v Braintree

[Curtis]

5 hours ago, Irishadrian said:

Interesting to read in the Braintree pre match write up that weve already got more points than last season when we finished with 49

There were only 21 teams & 40 matches last season against 24 teams & 46 matches this season so not really comparable.

[Irishadrian]

Those 49 points got us to a credible thirteenth place  

[sdelane2308]

What a geat day watching and supporting Slough Town fc.

Well done to the Directors Volunteer's  Scott Coaches and Players including the Loan Players who have come in and done the Club Proud.

A Supporter for 55 years never seen so many supporters stay behind for end of season awards.

So many new faces especially children and youngsters

We can be a great club on the rise again.

All the Rebels

[Rebel Wokingham]

Couldn’t stay for the presentation, can anyone share who won what please? Can’t find it anywhere else. Cheers 

[GlenSTFC]

10 minutes ago, Rebel Wokingham said:

Couldn’t stay for the presentation, can anyone share who won what please? Can’t find it anywhere else. Cheers 

Lenchy unsurprisingly cleaned up! Will Dennis was joint managers player of the season with Lench. Gabe got young player and Lench was the supporters player. Golden boot was shared by 3 players all on 6 goals!

Am I right in thinking the whole squad have gone to Edinburgh for a few nights?

Another very impressive attendance means our last 4 home games gave us an average of 1,038 which considering our position is excellent. Really hope we can build on this next season and see this sort of figure for most home games. 

[Rebel Wokingham]

7 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

Lenchy unsurprisingly cleaned up! Will Dennis was joint managers player of the season with Lench. Gabe got young player and Lench was the supporters player. Golden boot was shared by 3 players all on 6 goals!

Am I right in thinking the whole squad have gone to Edinburgh for a few nights?

Another very impressive attendance means our last 4 home games gave us an average of 1,038 which considering our position is excellent. Really hope we can build on this next season and see this sort of figure for most home games. 

Thanks Glen. 
Lenchy has been outstanding and deserves every award. 
 

it’s a strange one, we’ve narrowly avoided relegation and yet finished the season with lots of positives. The home support has never been better and everyone is fully behind the management and team. I’m really looking forward to next season and what Scott can do with time to plan and a proper pre-season. I’ve said it before but I honestly wouldn’t swap Scott for any other manager - he’s the perfect fit for us. 
 

[Reading Rebel]

10 hours ago, Rebel Wokingham said:

Thanks Glen. 
Lenchy has been outstanding and deserves every award. 
 

it’s a strange one, we’ve narrowly avoided relegation and yet finished the season with lots of positives. The home support has never been better and everyone is fully behind the management and team. I’m really looking forward to next season and what Scott can do with time to plan and a proper pre-season. I’ve said it before but I honestly wouldn’t swap Scott for any other manager - he’s the perfect fit for us. 
 

Agree with what you say RW.

The only provisos are that we don't yet know if Scott is going to be our manager and we don't know what sort of budget the manager will have at his disposal to build a squad.

Looking at the clubs who have been relegated and the ones promoted imo keeping out of the bottom 4 for any team will be even more of a challenge next season.

A competitive budget and good player recruitment is essential to avoid a repeat of this season. 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[Curtis]

9 hours ago, Rebel Wokingham said:

Couldn’t stay for the presentation, can anyone share who won what please? Can’t find it anywhere else. Cheers 

Full details are now on the Club web-site:-

https://www.sloughtownfc.net/article/2974/Slough-Town-2022/23-end-of-season-awards

[3spirit]

9 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Agree with what you say RW.

The only provisos are that we don't yet know if Scott is going to be our manager and we don't know what sort of budget the manager will have at his disposal to build a squad.

Looking at the clubs who have been relegated and the ones promoted imo keeping out of the bottom 4 for any team will be even more of a challenge next season.

A competitive budget and good player recruitment is imo essential to avoid a repeat of this season. 

 

 

Agree with you here, RR. Scott has done a fantastic job this season given he's new to management and rightly deserves the accolades he's getting. Let's also not forget how good Lee and Yella have been along side him. 

I think he was a tad fortunate to have had some 'good eggs' already at the club from the previous managers squad to help with the commitment to the cause. Had he not, Slough would have been relegated in my opinion.  To me Scott seems to have a likeable personality, and with his experience at different levels of the football pyramid, he seems the right fit for improving young players and leading our team into next season.

However,as far as I'm concerned the new season for Scott is going to be an even bigger challenge because he is going to have to decide what players are worth keeping,what players he no longer wants/or ones wanting to move on from this club, and what players he needs to bring in to improve this season's squad. He's bound to upset a few, and his choices could make or break him further along the line. What makes this even harder, is that this season Slough have had untold loans to build our squad. We have struck lucky in the main that these have been successful, as that hasn't always been the case over the years and at other times has been disruptive.

Given the new owners, and what effectively is a rookie manager our signings for next season is anyone's guess. Supporters just don't know whether our 'squad rebuilding' will be run in the orthodox way of the past ie bringing in established National League/National League South players, or recruiting from lower leagues. Or whether it will be more of the same from this season ie a mix and match approach/loans etc. Or a completely new model with ' a youngsters first' policy coming to fruition. These are all questions Scott will need to find out.These decisions will ascertain what our club's aims are, going into the 23/24 season and whether Scott is going to be able to push Slough up the table, or it is going to be another season for him of 'coping without breaking much new ground' or indeed taking us backwards from Bakes and Unders.

[Reading Rebel]

48 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

Agree with you here, RR. Scott has done a fantastic job this season given he's new to management and rightly deserves the accolades he's getting. Let's also not forget how good Lee and Yella have been along side him. 

I think he was a tad fortunate to have had some 'good eggs' already at the club from the previous managers squad to help with the commitment to the cause. Had he not, Slough would have been relegated in my opinion.  To me Scott seems to have a likeable personality, and with his experience at different levels of the football pyramid, he seems the right fit for improving young players and leading our team into next season.

However,as far as I'm concerned the new season for Scott is going to be an even bigger challenge because he is going to have to decide what players are worth keeping,what players he no longer wants/or ones wanting to move on from this club, and what players he needs to bring in to improve this season's squad. He's bound to upset a few, and his choices could make or break him further along the line. What makes this even harder, is that this season Slough have had untold loans to build our squad. We have struck lucky in the main that these have been successful, as that hasn't always been the case over the years and at other times has been disruptive.

Given the new owners, and what effectively is a rookie manager our signings for next season is anyone's guess. Supporters just don't know whether our 'squad rebuilding' will be run in the orthodox way of the past ie bringing in established National League/National League South players, or recruiting from lower leagues. Or whether it will be more of the same from this season ie a mix and match approach/loans etc. Or a completely new model with ' a youngsters first' policy coming to fruition. These are all questions Scott will need to find out.These decisions will ascertain what our club's aims are, going into the 23/24 season and whether Scott is going to be able to push Slough up the table, or it is going to be another season for him of 'coping without breaking much new ground' or indeed taking us backwards from Bakes and Unders.

No doubt next season for Scott, if he's in charge, will be a much bigger challenge.

Managers have to make tough sometimes unpopular decisions based purely on football and not on sentiment or friendship.

There's no bigger example than our previous managers who eventually had to let players go who they were great friends with outside of football.

As for loans I think they should be avoided unless there is either no choice but to go down that route or a player that we know, like Will Dennis, George Alexander or Francis Amartey become available on a season long loan rather that just a month or two.

I think a 'youngsters first policy' would be a disaster for the club and almost certainly mean relegation and I would hope that by now Scotty would know if that was our new owners intentions with the club.

By all means introduce the best of our under 23's into the first team squad but to base the first team predominantly on our youngsters would be like accepting relegation without kicking a ball.  

All the above should become much clearer when the club holds the new owners/supporters forum which obviously needs to be held as soon as possible in order for our manager to start planning and recruiting for next season and for supporters to know what our new owners intentions are for the forthcoming season and their plans for the future of the club.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[GlenSTFC]

46 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

No doubt next season for Scott, if he's in charge, will be a much bigger challenge.

Managers have to make tough sometimes unpopular decisions based purely on football and not on sentiment or friendship.

There's no bigger example than our previous managers who eventually had to let players go who they were great friends with outside of football.

As for loans I think they should be avoided unless there is either no choice but to go down that route or a player that we know, like Will Dennis, George Alexander or Francis Amartey become available on a season long loan rather that just a month or two.

I think a 'youngsters first policy' would be a disaster for the club and almost certainly mean relegation and I would hope that by now Scotty would know if that was our new owners intentions with the club.

By all means introduce the best of our under 23's into the first team squad but to base the first team predominantly on our youngsters would be like accepting relegation without kicking a ball.  

All the above should become much clearer when the club holds the new owners/supporters forum which obviously needs to be held as soon as possible in order for our manager to start planning and recruiting for next season and for supporters to know what our new owners intentions are for the forthcoming season and their plans for the future of the club.

 

 

Scott will meet with the board and finalise everything before the supporters are told, that’s just normal. Not sure why anyone is thinking Scott won’t be manager it’s not been a doubt for me, obviously had we got relegated then yes his position could have been up in the air. The whole squad will be told by this time next week whether they’re staying or not and I’m sure Scott already has a list of targets to start speaking to if he hasn’t already. I think it’ll be a fairly sizeable overhaul and I guess it needs to be as we’ve only just escaped relegation and you would hope our ambitions next season realistically would be a top 10 finish. 

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

Scott will meet with the board and finalise everything before the supporters are told, that’s just normal. Not sure why anyone is thinking Scott won’t be manager it’s not been a doubt for me, obviously had we got relegated then yes his position could have been up in the air. The whole squad will be told by this time next week whether they’re staying or not and I’m sure Scott already has a list of targets to start speaking to if he hasn’t already. I think it’ll be a fairly sizeable overhaul and I guess it needs to be as we’ve only just escaped relegation and you would hope our ambitions next season realistically would be a top 10 finish. 

I think it's inevitable that Scott will be our manager next season but until it's officially announced nothing is certain.

There's always the chance that after talking with the new owners on the budget and what their plans for the new season are that he won't accept the job.

Listening to Spencer Day at Farnborough he said they have been planning for next season for the past 2 months and will be turfing out quite a few players who he thinks are not up to the job.  

Edited April 30, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

6 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

Scott will meet with the board and finalise everything before the supporters are told, that’s just normal. Not sure why anyone is thinking Scott won’t be manager it’s not been a doubt for me, obviously had we got relegated then yes his position could have been up in the air. The whole squad will be told by this time next week whether they’re staying or not and I’m sure Scott already has a list of targets to start speaking to if he hasn’t already. I think it’ll be a fairly sizeable overhaul and I guess it needs to be as we’ve only just escaped relegation and you would hope our ambitions next season realistically would be a top 10 finish. 

Of course it will help if our budget is a competitive one but our ambitions have to be the play-offs.

 

 

[GlenSTFC]

1 hour ago, Reading Rebel said:

Of course it will help if our budget is a competitive one but our ambitions have to be the play-offs.

 

 

Of course that’s what we all want but I think we need to be realistic too. Personally I too was thinking we have to be building a squad that can make the top 7 next season. But after thinking about it I would be happy with mid table or maybe top 10 with a possible late rally for 7th. If we can build a good squad next season and have a whole season playing together and finish say 9th, if we can then add 2 or 3 quality players we may well turn that into a play off capable squad for the following season. If we can continue to build the crowds like we have done for these past 4 home games and get the season average upto around 8-900 then that’ll be a successful season.

[glyn]

Year by the Year the National League South gets stronger.

Big team building task needed

Who would have thought at the start of the season Concord  Hungerford  and Dulwich would go down ?

 

[Footyfan007]

3 minutes ago, glyn said:

Year by the Year the National League South gets stronger.

Big team building task needed

Who would have thought at the start of the season Concord  Hungerford  and Dulwich would go down ?

 

Agreed ref the NLS getting stronger, another club looking at going full time as well in the NLS, would suggest some have the appetitive to push on and pushing budget resource.
 

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, GlenSTFC said:

Of course that’s what we all want but I think we need to be realistic too. Personally I too was thinking we have to be building a squad that can make the top 7 next season. But after thinking about it I would be happy with mid table or maybe top 10 with a possible late rally for 7th. If we can build a good squad next season and have a whole season playing together and finish say 9th, if we can then add 2 or 3 quality players we may well turn that into a play off capable squad for the following season. If we can continue to build the crowds like we have done for these past 4 home games and get the season average upto around 8-900 then that’ll be a successful season.

Always aim high with your planning and thinking and if you end up mid table there's no harm done.

[Curtis]

Although I have lived in or near Slough most of my life I have only been what I would call a supporter for the last 10 seasons, and in that time the club have made immense progress, climbing from Step 4 to Step 2, moving to a new stadium in Slough & increasing attendances from about 250 to 700-800.

I would love to see the club push on and achieve the same over the next 10 seasons, which would mean getting into the Football League, growing attendances to 2,500+ & owning a ground in Slough, but realistically that isn’t going to happen.

If we look at who was in the National South 10 seasons ago (2013-4) and where they will be at the start of next season:-

League Two - Sutton

National Premier - Boreham Wood, Bromley, Eastleigh, Ebbsfleet, Maidenhead

National South/North - Bath, Bishops Stortford, Chelmsford, Dover, Eastbourne, Farnborough, Havant, Tonbridge, Weston-super-Mare

Step 3 - Basingstoke, Concord, Dorchester, Gosport, Hayes & Yeading, Whitehawk

And then there’s Staines.

So, realistically, in 10 years time we will be within a single division of where we are now, & unrealistically we could be in the Football League or have disappeared.

 

[Reading Rebel]

3 hours ago, Curtis said:

Although I have lived in or near Slough most of my life I have only been what I would call a supporter for the last 10 seasons, and in that time the club have made immense progress, climbing from Step 4 to Step 2, moving to a new stadium in Slough & increasing attendances from about 250 to 700-800.

I would love to see the club push on and achieve the same over the next 10 seasons, which would mean getting into the Football League, growing attendances to 2,500+ & owning a ground in Slough, but realistically that isn’t going to happen.

If we look at who was in the National South 10 seasons ago (2013-4) and where they will be at the start of next season:-

League Two - Sutton

National Premier - Boreham Wood, Bromley, Eastleigh, Ebbsfleet, Maidenhead

National South/North - Bath, Bishops Stortford, Chelmsford, Dover, Eastbourne, Farnborough, Havant, Tonbridge, Weston-super-Mare

Step 3 - Basingstoke, Concord, Dorchester, Gosport, Hayes & Yeading, Whitehawk

And then there’s Staines.

So, realistically, in 10 years time we will be within a single division of where we are now, & unrealistically we could be in the Football League or have disappeared.

 

There's only one way we will ever reach the football league is with a rich benefactor.

Unless a die hard supporter wins the lottery this will never happen unless we owned our ground.

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Reading Rebel

[Ian g f]

3 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

There's only one way we will ever reach the football league is with a rich benefactor.

Unless a die hard supporter wins the lottery this will never happen unless we owned our ground.

 

Used to get big gates at the dolphin We were well financed but there was more local interest The secondary school iwent to raggy road lot of us went to the dolphin