Rebels ‘knocking on the door’ for first win of 2020
Baker confident first win of 2020 is just around corner
Neil Baker has said Slough Town will continue ‘knocking on the door’ as they look to pick up their first win of the new year and cement their spot in the National League South play-offs.
Neil Baker has said Slough Town will continue ‘knocking on the door’ as they look to pick up their first win of the new year and cement their spot in the National League South play-offs.
The Rebels are yet to win in 2020 after a late goal at Billericay
Town condemned them to a third draw in their last four matches.
Ronnie Henry was the man to frustrate the visitors, bundling home Billericay’s late equaliser in Saturday’s 2-2 draw. Goals from Matt Lench and George Wells had put the Rebels 2-1 ahead going into the closing stages.
While Baker accepted a draw was probably fair on the balance of play, he knows the Rebels will need to convert one point into three sooner rather than later if they’re to maintain their place in the top seven.
“You’re going to have periods where you don’t pick up as many wins, but you’ve just got to keep ticking along and picking up points,” he said. “We’ve only lost twice in 21 games and we haven’t been beaten that much which is the most important thing.”
Baker added: “We’d have taken fourth in the table in January all day long at the start of the season. We’d have taken it and probably not have believed you after the start that we made. We’ve got a reasonable gap over eighth place but the games are coming thick and fast and we need to pick up some wins.
“Every game is tight at the minute but we’ll keep knocking on the door and I’m sure we’ll pick up points.
“We could have beaten Hemel last week and we could have won at Billericay but it’s a competitive league and teams are taking points off each other.”
The Rebels were due to play Havant & Waterlooville on Wednesday night but the bad recent weather saw the game postponed for a second time, after the original match was abandoned with Havant leading 2-0.
However, the Rebels management team were far from disappointed when they got the call to tell them the game was off.
“We were delighted when the game was called off last night,” said Baker. “Warren Harris and George Wells were both struggling, Max Worsfold and Ben Harris were unavailable and Mark Nisbet is still out so we were pretty pleased to get that call to be honest.
“We’ll probably play them at the end of February. They’re due to come to us on February 15 and they won’t want to do a double header so it’ll likely be the 29th but that hasn’t been ratified yet.”
The Rebels return to action tomorrow (Saturday) when in-form Dartford visit Arbour Park.
It’s an opportunity for the side to get back to winning ways, but Dartford come into the clash off the back of five straight wins.
“Dartford have been in great form, they’ve won their last five on the bounce and are up to seventh in the league,” added Baker.
“They’re only three points behind us, but we’ve got two games in hand. It’s a big game.
“If we beat them we’ll be six points ahead with two games in hand. But they’re a really good side. We beat them 3-2 at their place having been 2-0 down so that was a good win for us.
“We should have Max (Worsfold) and Ben (Harris) back on Saturday. Warren (Harris) and Wellsy (George Wells) will be back as well and Guy Hollis has now served his suspension.”