NEIL BAKER insists there is plenty for Slough Town to be proud of this year despite missing out on promotion.

Slough suffered a 1-0 defeat at Leamington in the play-off semi-final in midweek having finished fifth in the Southern Premier Division table.

That is a vast improvement on the two previous seasons, where they finished 16th and 17th.

They have also moved back into the heart of Slough at their new stadium at Arbour Park and have seen attendances double compared to recent seasons when they were tennants at Beaconsfield SYCOB’s Holloways Park.

Slough joint-manager Baker, explained to the Observer: “There’s loads to be proud of this year. Going back into the town and the facility we have at Arbour Park, it deserves Conference South football.

“It is going to have to wait a year but it’s not the end of the world, nobody has died. It is just a football game that hasn’t gone our way. We have to be pragmatic about it.

“We finished 17th last season. We have come away to reach a play-off semi-final against Leamington and we’ve narrowly been beaten 1-0, but that’s football and life and we live to fight another day.

“It is not going to get any easier with Hereford coming into this league next year, but it’s going to be a great league to be in.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Kay Lathey (right) receives her prize from Julie Sliski (left).

“We will do what we can in the summer. We will recruit where we need to and we will go again.”

Fellow joint-boss Jon Underwood added: “We have set a great foundation for next year and made a massive improvement on last year, and the club is going in great direction now.

“We just need to see what we can do to challenge for that top position and, if not, be good enough to win the play-offs next year. I’m sure we will give it a real good go.

“It has been a great year with a lot of highs and definitely a few lows as well, but we would have taken fifth place at the start of the season and it’s huge progress from last year.

“Neil and I already know that there are certain areas of the team that we can improve. We knew that whether we went up or stayed in the league that we are in, so we’ve got a few things in mind.

“There are certain areas of the pitch that we can improve in and that is our responsibility, that is our job to get that right.

“We can’t get too down about it. It has been a very good season. We will keep looking to improve and see whether we can go one better next year.”