Football: Torquay avoid Slough exit
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Your support makes all the difference.Slough Town . . . . .1
Torquay United. . . .2
IT TAKES gross negligence to miss Slough. Three exits from the M4 point you towards the town, which was hardly propitious for Torquay. Three exits was just the last thing they wished to think about.
After going out to non-League sides in their last two FA Cup campaigns, a visit to GM Vauxhall Conference opposition in the first round must have been as welcome as an invitation to a Turkish policemen's ball popping through Eric Cantona's letter-box.
They made tortuously heavy weather of winning the tie from a 2-0 half-time lead and were anxiously listening for the whistle, but after the embarrassments against Farnborough and Yeovil in the last two years, anything other than a defeat came as a relief. Goals from Mark Sale and Darren Moore were just enough.
The emphasis is on the just. The finale was played out with Torquay hearts firmly in their mouths and in injury time their goalkeeper Ashley Bayes had to make an outstanding save to tip Mark Fiore's drive on to the bar. Even then the visitors' Adrian Foster had enough time to stretch the nerves further by missing a penalty.
This was pressure Torquay looked totally unlikely to have to endure after a first half in which, on a heavy pitch in bucketing rain, instead of having to fight for possession, they stroked the ball around like a practice game.
They could have gone ahead within the first three minutes with chances for Ian Hathaway and Paul Trollope but after 10 minutes the first breach was made. Hathaway crossed from the right and Mark Sale, the 6ft 4in beanpole striker, leaned into the ball and sent it past Trevor Bunting.
Twenty-nine minutes later the tie seemed to be settled as Moore headed into an empty net after Foster had diverted the ball away from Bunting's grasp. But the second half was a revelation as Slough, clueless before the interval, came roaring back. After 65 minutes Morrys Scott prodded into the net when Bayes had somehow lost his grip on the ball and the remaining time was spent with the ball rebounding round the Torquay area.
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