SLOUGH Town suffered a defeat on the final day of the Southern Premier Division season after a 2-0 loss away at Merthyr Town on Saturday.

The Rebels conceded twice after the loss of keeper Mark Scott to injury and defender Dan Hicks to a red card at Penydarren Park.

Following the double blow to Slough, the home team - Red Insure Cup winners this season - took control and eased to all three points.

The match was contested on a 3G surface similar to that which The Rebels will play on at the new Community Sports Facility next season.

Inside the first 10 minutes, Kayne McLaggon charged into the box and went down under a tackle from Hicks, but referee Adam Matthews waved away his penalty appeals.

On 19 minutes, McLaggon again worked his way into the box and Adam New looked to have made a good challenge, but Matthews was quick to point to the spot and award a penalty.

Ian Traylor stepped up confidently but Scott went the right way and made a great save from the resulting spot-kick.

The keeper’s game was cut short five minutes into the second-half as he was unable to carry on through injury, though he did try to continue for a while.

With no recognised keeper on the bench, midfielder Gurkan Gokmen took over the number one jersey and gloves from Scott.

Just three minutes later, another problem presented itself to Slough as Hicks was shown a straight red card for a tackle on Keyon Reffell.

With a numerical advantage and a midfielder between the sticks for The Rebels, the home team quickly took control and punished Slough.

On 65 minutes Reffell opened the scoring when beating Gokmen from inside the area.

Four minutes later, Merthyr doubled the advantage as Rhys Baggridge headed a free-kick past Gokmen, leaving him with no chance of saving.

Slough struggled to present a threat to the Merthyr goal thereafter and the defeats means The Rebels finish in 17th position in the league table.

Slough joint-manager Jon Underwood commented: “It was certainly very eventful. So much happened in the second-half. First of all in the first-half I thought we played well, I was really pleased.

“We changed our shape slightly. Rather than Warren Harris and Lee Barney up front we dropped Warren in the hole to give us an extra one in midfield where they like to dominate. We deliberately played Warren in there to make us a little bit more compact and I felt it really worked in the first-half.

“I thought we passed the ball well and it was pretty even to be honest.

“I’m going to say I am biased but I thought neither were penalties. The first one looked a bit more clumsy from Dan, but I thought he just ran across the guy and got his body in the way and they kind of came together. I thought that would have been harsh.

“The second one was a fantastic tackle from Adam on the stretch. In the end it didn’t matter as Mark saved the penalty. The referee spoke to me at half-time and apologised for getting the decision wrong, that he blew to quickly and should have given himself some thinking time, and if he had done he said he would not have given the penalty. It was a good job Mark saved it to be honest.

“I think Mark was the busier of the two keepers but I think we always looked a threat. I thought we passed it really well in the first-half. We played with a lot of maturity, we kept the ball well, and we were really pleased to be honest. The lads stuck to the gameplan.”