SLOUGH Town joint-manager Jon Underwood insists the Rebels were hit with a sucker punch during the 1-0 defeat at Marlow in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup on Tuesday, writes Rob Stevens.

The Rebels exited at the semi-finals stage of the county cup when Kelvin Bossman scored the only goal in the tie during the second half at Oak Tree Road.

Underwood is adamant that Bossman was in an offside position in the build up to the goal, but he also admits Slough only have themselves to blame for not taking their earlier chances.

He told the Observer: “We wanted to reach the final and took the match very seriously but it wasn’t to be and obviously that’s disappointing.

“Despite the difficult and uneven surface we played some really good football, particularly in the first half.

“We had numerous opportunities but only ourselves to blame in terms of not taking them. The Marlow keeper pulled off some fantastic saves and played really well but we’ve got to look at our own finishing.

“I don’t quite know how we didn’t score but that’s not because of our performance, effort or mentality.

“Marlow had one shot in the game outside of their goal.”

Underwood continued: “We were hit with a sucker punch as their lad was clearly offside. I don’t know how the assistant official missed it because their lad was stood in an offside position. It wasn’t even a difficult one.

“Obviously, you feel hard done by because we controlled the game apart from one mistake.”

He added: “It wasn’t a good night for us and it’s a bitterly disappointing way to lose when we performed well and our attitude was great.

“If we had taken our chances in the first half we would’ve won the game more comfortably."