Wealdstone 1 – 1 Slough Town

Wealdstone

1 - 1

Slough Town

KO: 0:00 | Fri 18th Mar ’05

Stones hosted this fixture in support of the Kick Out racism campaign as a trial Friday Night fixture and in front of a crowd of 444 both sides put on a spirited and entertaining performance.

Wealdstone went into the game missing Carvell, Burrell, McKeown and Morton, but were pleased to welcome back Robin Tucker albeit in an unusual left wing back slot, and Tom Champion who passed a fitness test before the match, while Slough would have been at full strength had Allway and Daly not missed the ground and continued up the A41 arriving only minutes before the kick off!

Stones started brightly and created an early chance for Beckford, while at the other end Carter saved from Murphy, then on 14 minutes, a sweet ball forward from Jason Shaw allowed Jolly to get in behind the Slough defence and despite an attempted block from Saulsbury, Jolly shot home to give Stones the lead.

It was only to last five minutes though, as under pressure, Stones only half cleared an effort from Murphy and the ball returned to him to slot home from ten yards.

The game changed on 21 minutes when Beckford was brought down by Hodges, and as the players faced up to each other, Beckford struck out, apparently in retaliation to the slough player spitting at him, but the referee had no option but to send Beckford off, booking Hodges for the original challenge. It gave Slough the advantage in terms of numbers and saw Stones forced to defend for the majority of the rest of the half – Slough should have taken the lead on 40 minutes when a break saw Murphy again involved as his shot cannoned off the crossbar, but Stones held out until half time.

Gordon Bartlett changed his formation at half time replacing Jason Shaw with Ben Alexander as Stones took the game to their opponents – Alexander unlucky not to score with his first touch as he latched onto a through ball from Jolly, only to see his shot beat the keeper but go wide.

The second half was played at great pace with both sides having plenty of the action, though neither created many clear cut chances – Wealdstone perhaps just shading ahead on attempts on goal, but the score remained the same, finishing 1 – 1 with the points shared.