Slough’s Scott Davies: ‘A young player can be the perfect customer for bookmakers’

Player-manager on his long road to recovery after a betting addiction, and leading the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup

“It’s tough, it’s stressful, it’s completely draining … but I absolutely love what I do,” says Scott Davies, sitting in an empty dressing room waiting for his players to arrive for training. Since 2022, Davies has been the player-manager of Slough Town who, in third from bottom in National League South, are the lowest ranked team left in this season’s FA Cup.

Some players are stuck in traffic; training was moved forward to teatime to accommodate a local team’s match on the Arbour Park pitch. When the session gets under way in the bucketing rain, the sixth-tier side are sharing the 3G surface with a junior team. “I always thought I’d love to be a manager of a non-league football club and have a job on the side,” says Davies. The 37-year-old has opted out of training himself, instead watching the session from inside, with a tactics board propped up in front of him. Continue reading...