Players booked in exciting cup tie

Slough Town’s visit to Oxford City’s White House ground may not have produced a great amount of skilful football but it certainly produced an exciting cup-tie. Both goals came inside four minutes in the second half with Terry Brown equalising a goal by McCrae. Two players were booked, Crosby of Slough and Tomkins for Oxford. The attendance was 500 and the replay will be at Slough Stadium on Sunday, kick-off 10.45 am.

The ground condition did not lend itself to good football, recent heavy rainfall had made the ground very heavy and a consistent downpour during the first 45 minutes helped to turn both penalty areas and the connecting strip into a mudbath.

The early moments of the game produced little excitement as both sides weighed up the opposition but it soon became very clear that Oxford were not going to allow any room to Slough’s Geoff Anthony, the only survivor of last season's cup final team and currently Slough’s leading goalscorer.

The Oxford goal came under tremendous pressure and in the 24th and 29th mins Harris, the Oxford keeper, made two brilliant saves. First from Crosby then from Barrie Davies. For a period after this play switched from end to end and two minutes before half-time Freeman got through the centre jostling with Slough’s Tim Turl but even under this pressure he managed to get in a good right foot shot but Slough keeper Spittle was equal to it bringing off a fine save.

In the final minute of the half came the first incident, Slough’s Barrie Davies brought down McCrae with a two footed tackle, the referee separated the players but within seconds of play restarting Oxfords Tomkins raced after Davies and leapt through the air seeming to aim his boot at the head of Davies, an action that earned him a booking.

Oxford came out for the second half, having changed their muddy blue shorts for white ones, a change that seemed to give them more heart because they set about Slough in earnest, and in the 49th with Slough under pressure came the incident, Oxford’s Freeman clashed with Crosby and the Slough midfield player knocked Freeman senseless with a right cross that would have done credit to the sport to which it belongs.

Referee Ackrill strangely only booked Crosby and play was allowed to recommence. Oxford continued to look the sharper of the two sides and in the 56th they took the lead, Sillet and Hartigan combined on the right to work the ball to McCrae standing on the right hand angle of the Slough six-yard box where he turned and half hit a shot which skidded through the mud where Spittle was stuck and could only watch the ball creep into the net.

Two minutes later Oxford had the ball in the Slough net again when Metcalfe volleyed the ball home from 25 yards but another Oxford player was in an offside position. A further two minutes and the score was level, Tim Turl raced up the night wing and powered his way into the Oxford area before unleashing a powerful shot from ten yards, Harris somehow managed to block the shot with his body but Brown was on hand to push the ball into the net.

The final 30 minutes saw the game slow right down as the conditions took their toll on the players and it soon became obvious that a replay would be necessary to decide the issue.