SLOUGH captain Max Miles admits that a porous defence and lack of fitness is letting the Greenies down after a 30-27 defeat against Wallingford on Saturday, writes Rob Stevens.

It is a sixth straight defeat for Slough in all competitions this season and sees them remain second from bottom in the Southern Counties North league table.

Miles explained the performance at Tamblyn Fields was a step backwards from their display at Stow-on-the-Wold two weeks ago, and that the Greenies have got to stop playing catch up in matches.

He told the Observer: "It was another tough one because Wallingford are second in the table and going for promotion, but it was a game we looked at beforehand as an opportunity to get some points on the board.

"Wallingford don't concede many points in matches, they've conceded quite a lot less than anyone else in the league, but their attack isn't free-scoring either. It shows our attacks are pretty evenly matched.

"We started well again, as we have done in the last few weeks. We tried to control the tempo but let them back in with a couple of silly mistakes and they pulled away with some quick tries.

"We didn't come out of the blocks well enough in the second-half and from then on we were playing catch up."

He continued: "To score 27 points against the best defence in the league shows that our attack is working and we can hurt teams, but our defence is letting us down at the moment.

"Parts of our game against Wallingford were a step forward from Stow, but for the majority it was a step back.

"For the whole of the Stow game we all played for each other, but on Saturday it started to feel like we had to take a step back and a breather, so our fitness is letting us down as well."

Slough return to action with a trip to Buckinghamshire rivals Aylesbury on Saturday 1st December, and Miles hopes the Greenies' fitness can improve beforehand.

He said: "A couple of players are still one or two weeks away from being fully fit, but it's two weeks where we can definitely blast the players fitness-wise.

"We seem to have played the top six sides in the league almost consecutively and Aylesbury will be a tough test, but one we want to be in this league for.

"I feel that we belong in this division because we've been competitive in all bar two matches this season.

"The match at Aylesbury is another game where we can put on a performance and we need to start winning matches.

"We need to work on how we respond when teams do score so we're not playing catch up."