ROHAN KEEPING US IN THE CUP

Printed in the FA Cup 3^rd Qualifying round replay Tuesday 3^rd October 2023  We won 3-0 in front of 411

My first memory is of blood pouring down my face and being rushed to hospital after jumping off an upturned wheelbarrow. Maybe that’s why I’m now a gardener.

I think a cup might have also once dropped onto my head, as whatever I do, I can’t stop going to FA Cup games no matter how many obstacles get put in my way.

I’d already drunk its magic in their early rounds watching Bexhill and Newhaven win in the preliminaries, while also seeing Slough stroll past Hayes and Yeading.

But this next one was proving more of a logistical challenge.

I support the train strikes, but the only way I was going to be able to get to our game at Salisbury was to stay overnight at my mums.

So I jumped on the late evening train so I could be all fresh faced Saturday morning and joined Phil the Flags, Aidan the Turnstile and Clubshop Sue in various cars as we Wacky Raced to the Ray Mac stadium.

I had been to Salisbury before in their previous incarnation before they went bust and had to start again at the bottom of the pyramid pile.

It was New Years Day and I had been working late in an old anarchist club and grabbed a few hours on the clubs sofa before heading out on the journey of a lifetime. I was tired and it was freezing and the game ended 0-0 and I remember waiting for a connection at Farnham station to get home, questioning my sanity.

We also had some cup pedigree with the former Salisbury, beating them in the FA Cup 4^th Qualifying round, and being rewarded with a game against Paul Mersons Walsall at our temporary home at Windsor's Stag Meadow. It was a famous victory in front of the TV cameras. We used that game as a red card protest to tell Slough Council to help find us a ground back in the town. One councillor told us we should merge with Windsor which was very civic minded of him, while Merson said losing to Slough was the worst day of his footballing career. Ironically we drew Yeading in the next round and they knocked us out. And I’ve still got the hump about that because they drew Newcastle in the third round. So take that Hayes and Yeading.

Salisbury's ground is neat and compact and full of character with some very decent covered terracing in one end that had us Rebels salivating (or maybe we'd had one too many). The Slough hoards packed in there in the first half boasting the crowd to Salisbury's best of the season and unlike behind the goals at Arbour Park you could see all the action.

Their fans made some quip about only being famous because of The Office, so we gave them a rendition of These Are All Slough Things with a sprinkling of Uranus, which lays bare some of the towns notable achievements. We wheeled out ‘is this a Liberal Democrat constituency' to the tune of - is this a library. It was also good to see former chairman Steve Easterbrook in the ground – Slough Town Football Club have a hell of a lot to thank that man for, in particular our home at Arbour Park.

An ok first half, led to a dreadful second and there is only one player to thank for keeping us in it and that was loan goalkeeper Rohan Luthra. He was immense pulling off a string of unbelievable saves, earning us a very undeserved replay and getting some serious thank you songs from the Rebel Army.

After a get-out-of-jail celebratory session in the Wheatsheaf with some of the Rebels, I headed back to my mums for the evening. As my Sunday morning train meandered back into Brighton, I scribbled notes for the programme and plotted Tuesday nights visit. And hoped that our luck at still being in the cup meant that the first round proper was once again written in the Sir William Herschel observed stars.

photos by Scott McNeish