FA Cup exit has sharpened Slough Town's focus on survival, says Davies

Photo credit: Zak Rana

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Scott Davies feels the mindset of his players has been spot on since their painful exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Macclesfield in early December.

Macclesfield have gone on to receive national acclaim for their performances in the cup, knocking holders Crystal Palace out in the third round to set up another home clash against Premier League Brentford in the fourth round.

Statistically, National League North Macclesfield’s 2-1 win over Premier League Palace was the biggest upset in the competition’s history.

However, while Davies would rather his side was still in the competition, and receiving the plaudits that have been showered on Macclesfield, he knows their bread and butter aim this season is staying in the National League South - and he also senses those aims wouldn’t have been aided by the attention, spotlight and fanfare that comes with being an FA Cup giant killer.

Reflecting on their recent return to form, Davies said: “I think the mindset of the lads is very good.

“The distraction of the FA Cup, and I can speak on this as a player and a manager.

“It definitely does distract you from your league campaign. You’re sometimes thinking about the next game in the FA Cup, and you don’t want to be injured.

“You might not want to go into a tackle fully committed. It’s a difficult situation to be in, and don’t get me wrong, I’d rather still be in the FA Cup when you see what Macclesfield are doing now. But ultimately getting through to the fourth round of the FA Cup and getting relegated wouldn’t have been the plan for this season.

“Staying in the league is our main aim and we’ve given ourselves a much better chance of doing that now than when we were going into the Boxing Day game at Maidenhead.

“I think we were second from bottom and it felt like we were starting to get cut adrift a little bit.”

Since bowing out of the competition, the Rebels have won four of their next seven league matches to lift themselves seven points clear of the drop zone. The latest of those wins was also their ‘most complete performance of the season’ according to Davies, an impressive 3-0 away win at promotion chasers Hemel Hempstead Town.

Wiktor Makowski slotted in their first after a mistake from the home defence, while he also had a hand in the second hooking in a back post volley that Hemel’s keeper clawed out only for Ruben Shakpoke to follow up and ensure the ball crossed the line.

Tyrese Dyce then headed home their third, deep into first half stoppage time, while the Rebels also held firm defensively in the second half to keep a well-deserved clean sheet.

“The second one was given to Wiktor,” said Davies.

“But apparently it didn’t cross the line, and Ruben has followed it up to score. It’s gone down as Wiktor’s goal, but I think it was a bit dubious. There was a bit of banter flying around about it, but we’ve spoken to the strikers and said it’s about scoring goals as a team.

“We don’t really care who scores them. If they can get one or two goals in a game though it gives us a chance to go and win a football match. We utilised the space in behind for Wiktor’s opening goal. The second was a well worked goal and then the third was a set piece with Tyrese Dyce scoring on his 50th appearance for the club.

“That goal came in the 52nd minute of the first half. I said to the lads, we’ll need a third goal, and even at half-time I was saying, let’s get the next goal because I didn’t feel like the game was ever done, until 65/70 minutes when we felt a lot more comfortable.

“We were able to make a couple of changes, and we saw the game out comfortably. Overall, it felt like a total performance, and we were in control for large spells.”

Slough have the chance to give themselves further breathing space in their relegation battle when they host 17th placed Tonbridge Angels on Saturday, before travelling to 19th placed Bath City on Tuesday evening – two very winnable games on paper given their current strong form.

“We’ve got two big games now on Saturday and Tuesday, one above us and one below us,” added Davies. “If we can get two more positive results then I feel we’ll find ourselves in a very positive position.

“We know that if we can beat them on Saturday, we’ll go ahead of them in the league with a game in hand and that’s a small bonus.

“We know it will be tough and they’re coming off the back of a really good 4-1 win over Totton, but we’re at home and we fancy ourselves against anyone there.”