Davies hopes Maidstone United encounter the 'real' Rebels on Saturday

Photo credit: Zak Rana

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Saturday’s trip to Maidstone United is one of four or five matches Slough’s player manager Scott Davies is really looking forward to as he feels those sides didn’t play against the ‘real’ Rebels when they met earlier in the campaign.

Slough were brushed aside 4-1 at home by Maidstone back in late October, the visitors comfortably overcoming a depleted and distracted Rebels side.

But off the back of Saturday’s thumping 5-0 home win over Chelmsford City - their best home performance of the season - and the side’s recent 3-0 win at promotion chasing Hemel Hempstead Town - Davies is hopeful the Stones will roll into the real Slough on Saturday and face a difficult test against a rejuvenated side.

Saturday’s win lifted the team to 17th in the National League South table - now six points above the drop zone. It was also the Rebels fifth league win in seven matches and Davies, and assistant manager Tony Fontenelle took the handbrake off their side for Chelmsford on Saturday, enabling Basil Tuma, Wiktor Makowski and Jared Myers to run riot in attack.

The dismissal of Crowther - who brought down Makowski for a penalty in the 28th minute - helped turn the tide in Slough’s direction, but the hosts were already very good value for their first half lead by that point. They went on to score five goals inside 69 minutes, with Makowski netting twice, Tuma scoring an excellent opener and Tyrese Dyce and Harvey Walker also getting their names on the scoresheet in the second half.

“We’ve won the five games that we least expected to win out of the seven,” said Davies.

“I think reflecting on Saturday, people will say the red card impacted the game, which it did. But until that point, we were brilliant. There was only one team in it, and it was everything I’ve wished for this season about how my team looks.

“Saturday was the best version of us, and I’ve believed in it all season. We probably haven’t been able to get the right personnel out on the pitch to deliver that performance, but Saturday was a complete performance and our best one at home.

“We changed the shape because we thought we’d have to hurt Chelmsford in a different way and in a different fashion. We ended up going to a back four which we haven’t played in several months, to accommodate Basil and Jared on the wings.

“They were both frighteningly good in terms of their performances and Wiktor was also brilliant and a real thorn in their side all afternoon. Those three showed they can play together and be a handful, but Ruben (Shakpoke) is back this weekend and that’s a huge bonus for us.

“One thing you can’t defend is pace. You can defend a team tactically, but if someone is quicker than you and stronger than you, it’s difficult to defend. We worked on one vs one duels throughout the week, looking to isolate players and there were so many occasions when we managed to do that.”

By the end it all felt a little anti-climactic to Davies, with the game having been all but settled before half-time. However, he will take the wins however they come this season and is eyeing up many more before the curtain comes down on the campaign.

“I felt like it was a bit of an anticlimax at the end, because the game was done by half-time and the fans knew that” he said. “We didn’t celebrate it as much as we would a normal win. The game was finished so early into the 90 minutes, but if it was the same each week, I’d take it.

“But to beat a team of Chelmsford’s stature – with them being full time and the money they’re spending – it was a massive result for us.”

Maidstone on Saturday will be a tough test of their recent good form, but Davies believes attacking the game could be the Rebels’ best form of defence. He also hopes the Rebels can reach the levels they’ve shown at home to Chelmsford and at Hemel Hempstead.

“For us we’ll go and attack it,” he said. “We’re not very good at sitting back and being boring. We tried to do that at Chippenham Town the other week and we fell flat on our faces.

“We have a couple of injuries that we must monitor, but hopefully we’ll have a full bill of health going into the game. We have a couple of our old lads down there, and they beat us 4-1 at our place. It would be redemption for us to go there and beat them in their back yard.

“We didn’t play well against them or put up a fight, but we have a different team now and have players back from injury so hopefully we can give a good account of ourselves.

“There are four or five teams that we played earlier in the season that I can’t wait to play again. The truth is that I don’t think they played the real us and I’d like to see how we do against them with our strongest XI.

"Maidstone is one of those sides and there’s a period from October to November and I just want to see how far we’ve come from late last year to how we are now.”