Baker calls for perspective from fans after Slough Town's defeat to Truro City

Daniel Darlington

danield@baylismedia.co.uk

05:00PM, Friday 14 December 2018

Neil Baker had to laugh when he saw a tweet calling for him and Jon Underwood to be sacked after Tuesday’s defeat to Truro City.

Yes, the Rebels hadn’t been at their fluent best on a disappointing night, but Baker felt the team had been just a little undercooked after their impressive 1-1 draw at promotion-chasing Dartford on Saturday.

He believes certain supporters need to gain a little perspective, realise what the club have achieved in recent seasons, and accept they won’t be winning week in, week out in the National League South. Well maybe not this season at least.

The club are 15th in the table, six points off the play-off places with a game in hand on most sides above them. Hardly sackable form for a newly promoted team.

Defensively the Rebels have been watertight this season, conceding on average one goal a game.

They’ve not lost by more than a single goal to any side, in any competition, including League 1 Gillingham. Surprisingly their problems have been at the other end.

“Sometimes it’s forgotten that we’re in a different league this season,” Baker said. “One tweet after Tuesday’s result was calling for Jon and I to be sacked. We just had to laugh but that’s the way it’s going in football these days. People aren’t happy unless you’re winning every week.

“That stuff is just water off a duck’s back to us and fans have to realise we won’t win every week in this league.

“We’re defending brilliantly, but attacking wise it’s not quite where it needs to be at the moment and I’m talking about the forwards, midfielders and defenders. We’ll be positive and keep working hard.

“We’re still in a decent position in the league, six points off the play-offs with a game in hand on most sides. We’ll continue to try and win as many games as we can, but you’re not going to win by fives and sixes in this league. It’s going to be by 1-0 or 2-1.”

The Rebels will look to put Tuesday’s disappointment behind them when they visit Hungerford Town in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup on Tuesday night. They don’t have a league game this weekend.

After that they’ll dive headlong into a busy festive fixture list which includes a home game against East Thurrock on December 22, two matches, away and at home, against Wealdstone on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, and a trip to Dulwich Hamlet in between on December 29.

It’s a tough period,” he admitted. “But it’s small margins in this league. On Saturday we played really well at Dartford and could have put the game to bed by half-time. We were satisfied with the point, which would have been a very good one if we’d picked up three points on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately that didn’t happen and it then becomes a very frustrating week.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose on Tuesday but we didn’t play amazingly.”

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