Slough Town gave Reading a lot of trouble and quite a few frights before they finally knocked out of the FA Cup at Elm Park on Saturday. The professionals only real advantage over their amateur opponents was the quality of their shooting, whenever they were within scoring range they let fly and were usually on target while Slough were sluggish with little idea where the goal was.

With a scoring striker in their ranks, Slough would have gone much closer.

Slough turned out as expected with Brendan O'Sullivan in defence, Micky Cannon, the centre-field man and Steve Lane wearing the number 9 shirt, and David Foulkes the substitute.

It was the Slough amateurs who settled first with the Reading side having great difficulty in containing the clever Welshmen, Davies and Anthony, who gave thew best performances for Slough. Antony broke through in the 5th minute but his clever final pass was just too far in front of Lane. This early Slough pressure slowly evaporated as Reading slowly got into their stride and only a stop by Watts on Chappell stopped the Reading striker from streaking towards Slough's defenceless goal. With Reading coming more into the game, Davies and Anthony still kept up their almost lonely assault, the two combining for Anthony to lob the ball just over the bar.

Reading's first real effort came in the 13th minute when Wagstaff forced Spittle to make the first of many fine saves. In the 16th the home side went ahead when Cumming crossed the ball from the wing, Hobbin headed on to Chappell, who headed the ball out to the lurking Bromley, who volleyed the ball home, giving Spittle no chance.

Reading were now in charge and pressed their advantage. Slough had all 11 players in their own half and in the 19th good work by Spittle kept the scoreline down. Under great pressure the experience of Cannon was never more evident but even under this assault Slough sill kept trying to go forward, and in the 29th a Turl throw was crossed by Cannon and Davies fired in a great shot which Death only just blocked.

In the 36th the only unpleasantness of the game occurred when Brown fouled Death and the ball ended in the net. Mr Wallace rightly penalised Slough, and Beyer found his name in the book for dissent.

The second half started well for Reading and within two minutes they were two up, a back-header from Chappell from a corner and Hetzke dived in to score his first ever goal for Reading.

Slough did not give in; they still tried to play football and at times looked very good, but in the 58th the result was sealed. A corner on the left to the near post and Chappell was on hand to head just inside the post.

After this Reading lost a lot of interest in the game, although Wagstaff brought yet another fine save from Spittle in the 63rd, and a substitution of Freeman for the injured Henderson in the 63th further reduced Reading's footballing interest.