cause difficulties with the reduction in the squad added to which Meade carried off 5 mins from time with suspected ligament strain could well be out of action for the next two weeks. Dagenham would now seem to be the only remaining threat to Slough's second League Championship as Leatherhead and Maidenhead have been dropping points over the last few weeks but Slough will have to watch the Daggers carefully as they would seem to have an easier final two games than Slough's four.

With the Slough defence having little difficulty in controlling the home attack Reid almost reverted to his midfield role but his efforts failed to rouse the forwards who just could not find a way through the home defence. Whenever a dangerous situation arose Armstrong proved more than equal to the situation and the nearest Slough came to scoring in the first half was when an Amos rum ended with Hill firing in a fine shot in the 40th which brought an equally fine save from Armstrong.

After the break with the wind advantage Harwich came more into the game mounting constructive attacking moves and in the 48th min Johnston was guilty of missing the easiest of chances, minutes later Johnston again went close with a fine right foot effort.

With the pressure increasing on the Slough goal the home forwards gained confidence until in the 55th minute a barrage of shots flayed the Slough goalmouth, first Smith then Page hit the woodwork before Johnston latched on to a rebound and volleyed the ball home through a crowded area to put the home side one up.

For a period after this Harwich got on top but slowly Slough got back. Reardon came on in the 70th for Polson but despite continuous pressure the home side managed to keep their goal intact to take two very valuable points from the championship contenders.