07/07/14
No doubt there is a great deal of excitement amongst the management team, players, officials and supporters on what our chances may or may not be this year.
Neil Baker
After the euphoria of last season and promotion to the Southern Premier League, we commenced training last Tuesday, (July 1st) at a newly refurbished Polish Club.
No doubt there is a great deal of excitement amongst the management team, players, officials and supporters on what our chances may or may not be this year – and, in what will be undoubtedly be a very strong division, I am sure there is varied opinion on what constitutes a good season for us. For some, it may be avoiding relegation or it may be a good cup run and mid table mediocrity - for others it may be looking to push on even further. However, I can assure you that from a management team point of view, we will always aim high; it is not in our nature to accept second best. We are all very positive and we will do our utmost to achieve these ambitions.
As you may have seen from previous statements, we have made a couple of key signings, and of course we have others who we are looking at. We have managed to sign the main squad players from last year (including Matt Bonnett and Seb Castello from the youth team) however Steve Duff is not currently training with us, as he is working abroad – we will sit down with Steve upon his return.
In terms of the management team, we have added Ben Edwards into a player coach role, whereby he will help us out as and when needed. Mark Betts will be joining the management side officially (he helped us out throughout last season) and will become a coach; his role will be to act as a sounding board for Jon, Trent and I and help bridge any gaps between the youth team and the first team. In reality, myself, Jon and Trent will continue with most things, however it is always important to have people around who you can trust, are popular with the players and ones who also offer a differing view - at various times last season this proved positive and very useful.
We start the friendlies this weekend against Windsor, and with the numbers that we have, we will almost certainly look to play two teams that day. This is similar to what we did last year and it would be great to see as many of you as possible at the game - showing the new lads what Slough Town is all about. Next up is Marlow and probably after that game we will start to get the lads playing longer in order to start to build up their match fitness. At this stage there is no point killing the lads, and our sessions are designed to get the lads' feet moving quick again with plenty of touches with the ball - these days most of them are generally fit and spend time at the gym working on physique and fitness - so to just run them when we only get them for 2/3 days a week, is in my opinion, a waste of valuable time.
In terms of players, Adam Foulser is back doing some light exercises and is way ahead of schedule, however Scott Harris unfortunately still has a knee complaint that he sustained at the back end of last season and is waiting for an MRI scan. This is scheduled for 2 weeks’ time and whilst it does not feel too bad, the doctors have told him not to push himself until we know the true extent - so Scott has been working with Foulser. Matt Bonnett’s leg is now out of its cast and we expect him to resume full training within the next 6 weeks.
As documented by the Club and the local papers, now is a vital time for Slough Town in terms of continuing to get a home back in the Borough. Echoing what has already been said, it really is important that we all keep pushing the Council to deliver what they have promised – the club’s return to Slough. So keep the pressure on and lobby councillors - a town the size of Slough should have its club playing in its own town!
Obviously increased crowds etc. would help hugely on this, and I urge anyone who enjoys the match day experience to try and encourage one or two people to start coming regularly to games (we of course will try to make them as exciting as possible!). With the possibility of away teams also bringing an additional number of fans, we could start seeing decent crowds on a regular basis which will be great and of course generate increased revenues for the club.
I personally enjoyed the last game of the season against Chertsey when we had so many of the Slough Town juniors in attendance - my view is that we should be trying to encourage this on a regular basis and I understand that the Club is looking to repeat this.
Finally, we are considering holding an open training day at Farnham Park on Thursday 31st July followed by a question and answer session - we may also look to put the entire second half of the Kettering game on a big screen for those who don’t want to watch the session and who would prefer to re-live that great day with a cold beer instead!
Now, that should set up the start of the season nicely!
Come on you Rebels!
Neil and Jon
No doubt there is a great deal of excitement amongst the management team, players, officials and supporters on what our chances may or may not be this year – and, in what will be undoubtedly be a very strong division, I am sure there is varied opinion on what constitutes a good season for us. For some, it may be avoiding relegation or it may be a good cup run and mid table mediocrity - for others it may be looking to push on even further. However, I can assure you that from a management team point of view, we will always aim high; it is not in our nature to accept second best. We are all very positive and we will do our utmost to achieve these ambitions.
As you may have seen from previous statements, we have made a couple of key signings, and of course we have others who we are looking at. We have managed to sign the main squad players from last year (including Matt Bonnett and Seb Castello from the youth team) however Steve Duff is not currently training with us, as he is working abroad – we will sit down with Steve upon his return.
In terms of the management team, we have added Ben Edwards into a player coach role, whereby he will help us out as and when needed. Mark Betts will be joining the management side officially (he helped us out throughout last season) and will become a coach; his role will be to act as a sounding board for Jon, Trent and I and help bridge any gaps between the youth team and the first team. In reality, myself, Jon and Trent will continue with most things, however it is always important to have people around who you can trust, are popular with the players and ones who also offer a differing view - at various times last season this proved positive and very useful.
We start the friendlies this weekend against Windsor, and with the numbers that we have, we will almost certainly look to play two teams that day. This is similar to what we did last year and it would be great to see as many of you as possible at the game - showing the new lads what Slough Town is all about. Next up is Marlow and probably after that game we will start to get the lads playing longer in order to start to build up their match fitness. At this stage there is no point killing the lads, and our sessions are designed to get the lads' feet moving quick again with plenty of touches with the ball - these days most of them are generally fit and spend time at the gym working on physique and fitness - so to just run them when we only get them for 2/3 days a week, is in my opinion, a waste of valuable time.
In terms of players, Adam Foulser is back doing some light exercises and is way ahead of schedule, however Scott Harris unfortunately still has a knee complaint that he sustained at the back end of last season and is waiting for an MRI scan. This is scheduled for 2 weeks’ time and whilst it does not feel too bad, the doctors have told him not to push himself until we know the true extent - so Scott has been working with Foulser. Matt Bonnett’s leg is now out of its cast and we expect him to resume full training within the next 6 weeks.
As documented by the Club and the local papers, now is a vital time for Slough Town in terms of continuing to get a home back in the Borough. Echoing what has already been said, it really is important that we all keep pushing the Council to deliver what they have promised – the club’s return to Slough. So keep the pressure on and lobby councillors - a town the size of Slough should have its club playing in its own town!
Obviously increased crowds etc. would help hugely on this, and I urge anyone who enjoys the match day experience to try and encourage one or two people to start coming regularly to games (we of course will try to make them as exciting as possible!). With the possibility of away teams also bringing an additional number of fans, we could start seeing decent crowds on a regular basis which will be great and of course generate increased revenues for the club.
I personally enjoyed the last game of the season against Chertsey when we had so many of the Slough Town juniors in attendance - my view is that we should be trying to encourage this on a regular basis and I understand that the Club is looking to repeat this.
Finally, we are considering holding an open training day at Farnham Park on Thursday 31st July followed by a question and answer session - we may also look to put the entire second half of the Kettering game on a big screen for those who don’t want to watch the session and who would prefer to re-live that great day with a cold beer instead!
Now, that should set up the start of the season nicely!
Come on you Rebels!
Neil and Jon
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