THE DOERS AND DREAMERS

To be printed in the FA Cup 2nd round game v Macclesfield Sunday 7th December 2025

Photo by Scott McNeish

In any rational world neither Macclesfield or Slough Town football clubs would exist. Basket-cases that any sane person would have put out of their misery. Thankfully football and life, isn't completely dictated by money and logic and there’s always the doers and dreamers who refuse to give up. Who refuse to take no for an answer and listen to their hearts rather than their heads.

The fall and rise of Macclesfield has been well documented, less so that of Slough Town. But the Rebels were homeless for 15 long years as they plummeted down the leagues, fighting the council to find us a new ground while trying to keep a competitive team on the pitch. But a hardcore group never stopped believing or supporting them; driven by people like Chris Sliski, who is sadly no longer with us and former chairman Steve Easterbrook who grabbed the club by the scruff of its scrawny neck and finally got us back in the town we represent.

We recently lost another one of those doers and dreamers - Phil Ashford. I had only really started getting to know him. He’d moved to Reading a while back and was supporting the Royals, but was slowly being pulled back to the Rebels including our last FA Cup game. Our politics aligned but rather than just shouting from the sidelines, he lived those politics supporting people who’d fallen on hard times for whatever reason. You can tell the measure of a man by the outpourings after their passing. One of our supporters Sarah posted “The world is a darker place since the light that is Phil Ashford went out. Don’t have enough words to describe how much difference he made to so many people, both through his work and his kind, generous and giving nature in his personal life. Rest in peace Phil You have touched so many hearts and lives.”

Another, Nada wrote “Wonderful human being who had an infinite amount of kindness and belief that every person had the right to live with dignity and justice, and access to good times, too!”

Phil was good fun to be around. He introduced me to the Facebook sensation that is Non League Bins, its cover page now our very own Welly waving one of our bashed bins in the air in celebration. Phil played his last gig at Arbour Park which was outside and bizarrely while a match was going on. He said he couldn’t stop shouting ‘offside’ on the mic. They were even thinking of changing the bands name simply to Slough’. He’s going to be missed by so many.

I recently arrived at Arbour Park with BBC Breakfast in tow; parents with their children were turning up in droves, there was a busy gym and 150 business leaders attending for a conference. The journalists have promised a positive article about the town and the club – knocking Slough is like shooting fish in a barrel. And they delivered. They had started their filming at Slough Museum and the truth is Slough the Town has always been a place full of doers and dreamers - like an industrial Silicon valley with all its inventions. As the song goes – Zebra crossings, Thunderbirds, Mars Bars and Bins, Biggest Trading Estate, David Brent – these are all Slough things. Then there’s – Roundabouts, Cox's Orange Pippins, Infrared, snooker, first ever community centre and so much more that I just can’t get to rhyme.

Once our new owners took over the Arbour Park lease from the council, the club has been turbo charged. Not just new infrastruture but new iniatiatives as well as hundreds of people playing on the pitch – from youngsters, ladies team, walking football, men v fat, disability..there's hardly a spare second on the artifical turf. The club have become the glue that binds communities together – even more important in a town like Slough.

But there’s always so much more to do and why so much is riding on this game, that I feel physically sick. I don’t have bucket lists but if I did, right up there would be Slough Town in the Third Round of the FA Cup after eight glorious second round failures.

I don’t want to over egg this game, but the riches from being in their Third Round, the spotlight it would bring to the club, wont just define this season, but potentially the next decade. It would be like winning the lottery and then some, but sharing that win with thousands of others.

So I dedicate this match to the doers and dreamers. We need more of them in this world. But first things first - today we need to win. So let’s make some noise Rebel Army and put our town on the map for all the right reasons. Let’s be part of making history for our club.