Davies hopes team-building reset sparks Slough Town revival after FA Cup heartbreak

Photo credit: Zak Rana

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Slough Town produced arguably their best away performance of the season at Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday evening, having managed to get the disappointment of their FA Cup exit to Macclesfield out of their system following a team bonding weekend.

Deflation and desolation accompanied the squad for a few days following the Rebels’ 3-1 extra-time defeat to their National League North rivals in the FA Cup.

But the hangover is now starting to ease, helped by a positive team building weekend away for the players.

The club paid for the trip to try and bookend that chapter of the season and get everyone focused on the next chapter – which will hopefully see the Rebels survive in the National League South.

That’s the aim for Scott Davies and his squad as they look ahead to a packed Christmas and New Year schedule.

The club currently finds itself in the division’s relegation zone, a point from safety but there were incredibly encouraging signs in Tuesday’s goalless draw with Dagenham & Redbridge at Victoria Road. The team have also progressed to the semi-finals of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup with a 3-0 home win over Abingdon United. So far at least, it’s been a low key but positive response to the heartbreak of exiting the FA Cup at the second-round stage once again.

“We had an important team building weekend,” said Davies. “We went away for a couple of nights together which I felt was important. There are a lot of new faces in the squad and it’s a good time to gel.

“The timing of it being Christmas and we also had some funds from the FA Cup run which the club gave to us so that we could go and let our hair down for the weekend. We’ve got quite a few new faces in the squad, and it just gave us some time to get to know each other away from the stadium where we usually spend our time together.

“A lot of people were feeling deflated 10 days ago when we played Macclesfield and we needed this pick me up. It helped us have a really positive performance on Tuesday and it’s been a good few days, but we must build on it now.”

Slough were objectively the better side in Tuesday’s match with the Daggers. Former Newcastle striker Andy Carroll threw his weight around in the early stages, but the Rebels’ defence stood up well to that test, and their attackers Ruben Shakpoke and Wiktor Makowski both missed good chances to seal all three points.

“The performance was very good,” added Davies. “Some would argue it was our best away performance of the season, even though we didn’t win the game. We had four or five really good opportunities, and, on another day, we would probably come away with three points.

“In terms of the size of the two clubs, they’re (Dagenham) in a completely different stratosphere to us. The odds were against us, but we set up with an attacking dynamic and we caused them problems.

“I think we surprised them to be honest. It gives us good confidence going into the weekend and we’ve also shown we can perform away from home where we’ve struggled over the past few months and in recent seasons.

“There was a lot to like about it but the other bonus and positive is that we have more players back and fit to choose from. We’re looking more like our old selves.

“It was a combination of top goalkeeping and poor finishing that cost us. A couple of the lads were ruing their missed chances and beating themselves up, but on another night, they’d put those chances to bed, and we’d walk away with three points.

“Overall, it was frustrating we didn’t win, but before the game we’d have taken a 0-0 draw away at Dagenham on a Tuesday night. It took most of our boys three or four hours to get there because of traffic. A lot was going against us pre-match but post-match it was very positive.”

Dorking Wanderers – who comfortably put the Rebels to the sword in the early weeks of the season – are the visitors to Arbour Park on Saturday and Davies will be hoping it’s a very different story this time around. Despite their lowly position in the table, they’ve been solid at home this season and have won two of their last three league games there against AFC Totton and Farnborough.

Davies would clearly rather his side were still in the FA Cup – and looking forward to a third-round tie next month – but a silver lining from their exit is they can now, at last, focus on improving their position in the league.

“I’d rather still be in it, don’t get me wrong,” he said. “But if we’d remained in it, I’d have panicked about the next month of league games. People take their eye off the prize and the prize for us isn’t the FA Cup but making sure we retain our status in the National League South.

“We need to have a strong Christmas. We have four out of five full time teams in our next set of matches, and the other game is another game against Chesham. We have tough fixtures ahead but usually; we come up trumps in games like that.

“We can go into Christmas with a bit more confident, knowing we can compete and looking to spring a surprise on a few clubs we’ll be facing.”