Wade proud to have written Old Windsor’s name into the history books
Old Windsor have won their first-ever Slough Town Cup and chairman, Gary Wade, is proud to have written the Club name into the history books, writes Rob Stevens.
The Os showed character and resilience to recover from falling behind to beat Singh Sabha 2-1 in the final, in front of a bumper crowd at
Burnham FC on Good Friday.
Sabha were bidding to retain the silverware won in 2019 (competition not completed in 2020 and 2021 because of the Coronavirus) and took the lead through Pritpal Raju.
Old Windsor, playing in their first Slough Town Cup final, levelled with a Joe Richards header before the break, and then won the match when Harry Farnan hit the back of the net with just minutes remaining, sending Os supporters into wild celebration.
A proud Wade, clinging onto the Cup, said: “I think if you ask the boys they’ll probably say they done it for me, which is very nice of them but, I do it for all the people that came before me.
“I joined the Club in 1988/89 with a Saturday team in the East Berkshire League. Before that, the Club hadn’t even been close to a Slough Town Cup final. We’ve never before had a good run in the Slough Town Cup, the semi finals in the Junior Cup is the closest we’ve ever got to a final.
“We’ve always wanted to get our name on the trophy and ours is now in the history books, with those big clubs.
“The team we have now is a young one, and a lot of young players in the reserves side as well. We’ve got people aged from 17 to mid-30s and the future of this Club is looking really good. We can, hopefully, keep this group of players together and perhaps add a couple more to the first team to make it even stronger.”
Wade explained that Old Windsor used the frustration of a previous defeat to Singh Sabha in the Ascot Cup this season as added motivation for the final, and believes the Os deserved the win in a close game with few chances.
He said: “We felt a little bit hard done by in the Ascot Cup. We used that as the ammunition to fuel the team to work hard and win, and that showed. The 16 players that we had out there gave everything for the team. That’s what has driven us forward to win the prestigious Slough Town Cup, and it’s great for the Club.
“We deserved it. We just about shaded it over the 90 minutes. Singh Sabha had their moments but without really troubling us, and there wasn’t many clear-cut chances. We just about deserved, on the balance of play, to win it. We took our chances. It was a pretty even game, as it always it with Singh Sabha, very close games and we just managed to nick this one.
“Scoring five minutes before the end means you haven’t got long to hang on. We’d done the horrible thing of trying to disrupt the game and make it hard for Singh Sabha to put us under pressure for those final minutes. It was a great time to score because there was not much in that second half, not many saves from either goalkeeper.”
The two sides are set to clash again in a Premier Division Showcase Match at Stag Meadow on Friday 29 April (7.30pm), before the League Cup final at Burnham FC on Monday 2 May (2pm).
Old Windsor are chasing down Premier Division leaders, Britwell, (10 points behind but with four matches in hand), and were due to return to league action with a visit from bottom side Cressex yesterday evening (Wednesday).