Underwood can’t quite believe Rebels aren’t in the hat for the next round
Slough Town’s joint boss Jon Underwood couldn't quite believe the Rebels weren’t still in the hat for the next round of the FA Cup after three late goals - and some controversial officiating - condemned them to a 3-1 defeat against Worthing on Saturday.
The Rebels should have led in the first half when Ben Harris was incorrectly ruled offside after scoring from Matt Lench’s through ball, but they did eventually grab a deserved lead in the 59th minute when Lee Togwell swept home a beautiful volley from the edge of the Worthing area. The hosts felt the visitors should have been reduced to 10 men following a flash point in front of the dug out in which a Worthing player appeared to raise his hands to Ben Harris.
Oddly enough, Harris was yellow carded for his part in the melee, the Rebels hopes of advancing to the third qualifying round collapsed in the last 10 minutes.
Worthing equalised in the 82nd minute thanks to a deflected shot from Kane Wills which somehow evaded keeper Jonathan North before taking the lead through Ollie Pearce’s header from a corner with two minutes to play.
The Rebels threw everything at their visitors in stoppage time, and might have had a case for a penalty, but instead Pearce was sent through on goal and rounded North to slot home and seal Worthing's place in the next round.
Reflecting on a desperately disappointing afternoon, Underwood said afterwards: “I feel for the players, and I feel for everybody because we should be in the hat, or at the very least going down there on Tuesday night.
“We’re all absolutely devastated to be honest. I thought we played very well today against a very good side. We did our homework on them, knew how we wanted to play, set that out in training and our boys did it perfectly for 80 minutes.
“I thought we managed the game really well and then we got in front with an unbelievable goal from Lee Togwell. But there were some big turning points in the game.
“We know from the picture that Ben Harris was not offside for his goal in the first half.
“The other big one was the flashpoint in front of our dug out. Bakes told me there was hands in his (Harris’) face.
“The linesman said he saw it, but they produced a yellow card.”