Town Women captain Maria Boswell felt the Blues were on the end of some wrong decisions in their last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Southampton at Portman Road.

In what was the club’s first-ever WSL 2 fixture at Town’s iconic stadium, Rachel Brown struck the winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time after Aimee Palmer’s free-kick cannoned off Kiera Sena and into her path to slam into the empty net from just a yard out.

Brown was judged to have been in an onside position, but Boswell disagrees with the officials’ verdict.

“For me, it’s offside,” she said. “I get it’s difficult in those situations with the ref and the lino trying to get a clear view when there’s so many bodies in the box. It’s disappointing because in this league, you do expect better from the officials.

“It’s one of those things, sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don’t. If the decision was for us then we’d have no complaints.

“Some decisions in the first half I don’t think were good enough. There was one in the opening few seconds that I think is a red card every single day. Our player [Princess Ademiluyi] is through on goal and she’s been brought down on the edge of the box.

“I know it’s the first 10 seconds and it’s such a big call to make in such a big game, but you go by rules of the game and it doesn’t matter what minute it is. I was just saying to the ref [Aimee Keir] ‘I think you owe us one’, and I think it ended up going against us.

“Sometimes you have games where you feel the ref is a little bit more on your side, and today wasn’t one of them days.”

Having fallen behind inside the first three minutes, the Blues responded well in front of a crowd of 9,142 supporters inside Portman Road.

Town got their deserved equaliser when Lucy Ashworth-Clifford met Sophie Peskett’s cutback midway through the half to score her second goal for the club.

Boswell said: “When things don’t go our way that early on in the game, it’s easy if you haven’t got the support there to let your head drop. The fact that we had so many people cheering us on definitely drove us forward.

“We started the game well, we were on the front foot and had the best chances. We started the first 20 minutes better than they did. We’d started the game better and it was just a little speed bump.

“We were going to get back in the game and we knew that. We didn’t let it affect us, that showed that we went on and got the equaliser.

“It’s quite hard to take considering it’s maybe our best performance of the season. The girls were excellent today from start to finish, especially in the second half we dominated. We had really good chances that you probably hope get put in the back of the net.

“It’s disappointing for the game to end like that when I don’t think it was deserved. That little moment at the end of the game has taken away all the work that we’ve put in this week.”

Boswell missed last season’s showcase fixture against Plymouth Argyle due to injury, and the Blues defender was pleased to be able to lead the side out on Suffolk soil for the first time this term.

“It was gutting last year the way it happened, getting injured three weeks before the Portman Road game,” she said. “One of the first thoughts that went through my head when I went down with my knee was that I was going to miss such a big occasion.

“To have the opportunity this year to walk the girls out at such an amazing stadium. I’ve been here for so many years now and watched so many games here, so it’s always a special moment to be on that pitch.

“It was a great moment and I was really pleased to have been able to do it this year.”

Portsmouth’s defeat at Sheffield United was a welcome scoreline and ensures the Blues remain outside of the relegation zone on goal difference with four matches to play.

Boswell added: “We’ve done the work to get ourselves out of that bottom spot. A couple more draws and hopefully a win in there in our last few games should see us through to the end of the season.

“We’re all feeling really positive, we’ve put in some good performances and we’re looking forward to the last few games and making sure we keep ourselves in this league.”

Photo: Matchday Images