Town pay dearly for those errors

Tooting

Pittaway (1), Smith (28), Cook (45, 63, 87)

Slough Town

Feely (49, 75)

Date: Saturday, September 1st 1979 | Competition: League | Attendance: TBC

Man Of Match: Peter Feely

Starting Line Up

Substitutes

Richard Strong

SLOUGH Town presented a comedy of defensive errors when they were thrashed at Tooting on Saturday. But there was little amusement for the Town's supporters as the defence made fine farcial mistakes as they staged the sort of afternoon strikers dream of.

Even when Peter Feely twice pulled Slough back into the match, they still managed to conjure up more slip-ups to give the South London club a comfortable win.

A glaring error gifted Bob Pittaway with the first goal after only 55 seconds. He rose unmarked at the near post to head in a Fran Cowley corner.

Slough then played some of their best football so far this season. Ian Cooke, Alan Gane, Roger Mackay and Barry Metcalfe all went close before another defensive blunder presented Herbie Smith with the second Tooting goal in the 28th minute. He had plenty of time to hammer the ball past Richard Teale after the Slough goalkeeper had stopped a Des Dennis shot with his legs.

Ian Cook, the namesake of the Slough midfield player, made it 3-0 just before halftime. His joy was soon marred when he was booked shortly afterwards for failing to retreat ten yards from a free kick.

Slough's Barry Friend and Tooting's Trevor Ford were also shown the yellow card for an off-the-ball incident in the second half. But it was never a physical match and Peter Feely raised hopes in the 49th minute when he headed in a Richard Strong cross. Strong had replaced Tim Turl in a bid to bolster a defence which looked shell shocked after an hour.

Graham Maskell and Paul Lee treated the ball like an unexploded bomb in their own penalty area. Between them they presented it to Cook who did more damage by scoring the fourth goal. Maskell atoned with a superbly flighted cross for Feely to head home in the 75th minute.

The defence though were still in a generous mood and they allowed Cook to complete his hat-trick before the complete whistle. Even then Slough might have again reduced Tooting's lead. Metcalfe managed to hit the ball straight at the goalkeeper from just two yards while Ian Cooke hit the right post towards the end.