SLOUGH Town joint-manager Jon Underwood feels the Rebels should still be in the FA Cup after a magnificent performance in the 1-0 defeat against Gillingham on Sunday, writes Rob Stevens.

A superb goal from Darren Oldaker was all the separated the sides at Arbour Park as Slough saw their run in the competition come to an end at the second round for the eighth time in their history.

The Rebels will feel disappointed not to have forced a replay at least against League One Gillingham, but one moment of magic decided the tie and put the Gills into the third round.

The home side were the more positive in the first 45 minutes and on-loan striker Matthew Stevens had their best chance in the first-half. The ball fell to him from a long throw and he attempted an overhead kick, but the effort dropped over the crossbar.

Gillingham hit Slough with a sucker punch just three minutes into the second-half. Target man Tom Eaves held the ball up for Oldaker, whose 30-yard shot swerved and dipped giving keeper Jack Turner no chance.

The Rebels did not let the goal deflate them and were well on top when substitute Manny Williams headed a cross from George Wells wide of the post.

The Gills were forced to sit back and soak up the pressure late on, including six minutes of additional time, but they did so to good effect.

Underwood told the Observer: "I couldn't ask for any more from our players but I don't quite know how we haven't scored. I keep on seeing the shot-count and we have got to be proud that we've been able to do that against a League One side.

"It hurts that we're out because everyone dreams of the third round and this was such a good opportunity for us.

"Once we settled into the game, we said after 30 minutes Gillingham would probably take a replay because we were the dominant side and looked the most likely to score. I thought we were outstanding in the first-half.

"Gillingham got the goal out of the blue and there wasn't a lot we could do about it. I was a brilliant strike and maybe that little bit of extra quality that we weren't able to find to score.

"We maybe wobbled a little bit but then got going again and were just knocking on the door time and time again at the end.

"Obviously it didn't help losing Chris Flood to injury when we already had Ben Harris unavailable. We lacked a little bit of a physical presence in the box.

We put some great balls into the box but it didn't quite happen for us. There were so many near misses so I don't quite know how we're not in the draw."

He continued: "It wasn't like we were cutting them open time and again and having real clear open chances, a lot of it was how we played.

"We put some quality balls into the box and sometimes they break for you. Their keeper spilt one but it didn't quite fall for us at the end. Sometimes those little glancing flicks go in the back of the net, but for whatever reason none of them did.

"We're not putting blame on anyone for missed chances or defensively for their goal, everyone for me was at least an eight-out-of-ten.

"I thought we looked a really good side and I'm just really gutted for our lads that we haven't got that opportunity to go and take on an even bigger team in the third round."

Underwood added: "I thought we handled Gillingham really well because their front boys are a threat and we knew that.

"They've got one of the leading scorers in the league in Tom Eaves but we kept him really quite. They've also got pace in and around him but I thought we dealt with it really well.

"From 1-11 and the boys that come on, they all did their jobs, so I've nothing but positives to say.

"I don't think Gillingham had a spell in the game where we were on the back foot. I thought there were plenty of spells where they were on the back foot.

"We've got to keep on reminding ourselves that it was a three-league gap that we had to bridge and we did, so it's a hell of a performance from our boys to be able to do that."