Cast your mind back to our third game of the season and that sobering 6-1 trouncing by Slough, a result which illustrated, if we didn’t know it already, how tough a challenge this league would be.

Seven months on, we have a chance to avenge that when we visit Arbour Park on Saturday hoping to maintain our recent run of form that has seen us pull clear of the drop zone with three straight wins.

Six points ahead of Town, Slough have been inconsistent of late but will be keen not to get dragged into the danger area and proved how dangerous they can be with a 4-0 home win over high-flying Worthing last month.

“We’re a very different team to when we played them last with different attributes and more running power,” said Gavin Macpherson.

“But we’re still very much underdogs. Let’s face it, we’re the league’s unfashionable club that people don’t really consider to be at Step 2 level.”

“I understand that point of view cos you have to earn your stripes in this league and we haven’t done that until maybe recently.”

With St Albans winning and Welling losing in midweek to be five and eight points behind Town respectively, all those near the bottom have now played the same number of games, with seven left.

“It’s in our hands,” said Gavin, “but there will still be some twists and turns. I’ve got a hell of a lot of time for (Slough player/manager)  Scott Davies who I speak to regularly. He does a fantastic job over there and we know they have players who can hurt you. We’ll have to defend well on another artificial surface but the boys are competing above and beyond what I’ve asked of them.”

AW