SLOUGH Town joint-manager Jon Underwood insists the Rebels need to take the positives from a great Christmas period into their trip to Torquay United this Saturday (3pm), writes Rob Stevens.

Slough beat East Thurrock United at home before Christmas and followed up with victories at Wealdstone on Boxing Day and Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday.

Their winning streak came to and end after a 1-0 defeat to Wealdstone on New Years Day but the Rebels remain just four points behind the play-off spots in 11th position in the National League South.

Underwood told the Observer: "We didn't feel like it on New Years Day but it's been a great period for us when you look at it as a block of four games.

"To pick up nine points is fantastic especially when we were struggling a little bit for wins in the league before Christmas. If you would have offered anyone nine points they would've bitten your hand off.

"It's easy to forget that now and be a bit down and negative about New Years Day. We wanted the three points then but knew it wasn't going to be an easy game."

He added: "The target now is what is was at the start of the season. Our aim is to try and stay in touch with the play-offs.

"We didn't know at the start of the season how we were going to fair but we were reasonably positive.

"We're still in touch with the play-offs and that's all we can do. What we don't want is to get to February and March and have nothing to play for.

"Hopefully we've got enough points in the bank, and that we will still pick up, that we haven't got to look over our shoulders.

"Hopefully we can look upwards and have that aim of can we sneak into the play-offs, but there are probably 10 other sides saying exactly the same because it's a very tight league."

Slough make the trip to leaders Torquay this Saturday and Underwood knows it will be tough to beat a side that has won their last nine league matches.

He explained: "Torquay are a full-time side and getting big crowds at the minute but you've got to play them sometime. It will be a very difficult game and probably the biggest we will face between now and the end of the season.

"It's a tough as they come but we've shown that we can perform against good sides and we do raise our game in these sort of matches, so hopefully we can re-group and start to prepare for that.

" We will look at how we play and approach that one and see if we can go and get a result.

"Then we've got Bath City and Chelmsford City at Arbour Park which are both tough games as well, so it's a tough start to the year."

Rebels supporters cannot expect much change in the squad this January with Underwood believing that there is nothing his side are missing at the moment.

He said: "We were on top of the world with three wins before New Years Day so there isn't lots that needs changing.

"There's nothing that we actively feel we are missing at the moment and we're happy with the squad that we've got.

"We've been pleased with the last few weeks and at the minute we're happy with the squad, but always keep our eyes open and open to looking at a few things."