‘Form will go out of the window in play-offs’

After a four month break from competitive football, Slough Town boss Jon Underwood believes form will go completely out of the window when the Rebels host Dartford in their National League South play-off eliminator on Sunday, July 19.

The players and management team were tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday evening and, after all the tests came back negative, returned to group training on Saturday.

Ahead of the sessions Underwood said he was excited to get back on the training ground and added that it’s strange – and something of a luxury – to have two weeks to focus on just one game.

Dartford were in flying form when the season was brought to its premature conclusion back in March, while Slough had suffered three defeats in four, culminating in a poor home defeat to struggling Hungerford Town.

However, he says there’s no formula for these play-off matches and the circumstances that surround them, and he won’t mind a jot if the Rebels play poorly in that clash so long as they progress to the semi-finals.

That would see them visit Havant & Waterlooville on July 25 with the final scheduled for August 1 at the stadium of the higher ranked side.

“The result is everything in this game,” he said. “I don’t care if we’re terrible because if we beat Dartford it won’t matter.

“It’s about preparing the team to get a result and there are lots of thoughts about what we should do tactically in the game and we do have time to prepare the players for that.

“It’s no exaggeration to say the team that gets the tempo and intensity right is probably going to win the game. But none of us as managers have ever had this situation before. There’s no formula. The Dartford manager Steve King is very experienced at this level, but he’s never had to prepare his side in this way before. It’s not an exact science and you can’t be 100 per cent sure that the approach we take will be the right one until the game kicks off.

“I think form has gone out of the window. It’s probably not a bad thing for us actually. Because we’d lost three out of four going into the lockdown. We were beaten by Havant and Weymouth, who finished second and third, and we had a disappointing home defeat to Hungerford so we didn’t end that period very well whereas Dartford were flying. But I don’t think that will count for anything now. You could argue we have a better chance now than we would have done if things had carried on as normal. But that’s all speculation. You don’t know. Form has gone and everyone has got this short window to try and get ready.”

Underwood admits getting the players up to speed for a competitive play-off contest in just two weeks will be a test of their management skills.

“Everyone’s been doing their own bits and pieces and they’ve ramped it up over the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“It’s about preparing to win one game of football, because all we can do at the moment is prepare to try and beat Dartford at home. Then we’ll look at the next one. From a coaching point of view, six sessions for one game is something we never usually have, it’s a luxury.”