Scott Davies

Who am I to comment on another player… but, if you wanted my opinion having watched and played against  Maidenhead a number of times over the past 9 years, they play a completely different style to what I would choose to play. Also, players dropping from the national league premier demand a wage that starts with a number that usually is quite off putting as I’ve found out this summer! 

There’s no doubt that Ryan brings a different dimension to the game for that he does, and that’s effective for Maidenhead. He’s done very well for them! 
 

But for us, we want to be more possession based, especially at home on the 3G and I wouldn’t say that is where his strength lies. Togs could do both, on and off the ball. We have someone lined up who I’m hoping we can get across the line who in my opinion is exceptional at both sides of the game.

Temi is a prime example. He told me that things we asked him to do whilst at Slough, he would get hammered for doing at Maidenhead as it’s low risk football at the club just down the road. Yet again, I have no issues with that as it’s clearly been successful for them and if I could achieve half of what Dev has then I’d be over the moon! 
 

As for Josh, he would give us everything wherever he played, but I have one or two things in pre season that I’d like to look at with Jeanmal Prosper and Joe Dandy so we will wait and see how that goes in a couple of different formations.

It’s a game of opinions and nobody is ever right or wrong, that’s the beauty of it! 

Well said 3spirit 😀

We will be announcing 3 new players this week that are on board, and 1 new signing next week once he’s back from holiday. 👍🏼

Don’t be asking me what positions please Glen, let it be a surprise! 😅

And as for the fee for loans, it all depends on what you can get away with! Sometimes it’s free, sometimes it’s 100%! Depends know you know and the relationship you have with the club! A good relationship or good contacts certainly help from what I’ve learned so far.

It won’t be a 17/18 year old! Let me tell you that much 😅

Mickel had 2 other step 2 clubs and a few step 3 clubs.

Rhys is genuinely one of the nicest lads you could wish to meet but has probably been a victim of us being able to get in a loan keeper (Will Dennis) at no cost at all. It’s one of those positions where I’ve been offered 7-8 keepers from Premier League/Championship clubs yet again for next season at zero cost. It’s allows us to spend more money in other areas of the pitch which obviously helps.

We will have a few in on trial during pre-season to see who we go with. An important position that we must get right! 
 

Small update for everyone…

I’ve watched Mickel a number of times over the past couple of years, and also a few times again this season. He’s always been a problem for the opposition with his work rate, pace and power etc.

The most exciting part is that he’s nowhere near the finished article and think he will only get better! Delighted that he’s chosen us over a couple of others.
 

We’ve got 3 more over the line (in addition to Mickel) yesterday/today. Two will be announced Wednesday next week I hope once we can get the players to the ground, and the other is on holiday right now so could take a week or two to get it boxed off.

Slowly but surely getting there but it certainly takes time! But thought I’d update you all.

Scotty!

Got very good contacts at all of those clubs, with them being my old clubs, but none will send a first team down to play on the 3G pitch.

It’s always, ‘we can send the 18’s’. So to have Brentford B and Charlton 23’s were better than Reading U18’s for example. Frustrating but it is what it is!  

I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner tonight! Let me work on these lot first 😅 and then we’ll see!

Some are on holiday, some are delaying because of agents trying to get better deals etc elsewhere.

The fun and joys of the summer time in football! 😅

Two strikers, one wide man, one central midfielder and a centre half. If all goes to plan! 
 

Rhys is the only player we haven’t spoke to yet as he has the FA Vase final this weekend so I think it’s only right he concentrates on that first.

Haha! Glen, I can assure you there is NO pressure to play A23 players. They’re two good, young players who if good enough will be involved, if not they’ll develop in their careers by going on loan. It’s just really useful to bolster the squad with extra numbers as I believe last season we really missed having a youth set up to turn to.

Had some really good news this weekend so hopefully 3-4 more new signings next week. Just need to tie a few things up here and there.

I’ve been relatively quiet on here we it’s been crazily busy, but I’m sure the new signings once done/announced, people will be happy with.

Definitely a typo! Apologies.

We’ve made 3 offers to players outside of the club so far. Can’t see there being any announcements any time soon as players like you said can’t sign anything yet and things can change in the mean time! 
 

In terms of our lads though from this season, I’m pretty hopeful that all the ones we want to stay, will stay.

Will definitely bring in another but it’ll be someone that is just a coach, not a player/coach. Middle of this week we should be able to confirm the players that have been retained, well, as many of them as possible. All seem extremely positive so far so fingers crossed.Just need to dot the i’s and cross the G’s on a couple.

The word ‘demands’ is extremely broad. It’s not just a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday job. There’s a lot more to being an assistant manager and coach than just being at training. It’s everything else that goes with it.

There’s no fall out at all, everyone is on good terms, just stop any rumours spreading! Togs has two children already and another on the way, with a full time job to go with plus adding STFC duties to that, it’s a hell of a lot! 
 

I would have loved to have been able to keep him around, but after discussions he decided it was best to step away. It might be football that he still focuses on, but probably more so in just a player role, or even kicking on with his personal training business with his brother that he’s determined to grow.

Big loss for sure but will make sure we get a worthy replacement! 

11 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

Seeing as Will has confirmed he won’t be returning, I wonder if Scott could enlighten us to what the possibilities are of keeping Amartey and Alexander?

Slim! George signed an extension with Bromley the day before he came on loan to us, so he has another year.

Francis, there’s conversations to be had. He has another year on his deal with Aldershot but he needs to speak with them first to see where he’s at in their plans.

If he was available come the summer, he might then want to remain full time somewhere, if he wanted to go part time again then I believe we would have a decent chance.

Soon see. 👍🏼 

Option is in Maidenhead’s favour.

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I think you'd have to prove it and unless there were witnesses to what he said it's basically his word against Matt Lench.

Lenchy was told about this on the forum and messaged me to say ‘Spencer only said well played to me after the game. No tapping up’. 👍🏼

Lenchy wanted to clear that one up! 😅

The first two months I was under budget as I didn’t want to sign people for the sake of signing people, and like you say, there was a lot of uncertainty with everything going on. There was also a lack of players that were available.
 

I think Bakes and Unders had the same approach and would spend the money as if it was their own and wouldn’t be wasteful or overspend on players. That’s always something I’ve had in the back of my mind and tried to stick to that. 

The last few months, particularly Franny’s injury, meant that I asked for a replacement and the club/board/owners backed me which took us over the budget that was first agreed. 

Give it another few days, maybe a week and hopefully they will all agree that it was the right decision and it’s paid off to allow us to do that bit of business! 

Having better attendances certainly helps when I go and ask for extra, that’s for sure! 😅

Nothing has been sorted/signed with regards to next season but I wasn’t ever looking that far ahead to be honest, it would’ve been stupid to have done that with our league position. I had one aim and hopefully we have achieved that.

21 minutes ago, Ian g f said:

I did notice at the the end of the game Spencer Day going out of his way to tap up Lenchy

I need to get better at this, happens every week 😅

It’s quite nice that most of the lads tell me when it happens though.

Still piss poor IMO as it shouldn’t be happening but some managers have no decorum.

Lenchy won’t be going anywhere… I’ll bank on that!

In reply to some of the comments…

I can’t pretend to be happy when I wasn’t. The interview was 10 minutes after the final whistle and at the moment in time I felt flat. We’ve had two results in the past 3 games where we’ve had 3 points snatched from us and sometimes that’s difficult to take.

This morning however, it was a new day. I’ve woken up feeling optimistic and always will be while we are in the fight we are in. Some people might argue, or say that I have to remain positive at all times, especially in front of the camera where people can watch it back, but sometimes emotion is good fuel.

After yesterdays game, I have never seen a changing room so deflated, but to me that’s a good thing because it shows how much losing a point hurts. 
 

We are lucky to have the group that we do and I wouldn’t change any of them which hopefully speaks volumes about the togetherness we have.

Like I said in my interview, it was a day that we could have only dreamt of!

That’s by far and away the most complete performance I’ve been involved in for a very long time. The lads were superb, along with you guys in support!

Given ourselves a great chance now but it’s not over yet. Hopefully we can get a positive result in Taunton and see where we are at thereafter. 
 

Scotty! 

When their striker put the ball down on the spot it reminded me of Bath at home all over again… and I feared the worst! Cannot underestimate a point in those circumstances, away from home with 10 men for 38 minutes.

Conceding after 70 minutes for example, and guaranteeing that we would get a draw would be easier to stomach, it’s just the fact it was so late on. 
 

But, a point could be a valuable one, so let’s hope so. For those that went would’ve seen a good team performance in the first half and then because of consequence we weren’t able to play the way in which we would have liked second half.

Chippenham are on fire, yes, but I’m looking forward to it! Hopefully it’s not famous last words. 😅

Thanks again for your support, it really does help. 

Obviously he’s not Jamie Vardy but against lesser sides he will play like that type. It’s a comparison, which I think you might have taken literally. He will chase everything and hopefully get down the sides! We’ll see. But one think he won’t shirk away from is hard work.

Massive positive yesterday in my opinion. 

Francis isn’t a million miles off but hasn’t been able to sprint as of yet. His game is all about being explosive so want to make sure that he’s ready to go when 100% fit. If we have to wait another week or two then so be it. To have him for 5 games is better than coming back too soon and having him for an hour! 

5 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Looking at these highlights some of our defending was worse than I first thought.

Not sure how the ref never gave that stonewall penalty.

 

The ref messaged me privately on Twitter this morning to apologise for his mistake on the penalty.

Bonjour, thank you for your post, means a lot to read that.

On December 3rd we were 1 point above the relegation zone and in absolute turmoil with players departing and a lot of uncertainty at the club.

If truth be told, had someone offered us to be where we are in the league now then I would have snapped their hand off. I never imagined that we would march on up the table and pull ourselves away from the bottom with ease. And if anyone thought otherwise then I’d be surprised! 

We’ve got 9 players in the squad at the moment who have been added since the day I took charge, so trying to rebuild mid season with where we were at in December was never going to be plain sailing.

The last two games have been powder puff to say the least, but with Togs, Lenchy, Joe and Temi all available from the start on Saturday certainly puts us in a better position compared to where we were at yesterday evening at 7.45pm.

Losing Franny (arguably our best player in many peoples eyes) has also been a huge loss but we’ve coped admirably in my opinion with picking up results in his absence.

We will be stronger for the last month of the season with people available, the month where it counts, so hopefully that’s a positive. I know it’s not looking as comfortable as someone might have hoped but we will do everything we can stay in this league. Mark my words.

Scotty