Promotion points left at Western Road

Slough chose their final pre-Christmas game, against Southall to sink back to the performances of earlier weeks, goals did not come during this game giving the handful of spectators the feeling that they would have fared better if they had gone Christmas shopping with the rest of the missing supporters. Most of the few people who were present came from Slough.

Weak refereeing led the game to develop into a rough and tumble with three Southall and one Slough player booked.

With Slough skipper Barry Davies still not completely fit he came out wearing the 12 shirt. From the start it was evident that Slough were the better side as they made their camp in the Southall half allowing the home side only the occasional sortie into Slough territory. In fact it was not until the 20th minute that Southall managed anything really constructive in the opposing half when they gained a corner on the fight but this was wasted.

Slough’s best chance came after 30 minutes, Turl took a free kick just on the half-way line and curled the ball to the far post but Lane was just a fraction ;ate and the ball went into touch.

This was the start of Slough's best period. Within a minute Turl and Anthony combined for the latter to have a good effort saved, in the 34th another Turl free kick was back headed by Anthony to Brown but the resulting shot bounced off the crossbar.

One minute later Turl raced down the right wing crossed the ball low, Lane jumped over the ball leaving Davies (A) with the goal at his mercy but he smashed the ball high over the bar.

In the 36th came the first booking, Pike fouled Anthony for the umpteenth time and was booked for his trouble. Just before half-time another Turl free kick should have been rammed home but again the slow Slough strikers failed to take advantage.

After the interval Southall came more into the game but as they came into contact more with Cannon and Watts they discovered that these two players are one of the best pairs of centre backs in the Isthmian League Division Two.

In the 56th we had the second booking Clough for a foul on Brown and in the 63rd we saw Allan Ayling leave the field to make way for absent skipper Davies, although this change made little difference to Slough's performance but did enable any supporter who was unsure how bad language can get on a football field to a treat of vulgarities as Davies cursed everything that did not work out well.

The dreary run in to the final whistle was broken in the 80th minute when Spittle had to leave his box to stop a Southall breakaway fouling Secker outside the box, an action that earned Spittle a booking.

Five minutes later it was Southall defender Green who became the third member of the Southall back four to go into the book after a wild tackle on Crosby. Slough dad get the ball into the back of the net in the 90th minute when Brown put in a good shot but unfortunately Lane was offside.