SLOUGH Town joint-manager Jon Underwood is confident that he will take his strongest-ever squad into the National League South season.

Former professionals Louie Soares and Sam Togwell have been signed this summer to bring experience to the squad that won promotion from the Southern Premier Division last season.

The Rebels got their pre-season under way with a 4-2 win against Metropolitan Police at Arbour Park on Tuesday, where Bradley Clayton and Bilal Sayoud impressed on trial from Brentford and Coventry City.

Underwood told the Observer: “Bradley and Bilal are both young and have not played a lot of senior football, so we’ve just got to decide if they’re right for us and the level that we’re going to move into.

“We’ve got some strong options in the positions they play in but at this stage it’s no bad thing having good numbers and looking at a few things, so we will see what happens in the coming weeks.

“They’ve both come out of the professional game and are looking around a bit at the minute, so there’s no guarantee that they want to be here or that we will take them.

“There are no promises from either side at this stage we will just see how the next week or so pans out.”

He added: “Louie and Sam both did well against Met Police and both are vastly experienced players with lots of quality.

Slough Observer:

PHOTO: Trialist Brady Clayton celebrates his goal for Slough Town in the 4-2 win against Metropolitan Police at Arbour Park on Tuesday.

“They definitely make us stronger so we’re really pleased to have them on board.

“Going into this league you need that know-how and we now have lots of high-level experience that maybe we didn’t have this time last year.

“We feel we’re progressing year on year with that squad that we have got and again we feel this is the strongest group we’ve had to date, which is has to be with the league that we’re going into.”

Slough will continue their summer preparations with a friendly match against Reading Under-23s (U23) at Arbour Park this Saturday (3pm).

Underwood said: “Their U23 side will be a good side, as good as Met Police were, so it will be a good test for us.

“The quality will go up a level and it will probably be hotter, so it will be a tough test but it’s exactly what you need at this stage in pre-season.

“We will use a big squad again and pick three or four to play the whole 90 minutes and the rest will play 45.

"We're trying to share that around a bit at the moment and only pick players for 90 minutes if they're ready to do so.

"As we go through the next three of four matches we want everyone to get 90 minutes under their belt."

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