Slough Town 0 Gillingham 1

Match 67/18/1660 - Sunday, 2nd December 2018 - FA Cup Second Round

Slough Town (0) 0
Gillingham (0) 1 Oldaker 48
Attendance: 2,084
New Ground: 332

Admission: £11
Programme: £2
Mileage: 120/3,998

It was clearly an accident waiting to happen. The hawks of the BBC and the national press had assembled, microphones and pens at the ready, to portray as giant-killing heroes the latest non-league team to inflict humiliation on Gillingham. But the banana skin, if not kicked unceremoniously to one side, was at least side-stepped and now it might be the Kent club's turn to enjoy the role of underdog in the third round.

The bare statistics, Slough's first half tally of 10 shots to their visitors one and 21 overall to four, suggests that the National League South were more than a little unlucky but for all those efforts on goal they tested Tomas Holy on only a couple of occasions with the only heart stopping moment coming near the end when the goalkeeper's clumsy handling might have brought an equaliser, that nobody could deny the hosts deserved.

Slough's pristine new Arbour Park is nicely appointed with the main stand seating fronting a glasshouse that would serve the local community's needs for an entertaining venue. There was covered terracing behind both goals whilst the visiting following had the benefit of a seating stand that straddled the half-way line but they found standing on flat ground three or four deep frustrating.

And then, of course, there is the 3G factor. Personally, I've seen so many of these in the past few weeks I feel like the go-to expert and I felt that it played as good as any.

Whether it was anything to do with the pitch or just the enthusiasm of the home side, Gillingham were slow starting with Slough's Joe Dobson a constant threat and Matt Stevens finding pockets of space that the League One side were leaving vacant.

An overhead kick from Stevens cleared the bar narrowly and Holy flapped at a couple of crosses whilst Gabriel Zakuani did well to block a shot but the save of the half came from Slough's Jack Turner who turned aside a shot from Dean Parrett.

Slough's inability to take their first half opportunities came back to haunt them within three minutes of the start of the second half when a 30 yard dipping shot from Darren Oldaker found the top corner. It was a moment of quality completely out of context with the rest of Gillingham's forward play that had seen the long ball in search of Tom Eaves both ineffective and unappealing.

But the pattern of the second period after that one bit of quality followed that of the first, Slough making most of the running but their shooting was wayward and wasteful. Holy's late fumble saw Zakuani desperately clearing but for the non-leaguers it was not to be.