SLOUGH Town captain Mark Nisbet believes the Rebels can take belief and confidence into their return to action in the National League South at Dartford on Saturday, writes Rob Stevens.

Slough return to league action standing in 14th position in the table and five points behind the play-off places, but with at least one game in hand on all the sides above them.

Nisbet is proud of their magnificent performance against Gillingham in the FA Cup on Sunday, and he hopes that can be a stepping stone to help climb the league table.

He told the Observer: "It just feel proud to be honest. We did it last season against a League One side but lost 4-0 and didn't really play to our strengths. We gave them too much respect and they absolutely battered us for 90 minutes.

"We did ourselves proud on Sunday because they're a League One side and professional with a leading goal scorer in the league.

"We think we were the better side and deserved a draw at least, if not the win, so I'm just proud of all the boys and it was an excellent win.

"This was just a stepping stone for us. What we did on Sunday we've got to take onto every league game now, with that belief, confidence and tempo and we should be fine.

"The next game is a league game and we need to start getting back up the table. We have dropped off the top sides so we need to go and get three points and everyone is focused on that."

Nisbet believes that the 1-0 defeat against Gillingham in the FA Cup was an unfortunate result, but he has praised the League One side for their solid defending at Arbour Park.

He said: "We're a little bit disappointed. It was a great game and very close.

"The stats say that we had a lot more chances than them but they scored a wonderful goal, un-stoppable.

"It is disappointing but we're very, very happy with the way we've played, it's just unfortunate about the result.

"The first 5-10 minutes in any of these big games are nervous, playing against a higher-league team.

"When we came in at half-time we were happy with how the first-half went and we all believed we could come out and win.

"I was telling everyone we would score in the first 15 minutes of the second-half but unluckily it went the other way.

"If we had taken one of our chances, even in the second-half, then we were in the game and maybe would've gone on to win it, but you've got to score."

Nisbet continued: "Maybe we were on the back foot in the first five minutes while we got to grips with things and how they played.

"They were getting out quite a lot and had a lot of possession but weren't really going anywhere. After that we got into the game more and confidence grew, and we were good from there.

"It was one of those days where we had a lot of crosses but they defended very well, let's not take it away from them, they were very good and strong.

"You just need it to drop sometimes to the right person. I feel we had a few chances where we were just unlucky, ricochets that could fall to anybody, but it didn't fall for us."