LEE TOGWELL admits that Slough Town lacked in creativity during the 1-0 defeat to Hitchin Town at Arbour Park on Saturday.

The Rebels lost their unbeaten home record in the Southern Premier Division when a Ben Walster free-kick won all three points for promotion rivals Hitchin.

Slough gave it everything they had late on, including headers from keeper Mark Scott and striker Charlie Moone cleared off the line, but in truth The Rebels lacked their usual fluidity.

Togwell was named man-of-the-match on Saturday and he told the Slough Midweek Observer: "We knew what we were going to be up against right from the off. Hitchin came with a gameplan to upset things and it obviously worked for them.

"Maybe we lacked a little bit of creativity in the final third and right at the end it just didn't quite happen for us. We had a few goalmouth scrambles.

"All in all, we came away a little bit disappointed. We thought we might be able to take something from the game but we move on to training and Merthyr next Saturday.

"Our work rate was monitored throughout the week and everyone had been giving it everything in training. It's hard to put your finger on it.

"It is just one of those situations where maybe in the first 45 minutes we were not at the races, but it's not due to over-use, injuries on anything like that.

"We threw the kitchen sink at it with five minutes to go from set pieces but they held strong. They had enough bodies in the box to deal with any threat that we had going forward."

He added: "We will be two of the teams up there challenging. For our sake we hope it's for the title, but most definitely Hitchin came with a gameplan and it has worked for them, so fair play to them."

Slough turn their attentions to the FA Trophy this Saturday and a second qualifying round tie away at Welsh club and league rivals Merthyr Town (1pm).

"We went their a couple of weeks ago and it's pretty similar to Hitchin to be fair.

"Merthyr are a tough team with good organisation so we kind of know what to expect and have the week to prepare for it."

GRAB a copy of the Observer on Friday for match pictures and reaction from Mark Scott and Neil Baker.