SLOUGH Town FC joint-bosses Neil Baker and Jon Underwood are setting their sights high as they prepare to get underway in the Southern Premier League tomorrow (Saturday).

The Rebels will mark their return to the third tier of non-league football with a trip to local rivals Burnham.

It’s been a tough pre-season for Slough that has seen many players absent and a squad of just 13 fulfilling the club’s final friendly at Leatherhead last weekend.

But joint-managers Baker and Underwood are confident that if Slough can stay in the hunt until Christmas, they will give themselves every chance of achieving back-to-back promotions.

“It’s a big shout to talk about promotion but you’ve got to go into the season thinking about it and that means keeping fifth spot in our sights,” Underwood told Rebels Radio.

“If we can get to Christmas and be within touch of that then we’ll be happy as we’re a squad that gets better and I do think we’ll see the best of us after Christmas, so it’s about not being too far away.

“It’s important to get off to a good start even though we didn’t last year and still got promoted.” As well as concentrating on the league, the ambitious duo have also set their sights on securing money for the club via cup runs.

The Rebels were knocked out the FA Cup last year at the first time of asking at Cirencester Town, but Underwood is hoping to make more of an impact in the competition this season.

“The disappointing thing about last season was we didn’t make progress in the cups,” he added. “We had difficult draws to be fair against some good sides, but it’s important to bring money into the club and the chairman will be very pleased if we can go on a cup run.

“We’ve got a home draw against a side from a lower division in the FA Cup so we have a good chance of getting into the second qualifying round and then you’re only a few games away from the big boys. But it’s all about the league and seeing where we finish, that’s got to be the priority.” The Rebels head into the season following a disrupted pre-season that has seen them win just one game in six.

With several players absent for a variety of reasons such as work, holidays and injury, it has often been a makeshift Slough side on show.

And Baker admitted: “You want to be preparing with a full squad but we’ve not been able to do that. It is frustrating and makes for a mixed pre-season.” **PICK up a copy of the Observer, out now, for all the latest sports news and action including a complete pre-season round-up** **FOLLOW the Observer on Twitter at @Observer_sports**