The Platform for The Play-Offs

[Shredding Green]

This is reality. Not for any of you to question my statistics. After this evening's results, I have checked that my statistics are 100% correct!!!

I do not expect any of the 2-5 play-off spots to be won by any of the teams not currently in the top five.

I do not expect either of the 6-7 play-off spots to be won by any of the teams not mentioned in the nine below.

But after allowing 3 points per match for any teams which have played less than 31 matches, there are nine teams after the final two play-off spots. Perhaps not a good time for Rebels to visit Dulwich Hamlet who have lost three in a row :- 

Eastbourne Borough            +7 St Albans City            +6 Hungerford Town            +6 Dulwich Hamlet            +2 Havant & Waterlooville          +4 Chippenham Town            +1 Hampton & Richmond Borough            0 Hemel Hempstead Town           0 Slough Town             0
So from now on, Bakes and Unders will be focussing solely on the next match whilst I am tinkering with the above table, starting with Havant & Waterlooville v Hungerford Town this evening. Either three of four points in Rebels favour!!!

I consider this season to be very much alive until such time that Rebels can not break into that top two of the nine. Bear in mind, that each time that two teams in that nine other than Rebels play each other that they will drop either three or four points between them.

CRITICAL DATES 

9th April : Slough Town v Eastbourne Borough. Also on that date, two of the nine Hungerford Town v St Albans City whilst Chippenham Town, Dulwich Hamlet and Hemel Hempstead Town all play top five teams.

2nd May : Slough Town have their last league fixture at Hampton & Richmond Borough. On that day of the nine there is
Chippenham Town v Hungerford Town and Hemel Hempstead Town v Havant & Waterlooville whilst Dulwich Hamlet and St Albans City play top five teams.

7th May : It would not surprise me at all if Rebels had to sit on the fence to see what happened in the last round of matches when they are the club which has not got a fixture. On that day of the nine there is Dulwich Hamlet v Hemel Hempstead Town and
Havant & Waterlooville v Chippenham Town whilst Eastbourne Borough and Hungerford Town play top five teams.

I am feeling both very optimistic and very excited about the remainder of this season. That has been the case with me since I saw that a new Bakes and Unders team had evolved in the Rebels 1-3 home defeat to Ebbsfleet United on 9th October 2021. Excellent yet defeated!

A few exciting new faces have come into the squad since then and with Matt Lench hoping to be back before the Eastbourne Borough match I can only say get in there ... to Arbour Park!!!

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Shredding Green

[Curtis]

Personally, I think two of those other 8 teams will finish on 60 points.... probably Eastbourne & one from Dulwich, St Albans & Chippenham.

Regarding us, our away record is not good, about a point per match, & we have 6 remaining away matches.

So, unless something significant changes, I see 6 away points, & probably 7 home points, and a final total of 52 points, 8 points behind.

But we have gone on good end of season runs before, and an optimist would say 7 wins from our final 10 is not impossible.

[SloughFlyer]

Whilst I want the team to do as well as possible in each match, please god we don't get in the play offs and then perform to the levels we have in games with Maidstone, Ebbsfleet, Dorking etc this season as if we were to get promoted it would be IMO a disaster for the club.

We are in no way (apart from Neil and Jon IMO) set up as a club for the league above and the recent comments about money, attendances and the squad evolution by clearly IMO reducing the wage budget spent on the squad just serve to feed that opinion.

I would like to see the rest of the season pan out with giving our younger players and those that the managers see here next season given a chance to play and develop in the last 10 games, us continue to perform more in the way of Maidstone than say, St Albans away (sub in any match), be as competive as possible and then see what the summer brings as I agree with a few people on here from a squad evolution point of view, there maybe quite a few changes for next year depending on budget and availability.

[Neil Baker]

Just on this, I am not going to say we will make the play offs or anything like that, however with the league table as it stands we are 100 per cent in with a shout of play offs with 25 per cent of the season left to play.

As managers we have only ever stated we would like to stay in contention for as long as possible, and in this day and age 6 points is not a lot to make up.

Yes we would need to go on a very good run, but we are actually in good form again having taken 11 points from our last 6 games, of which 3 were against Maidstone, Ebbsfleet and Havant, and one other being Braintree who are one of the most in form teams in the league.

It would be great if we were well supported at Dulwich, and fingers crossed we can get a win, which would sets us up very nicely for Non League Day and Braintree at home.

[Sir Rebel1965]

If we are talking facts, well here are some:

 

Source Football web pages.

 

Slough average attendance = 632

National league South average =968

National league North average = 1150

 

National league average = 3009

National league highest average - Wrexham = 8255

National league lowest average - Dover = 916

 

Are Slough ready to even consider going up?

I will let you draw your own conclusions from the facts.

[Neil Baker]

Again not saying we will go up or anything like that, just trying to generate a bit of positivity, especially ahead of a home game next week on Non League Day where we could be in an even better position.

In terms of the crowds absolutely they are not great at all, but one thing going up would do is increase the away support ten fold, you would be often getting teams bring 400 plus, and bigger games also increase the casual supporter, would it be enough? Probably not but it won’t stop us trying.

[GarySTFC]

3 hours ago, Sir Rebel1965 said:

If we are talking facts, well here are some:

Source Football web pages.
Slough average attendance = 632
National league South average =968
National league North average = 1150

Might want to consider your sources as the figures on FWP will be slightly out. They’re missing eleven attendances from home games this season (including Whitehawk and Havant in cup comps).

Clearly a lot of work to be done regardless though to get ourselves in the best position to make that next step. 

[Shredding Green]

On 16/03/2022 at 07:56, SloughFlyer said:

Whilst I want the team to do as well as possible in each match, please god we don't get in the play offs and then perform to the levels we have in games with Maidstone, Ebbsfleet, Dorking etc this season as if we were to get promoted it would be IMO a disaster for the club.

We are in no way (apart from Neil and Jon IMO) set up as a club for the league above and the recent comments about money, attendances and the squad evolution by clearly IMO reducing the wage budget spent on the squad just serve to feed that opinion.

I would like to see the rest of the season pan out with giving our younger players and those that the managers see here next season given a chance to play and develop in the last 10 games, us continue to perform more in the way of Maidstone than say, St Albans away (sub in any match), be as competive as possible and then see what the summer brings as I agree with a few people on here from a squad evolution point of view, there maybe quite a few changes for next year depending on budget and availability.

Attendances : In the league this season our home attendances have so far been in the range of 505-1,106. Double that in the range 1,010-2,212 would hardly be exceptional support. That is how bad the support currently is!

We are in no way (apart from Neil and Jon IMO) set up as a club for the league above : The Operational Management Committee of Craig Edwards, Tom Gathern, Adrian Gomm, Kay Lathey, Mike Lightfoot, John Porter and Matt Webb deserve a lot of credit both for what they do for the club and the manner in which they do it. This includes engaging Neil and Jon! 

[REBEL MATTERS]

All this talk off the pitch, as opposed to on the pitch...

We (imo) are now an established side in the league (no longer the new boys) we hold our own. There are better teams, there are worse. With the gaffers we have in charge, that will never change for the worse. 

I think we have the right men in charge and don't want that to change.

I do feel that we were slowly getting somewhere pre COVID as a club, improving the side, results, league positions etc... season on season.

COVID has not just affected us as a club, everyone, but I feel its like are are re-building again (on and off the pitch) from scratch.

Going up this season would not be good for us, I think if we could re-wind the clock pre COVID, I felt we had more of a squad capable of 'possibly' holding our own more in conference.

 I'd like another season of this team playing together, see who goes in the summer, who comes in and improve next season. 

With this being said, fans will come back if were doing better in the league (top league sides have the same issue when they are in prem, sell out week in week out, championship, where have all those fans gone).

Its just that we are seeing it on a smaller scale.

If the target is 1k week in week out, we would get that in the conference in my opinion taking into account the bigger following you get from away teams, fact youre playing a lot of ex league sides who we'd have only dreamed of being drawn against in FACup 1st round in the years we were making that round every year back at W*xham Park.

Non die-hard fans are fickle, they will come back when your near the top of the league or in a (dare I say) better league (or maybe stronger league is the better word).

I still go back to Maidenhead. Years ago when they were in leagues below us and were getting poor crowds (dont want to quote numbers as I dont have the facts, but they werent anywhere near the 1500 they seem to get nowaways on more frequent basis). Where did the extra 500-800 Maidenhead fans come from in recent years always intrigues me. Cant tell me its the too many london based premier league teams excuse about us, as I am sure Maidenhead have their fair share of fans jumping on the train into london following their london side.

Rebuilding on and off the pitch in my opinion. 

[Reading Rebel]

Are we ready for the NL - no

Will we ever be in a position to 'be ready' for the NL - probably not.

The costs and travelling associated with the NL will hardly ever change.

The only danger for the club that I can foresee is if we spend beyond our means, get relegated and spiral down the leagues because of the accumulated debt.

With the current people in charge of our club I really cannot see that happening.

So what if we are struggling towards the bottom and get relegated in our first season, at least as supporters and as a club we will have experienced the big local derbies, the bigger clubs visiting AP and the bigger crowds and atmosphere that they will bring. You never know we might even be competitive and manage to stay up.

Weymouth will probably be relegated this season but I'm sure they will be itching to get back to the NL and being a well run club I'm pretty certain they will again be at the top going for promotion next season.   

I don't see promotion as a 'disaster' or that we are 'not ready yet' but as a challenge and an opportunity, like most supporters I can't wait for it to happen. 

 

 

  

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Reading Rebel

[GlenSTFC]

No our current squad, infrastructure and attendances aren’t ready for the next level I think that’s quite clear to see. But who would say no to 1 season in non leagues top flight? I certainly wouldn’t! To visit and host all those big clubs, many ex football league, sample big crowd atmospheres on a regular basis would be a great experience. We would easily average 1,000+ even if we got relegated and no doubt would have a few near sell outs. We’d also get £80k from the league which I imagine is nearly £80k more than we get currently!!! Plus what’s to say we don’t keep some of that extra support if we got relegated? Would 1 season in the NL really be such a bad thing, obviously basing this on not over stretching the club financially in terms of signing players. It could actually put the club in a stronger position that it finds itself in.

[GlenSTFC]

Just noticed the below paragraph from an article on this week’s Slough Express. Any idea who the player is? Just hope it’s not one of our better players…

“We know it's going to be tough as we’ll be losing another player this week, and we are where we are, but I still feel we’ve got a good enough squad.”

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, GlenSTFC said:

Just noticed the below paragraph from an article on this week’s Slough Express. Any idea who the player is? Just hope it’s not one of our better players…

“We know it's going to be tough as we’ll be losing another player this week, and we are where we are, but I still feel we’ve got a good enough squad.”

Lose a player to what, injury?

[GlenSTFC]

12 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

Lose a player to what, injury?

The way I read it was a player would be leaving but I could have read it wrong and maybe it’s another injury.

[SloughFlyer]

6 minutes ago, GlenSTFC said:

The way I read it was a player would be leaving but I could have read it wrong and maybe it’s another injury.

Just read a similar article in from the Maidenhead Advertiser online. I read it like you Glen, only way I see "injury" is if Aaron Kuhl's is worse than Jon thought earlier in the week.

I assume we'll find out tomorrow in the looking ahead.

[GlenSTFC]

31 minutes ago, SloughFlyer said:

Just read a similar article in from the Maidenhead Advertiser online. I read it like you Glen, only way I see "injury" is if Aaron Kuhl's is worse than Jon thought earlier in the week.

I assume we'll find out tomorrow in the looking ahead.

Probably the same article SF as both papers are part of the same group. Let’s hope Aaron’s injury isn’t bad as he’s one of our top important players. If as Neil states in that article that they’re looking to make the play offs then I’d hope we’d be looking to bring 1 or 2 in as we all know what a small squad we have.

[Shredding Green]

11 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Are we ready for the NL - no

Will we ever be in a position to 'be ready' for the NL - probably not.

The costs and travelling associated with the NL will hardly ever change.

The only danger for the club that I can foresee is if we spend beyond our means, get relegated and spiral down the leagues because of the accumulated debt.

With the current people in charge of our club I really cannot see that happening.

So what if we are struggling towards the bottom and get relegated in our first season, at least as supporters and as a club we will have experienced the big local derbies, the bigger clubs visiting AP and the bigger crowds and atmosphere that they will bring. You never know we might even be competitive and manage to stay up.

Weymouth will probably be relegated this season but I'm sure they will be itching to get back to the NL and being a well run club I'm pretty certain they will again be at the top going for promotion next season.   

I don't see promotion as a 'disaster' or that we are 'not ready yet' but as a challenge and an opportunity, like most supporters I can't wait for it to happen. 

 

 

  

 

 

Well said RR.

[Shredding Green]

On 16/03/2022 at 22:08, Neil Baker said:

Just on this, I am not going to say we will make the play offs or anything like that, however with the league table as it stands we are 100 per cent in with a shout of play offs with 25 per cent of the season left to play.

As managers we have only ever stated we would like to stay in contention for as long as possible, and in this day and age 6 points is not a lot to make up.

Yes we would need to go on a very good run, but we are actually in good form again having taken 11 points from our last 6 games, of which 3 were against Maidstone, Ebbsfleet and Havant, and one other being Braintree who are one of the most in form teams in the league.

It would be great if we were well supported at Dulwich, and fingers crossed we can get a win, which would sets us up very nicely for Non League Day and Braintree at home.

Sorry that I can not make Champion Hill tomorrow as my right leg is swollen and diagnosed as a Baker's Cyst behind my right knee!

I did struggle to Millwall v Huddersfield Town on Wednesday evening and am going to a concert in the Royal Festival Hall this evening. Tomorrow will be ice packs, exercises and rest!

Millwall v Huddersfield Town drew a parallel with Slough Town v Maidstone United. Massive match, massive Millwall performance, massive three points but a very poor crowd for The Championship of 10,792 including 535 away fans.

[3spirit]

On 17/03/2022 at 14:18, GlenSTFC said:

No our current squad, infrastructure and attendances aren’t ready for the next level I think that’s quite clear to see. But who would say no to 1 season in non leagues top flight? I certainly wouldn’t! To visit and host all those big clubs, many ex football league, sample big crowd atmospheres on a regular basis would be a great experience. We would easily average 1,000+ even if we got relegated and no doubt would have a few near sell outs. We’d also get £80k from the league which I imagine is nearly £80k more than we get currently!!! Plus what’s to say we don’t keep some of that extra support if we got relegated? Would 1 season in the NL really be such a bad thing, obviously basing this on not over stretching the club financially in terms of signing players. It could actually put the club in a stronger position that it finds itself in.

I agree with what you've said here GlenSTFC. 

The problem is that Bakes and Unders are having to rebuild the squad and develop young players.This process takes time, and to challenge for a promotion place is no foregone conclusion with the new team we assemble. Realistically, I think it will take at the very least, 3 seasons[including this one] to put the club in amongst the chasing pack and even that is pushing it !  Yes, we are doing well this season but I'm not jumping ahead of myself by thinking we are ready to be play off challengers. 

We have the right managers in place but how long will the club be able to keep them?

Next season is the important one, as we clearly need to add experienced [National South or above] players [that are around the right age ie 23-27] to take this club forward to better things. This season we've made a good start in how the squad is shaping up in terms of younger players but this can only take you so far but we are still sparse in many areas of the pitch to have the depth of squad needed.

Take our forward line,we will not have Alfonso Tenconi next season. Tyler Goodrham doesn't look likely being he's on loan from Oxford United and Ben Harris is another season older, and because of his fitness irregularities he doesn't play enough now. Ryan Bird may never come back but really doesn't seem to want to play as a forward anyway, and so that just leaves the young Imran Kayani who as promising as he is, still needs more coaching and experience to be up to the task of playing week in week out to the demands of this league. Ada Okorogheye has been out for most of this season and is going to have his work cut out to get back up to speed [I've not seen him play to know if he is up to it?], and we have the young Joe Lawal who is another work in progress. If we can attract two new proven strikers for next season this would go someway to address this problem but finding them,and having the dosh to pay them is the hard bit !

[Irishadrian]

A good thing to come out off today's  results is that the four teams directly above Slough couldn't  manage a win between them a draw and three losses closing the gap and putting  us 5 points away from the play-off group.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Irishadrian