JON UNDERWOOD expects the clash between Slough Town and Hereford at Edgar Street to be one of the biggest fixtures in non-league football this Saturday.

The Rebels are aiming at promotion this season and, after a disappointing defeat against Kettering Town last weekend, registered a first win when beating Gosport Borough 5-1 on Tuesday.

Hereford arrived in the Southern Premier Division as champions of Division One South & West last season and, with the support of a huge fan base, are favourites with many to go up again – as short as 7-2 with some bookmakers.

However, Underwood insists Slough will travel with confidence after their win on the south coast in midweek and have no intentions of playing for the draw.

The Rebels joint-manager told the Observer: “Hereford are expected to be one of the favourites this season and have sold 1,600 season tickets, which is incredible, so they’re financially well backed.

“Everyone wants an easy start when you first look at the fixtures but it might not be a bad time to go to Hereford as they have the finances to strengthen as the season goes on, should they feel the need to.

“If they feel the need to strengthen they’ve got the power to do that, if they feel they’re not at their best yet, so hopefully it might be a good time to go there.”

Underwood continued: “We had them watched in pre-season and last week, so we have a couple of reports on them.

TWEET: Chris Flood scores his first and Slough's second goal at Gosport on Tuesday.

“They will be a very good side and one of the favourites to win the league, so there could be 3,000 people there on Saturday. People expect us to be strong this season as well so it will be a massive game.

“We will go there with confidence after Tuesday and with a plan. We will know where their strengths lie, as I’m sure they will do with us.

“Some teams will go to Hereford and keep men back behind the ball to nick a point. We will not do so. We will go there with confidence and hope to win the game.

“We will hopefully take a good support and a lot of people expect us to be up there as well, so it will be a good game for the neutral, one of the biggest in the fixture list this weekend.

“We will go there with confidence and a point to prove to show that we’re real contenders.”

Slough registered their first win of the new season with a 5-1 victory away at Gosport in midweek.

After Matt Lench opened the scoring early on, Chris Flood scored either side of the break, before Josh Jackman and James Dobson added further goals late on, and Underwood was delighted to see The Rebels be clinical in front of goal.

He said: “We expect big things from a very good squad of players, and in certain games this year we will dominate, but it’s nice to have that clinical edge to us.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Matt Lench opened his account for the season with the first goal on Tuesday.

“We knew it was important to get that first win out of the way because, no matter how good you are or how much experience you have, if you go two or three games without a win confidence starts to be affected.

“It was a bit of a relief and a nice feeling to get off the mark. You don’t want to leave it too long. I was really pleased with the performance and the result.”

Underwood continued: "We got the early goal which always helps and were pretty dominant performance-wise to be honest.

"Gosport are a new, young side and we worked out pretty soon they were struggling defensively from crosses so we tried to put the pressure on with quality into the box and it paid dividends.

"The only disappointment was that we were not further ahead at half-time.

"In the second half, Gosport scored quite early and you start to wonder if those missed chances will come back to haunt you, but the timing of our next goal was important to restore the two-goal cushion.

"We were pretty comfortable after that and could have scored more goals. On another night we could have scored a lot more."

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