A fourth minute goal from Slough’s speedy winger Warren Harris left Folkestone with a frustrating 86  minutes plus in a vain bid to try to force a replay in their Emirates FA Cup final qualifying round on the 3G at Arbour Park on Saturday.

Some Invicta supporters may have envied the Berkshire club when we heard of their new £7.9 million stadium, but the vast majority were yearning for the more homely surroundings of their own home ground within minutes of a later than expected arrival due to heavy traffic in Slough town centre.

While huge credit goes to any local council putting money into sport, Slough’s soulless Arbour Park is all concrete and glass with very little atmosphere. And while both sets of fans made a fair amount of noise the acoustics took care of that as Invicta’s Noyz Boize understandably queried: “Do you like playing in a library?”

Long queues and painfully slow service at food and drink outlets always upset visiting supporters. Heaven only knows how the two hapless guys behind the clearly understaffed bar were supposed to cope with the thirstier punters in the Town’s biggest crowd of the season so far with 926 paying at the turnstiles.

But back to the match itself – not bad, but hardly a classic, to be honest.

The Rebels had the bulk of possession and decent chances though after scoring  in virtually the first attack of the game, conspired to waste them all.

That made you wonder how they have scored all the goals that that have so far this season – their terrific comeback from 4-0 down to win 5-4 in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier League at Merthyr on Tuesday even, apparently meriting a page five article in this week’s Non-League Paper!!

Much of the credit for keeping Folkestone in the game at only one goal down for the rest of the game has to go to sterling work by their defence in which captain Callum Davies and Matt Newman were always prominent.

But several of their team-mates struggled to cope with the playing surface, though Invicta have usually done fairly well on 3G pitches of clubs around the Bostik League. Surely no-one can seriously argue that, as good as some artificial pitches are, they inevitably give a team playing every other week on them an advantage over visiting sides who only experience that half a dozen times a season.

Sam Hasler and Scott Heard linked well at times in midfield with Hasler firing wide from distance midway through the opening half.

A few moments later Ade Yusuff was unable to capitalise on a half-chance as he stumbled and had to fight to retain his balance as he burst into the 18-yard box.

Hasler and Heard combined again just after the half hour but striker Joe Taylor’s eventual shot on the turn was deflected wide.

Playing with admirable composure at the back, Newman had another fine game and has proved with worth at this kind of level since rejoining Folkestone from Hythe Town on the eve of this season.

Slough’s forwards were guilty of glaring misses either side of half-time while at the other end, last season’s leading scorer Taylor was having a day he might choose to forget – culminating in a yellow card from unimpressive referee David Spain after an incident that the striker seemed nowhere near to – possibly a case of mistaken identity from the match official who, having started the game reasonably well seemed to be losing the plot at times.

Invicta have had little joy from the men in black in their last three games and were without the inspirational Josh Vincent at the back following a quite ludicrous fifth booking of the season at Met Police last weekend.

Mr Spain seemed to award decisions the wrong way round at times and things went from bad to worse for the visitors when wing-back  Kieron McCann was booked twice in quick succession and sent off only moments after needing attention when himself on the receiving end of a dubious challenge.

Folkestone’s best chance of an equaliser had come from a viciously struck free-kick from upwards of 25 yards by Hasler which was dipping under the bar until keeper Jack Turner leapt to turn it for yet another corner which the visitors managed to waste.

Slough had been time-wasting from quite early on when the chance arose and it became blatant in the final 20 minutes or so.

The Rebels are clearly a decent side, but is it any wonder that opposing managers and supporters get angry when they see good players going to ground so easily – something too many referees at this level (and beyond, maybe) seem unable to get their heads around.

There surely should have been more than the five additional minutes allowed at the end, but it was the end of the FA Cup run for Folkestone for another year.

Invicta: Roberts; Newman, Davies, Blanks; Wright (Draycott 67), Hasler, Everitt, Heard, McCann; Yusuff, Taylor

Subs not used: Shaw, Sahdadow, Madden, Walmsley

Referee: David Spain

Attendance: 926