Rebels feel like they ‘can’t catch a break’
Underwood hoping for much better luck in the league and cup
Slough Town are beginning to feel like they can't catch a break at the minute, after Saturday's home defeat to St Albans City and Tuesday's goalless draw at Welling stretched their winless run in the league to seven matches.
The Rebels haven't been playing too badly of late and ground out impressive points against both Worthing (2-2) and Welling (0-0) away in the past two weeks, however, according to joint manager Jon Underwood, they haven't been getting the rub of the green in terms of decisions for whatever reason.
Defender Guy Hollis was harshly sent off for a late tackle in the first half of Saturday's 3-1 defeat to St Albans City, the latest in a series of controversial decisions that Underwood feels has gone against the side.
They'll hope that the luck starts to even out a little in the coming weeks, starting away to second from bottom Hungerford Town on Saturday before the Rebels visit their closest rivals, Maidenhead United, in the first round of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup on Tuesday evening.
“We haven't been managers who bleat on about officials too much, of course we all do from time to time, but we try to look at ourselves and what we could do better and what they can do better,” said Underwood.
“But we do feel we've not had a lot go our way. It doesn't feel like we're getting any big decisions at the minute. We've had five penalties against us this season and we've not
been given a penalty despite having numerous shouts. There are various other incidents where we felt players could have been sent off against us and weren't.
“It just feels like we can't catch a break now. I can't remember me and Bakes driving home from a game recently and saying, 'we got lucky in that one today'. But I can remember plenty where we feel we've been hard done by. It does feel that way, but we have to hope it will turn, but the belief is there amongst the players, and they all have a positive attitude. We have to believe this is a bad run for us and we can get back on track.”
Striker Elliot Benyon has come off the bench for the Rebels in the past two games and he's ready to start. He and Ben Harris have been big misses for Slough over the past month, and Underwood believes they'll have more firepower at their disposal heading into their next raft of matches.
“We always look ahead to the next game (Hungerford) as a chance to get that win,” said Underwood. “Not because its Hungerford, or where they are in the league. They're having a tough time too, but we must believe we can go there, and that this Saturday will be the day we get that win.
“The run of results is not good enough, we know that. When we won at Chippenham, we were just outside the play-offs on goal difference and feeling positive and we just didn't see the run that we've had coming.”
Looking ahead to Tuesday's clash with Maidenhead, Underwood added: “I think all managers say the Berks & Bucks Cup is not a priority in the early rounds. I think it's more interesting that it's Maidenhead.
“We're playing the biggest club in there at this stage. It's not the draw we wanted; we would have liked a step 5/6 team where we could have hopefully picked up a good win. That's not to say we can't beat Maidenhead, but clearly, it's a tough game.
“Dev will be in a position where I'm sure he can rotate if he chooses to, but we don't have that luxury. We're running with a 16-man squad at the minute, so whatever 11 we pick we'll be trying to win the game and I'm sure we'll have a good number of fans there so the last thing we want is to take a beating there.”