Underwood says Rebels ‘deserved’ Braintree win
Jon Underwood says he was pleased to see Slough Town pick up ‘a deserved victory’ against Braintree Town at the weekend and wasn’t too dejected that the Rebels couldn’t replicate the result against Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday night.
Ryan Bird’s last minute winner edged Slough Town to a 3-2 win at Arbour Park on Saturday having been at a deadlock with the Iron for over half an hour. The Rebels were, however, defeated to Ebbsfleet three days later courtesy of Rakish Bingham’s brace in a 2-0 loss.
In total, the three points weren’t enough to lift Underwood’s men from the depths of the National League South table - with the side currently entrenched in 20th - but the boss is confident his squad remains in high spirits.
“It was always going to be difficult to play as we’d gone four and a half weeks without a game,” said Underwood.
“During that time, Braintree had played five games so we knew it was going to be tough as they were essentially in match mode. It was a scrappy game but a very competitive one and one we certainly deserved to win.
“We worked very hard, got ourselves in front twice only to concede shortly after on both occasions.
“They were both really poor goals to concede from our point of view but I thought we showed a lot of character once it was 2-2 to keep going and we were rewarded with a late winner.
“There wasn’t a lot in the game but I thought our first two goals were really well worked and we gifted them their two.
“It felt like the right result for us in the end.
“I’m sure they will disagree but it felt like we got what we deserved on Saturday and the rewards for sheer hard work and determination on our side.”
On Slough’s game against Ebbsfleet, Underwood added:
“We took the game to them which was really pleasing. After we went 1-0 down, we turned it around in the second half and created two or three really good opportunities that we weren’t able to take.
“We got hit by a sucker punch really. The goal they scored towards the end for 2-0 was their only chance in the second half. It was one-way traffic up to that point and we committed more and more people forward trying to get that equaliser.
“I didn’t have any problems with our effort and our performance last night (Tuesday). We were on the back foot for a lot of the first half but I thought we came out really strong in the second, we just had nothing to show for it.
“It is frustrating, but overall I was pleased with those two performances having had the lengthy spell out we did.
“We got three points from both, on another day we might’ve had four.
“Four points from those two games would have been a great return, we’ve just fallen slightly short.”