Relieved Davies won't bring boots to Rebels’ final games
A content looking Scott Davies admitted he won't be bringing his football boots to the Rebels’ final two games of the season after National League South safety was all but secured by Saturday's 2-0 win over Farnborough.
With the Rebels winning convincingly at home, and other results going their way at the weekend, Davies' side moved onto 50 points, 10 points clear of the relegation places and only a mathematical miracle would now see them relegated.
After Tuesday's results only one side in the bottom four can now catch them and that's rock-bottom Concord Rangers, who still have five matches left to play.
In the unlikely event they won all of them, Rangers would move onto 52 points - two points above Slough's current total - however, they'd also have to hope the
Rebels don't pick up another point from their remaining matches.
Fourth-from-bottom Cheshunt's 2-1 home defeat to Chelmsford City means they can only reach 49 points. With this in mind, Davies and his squad can now breathe easy and look forward to their remaining games at Weymouth on Saturday and home to Braintree Town the following weekend (April 29) with the pressure off.
Speaking after Saturday's win, Davies said he'd be managing things from the side lines in Slough's remaining games.
“I won't be bringing my boots,” he said. “I've played a lot of games this season - perhaps more than anyone else - and I could do with a break.
“I'd also like to give some of the other lads, who haven't played as much recently, a chance to play and we should be able to do that now.
“I feel quite content. We needed other results to go our way as well but having looked at them just now, they've all gone for us.”
Davies admits he's been feeling the pressure after stepping into the void left by Neil Baker and
Jon Underwood's surprise departure in November. However, that weight was lifted significantly by goals from George Alexander and Johnny Goddard in Saturday's deserved 2-0 win over Farnborough.
“Over the past few months, I've driven myself insane looking at the league table, but it's because I care,” he said. “My mum, dad and missus have all been on at me about this, asking me to try and switch off and to just focus on the next game, but I've found it hard to do that. Obviously, I got put into this position In November and it's a situation I've never been in before in my life. I felt like it was all on me. I took on a lot of the weight by agreeing to become manager and I’ve been panicking about the day when we might possibly go down.
“So, to get a result today is fantastic and it takes the pressure off massively.”
He added: “That's as good as any promotion I've ever had. Relegation hangs over you for such a long time, but at the same time it's made all our games exciting as we've had something to play for.
“If we'd gone down it would have been a catastrophe because of the size of this club, the squad, the supporters. I feel that we're too good to be in the league below but now I can look forward to the summer and where we go from there.”
Saturday's display was far from perfect, but the home side got the job done and were largely untroubled by Farnborough's attempts to get back into the match in the second half.
“In the first half we were really good, we did the ugly stuff well,” added Davies. “Second half we went out with the mindset that we didn't want to be put on the backfoot. Unfortunately, we pretty much were, but at the same time it worked. The boys defended their goal brilliantly and Will Dennis was immense. Defence starts from the front and goes all the way back to the keeper and I felt we were solid on Saturday; they didn't have any gilt-edged chances that I can remember.
“Shane Bush did really well, and I was delighted to see his name go up as man-of-the-match. I don't think he's got the credit he's deserved since he's come in and he's had to jump up three leagues.”