Slough Town boss Steve Bateman.

February will be a key month in terms of the Southern Central Division title race according to Slough Town boss Steve Bateman.

The Rebels currently sit top of the table, three points clear of second-placed St Neots who have two games in hand and a vastly superior goal difference.

The two teams meet in just over a month on March and Bateman knows the importance of going into that clash on the back of a positive run of form.

He said: “It is very much about momentum, it’s very important that we have a good February.

“The most important thing is we get to that game at St Neots in March with something significant hanging on it.

“We certainly don’t want to be going into it seven or eight points clear of it and being able to afford to lose.

“That’s why it’s important to keep doing what we have been. We have to keep our heads down and keep picking up results.”

Bateman added: “There are 14 games to go and I would say we need five wins to be certain of a play-off spot.

“If we can get that pretty much done this month we’ll be in a great position.”

Following their surprise defeat the previous weekend, the Rebels returned to winning ways on Saturday with a 3-0 home success against Chertsey thanks to goals from Nathan Bowden-Haase, Danny Burnell and Sean Sonner.

That maintained their lead at the top of the table but St Neots kept up the pressure on the leaders with a 9-2 drubbing of Aylesbury, the team that shocked Slough a fortnight ago.

Bateman said: “St Neots are clearly relishing the challenge and I’m sure it’s going to be very interesting from here on in.

“But in the next week they have difficult away games at Bedworth and Rugby who have come back to life.

“So it’s important we just worry about ourselves, take care of our own results then hope someone might do us a favour.”

On his side’s comfortable win against Chertsey, the Rebels boss added: “We responded as I thought we would.

“We went out and won the game comfortably while probably playing within ourselves. We did what we wanted to do.”

The Rebels host struggling North Greenford United tomorrow (Saturday) and Bateman insists his players will not be underestimating their threat, particularly after the recent Aylesbury defeat.

“We’ve had a reminder of what can happen if things don’t go our way or if we don’t find that extra bit of impetus,” he said.

“Greenford have recently had a change in manager and we can’t allow any upturn in form to be at our expense.”

Steve Sinclair is still struggling with his hamstring and is a doubt for the game.