SLOUGH Town joint-manager Neil Baker is confident his side can ‘spring a few surprises’ as they get set for the National League South.

Rebels sealed promotion from the Southern League with a 2-1 play-off final victory at King’s Lynn Town, but Baker has already set his sights on the season ahead.

He told the Observer: “It is a step up in levels with some big sides and clubs now in the league, but I am confident this group can go and compete and spring a few surprises.

Tactically, we tweaked a few things in the last pre-season and will look at one or two things this summer “We will look at different set-pieces, but we want to play how we finished last season and try to push that up into National League South.”

Slough are due to play their opening pre-season game at home to Met Police on Wednesday July 10, and also have friendly fixtures against Reading, Staines Town, Boreham Wood, Kettering and Beaconsfield.

They were due to play Basingstoke Town on July 17, though Baker revealed that fixture would have to be changed.

Looking ahead to the range of friendlies his side have lined up, he commented: “Our pre-season will last for four-and-a-half weeks which is shorter by a week this year, but I expect that after two or three weeks we will be up and running.

“We are pretty happy on the whole, but it is quite hard to play other teams at our level – you have only got the northern option and we spoke with Leamington and Brackley, but both said that most of their players come from an hour north so it is not a viable option.”

He continued: “We have got Boreham Wood, which will be a really stern test, and then there will be a Reading side that will be provisionally Under 23s with a few first-team players.

“I am led to believe that it will be a strong Reading side, similar to when we played West Bromwich Albion last year.

“Hopefully we will get a good crowd as well.

“You want to test yourself against sides at a similar level and Kettering could easily be playing at Step Two this season.

“Staines and Met Police are normally relatively steady at Step Three and we do not want to make things easy.”

Baker added the players have been told to look after their fitness over the summer, with the focus on football when they return to training.

He revealed: “Pre-season is just about getting the lads back together and less about the fitness side these days.

“I do not think it is necessary to beast players in this day and age because most look after themselves and come back in good shape.

“We have talked with the players about their summer plans and what we expect them to do fitness and gym wise.

“Three sessions into pre-season last year we could have started the season because everyone had looked after themselves and we were buzzing.”

Slough enjoyed a superb pre-season from a results point of view last year, going unbeaten through eight games including a memorable 2-1 victory against West Brom.

And Baker concluded its importance when it comes to building confidence among the squad.

He said: “Pre-season was relatively tough last season, but we came through unbeaten.

“After drawing two we won the last six matches, but then lost our first league game before winning the next eight. You want to win games in pre-season because it gives you confidence going into the season.”