The job is challenging, it’s stressful, it’s completely draining … but I absolutely love my role,” remarks Scott Davies, positioned in an vacant locker area waiting for his squad to arrive for training. For the past two years, Davies has been the player-manager of the National League South side who, positioned third bottom of the standings, are the lowest-placed club left in this campaign’s FA Cup.
Balancing Two Worlds: Management and Education
A few squad members are stuck in traffic; the session was shifted forward to the evening to make way for a local team’s match. When the session commences in bucketing rain, the non-league outfit are using the 3G surface with a youth side. “I long believed I’d love to be a manager of a semi-professional team and work on the side,” notes Davies. The 37-year-old has chosen not to participate, instead watching from inside, with a tactics board propped up in front of him.
“We always stress the significance that our role extends beyond coaching: we’re life coaches, advisors, role models,” he says.
On the previous day, he is at Aylesbury grammar school for his other job. Over the course of 45 minutes, he silences a lecture theatre of sixth-formers with a sobering talk on how a betting problem ruined his career as a professional footballer, put a strain on his relationships and took him to the verge of suicide.
A Career Derailed: The Descent
After going into rehab 10 years ago, Davies has not placed a bet since and is now an advocate on the dangers of gambling. He details to pupils how, when he netted a set-piece against a top goalkeeper in a summer match, he thought he had made it. But by then, at 21 years old, his gambling was out of control.
The talented midfielder, then playing Championship football, was slipping away of training at the first opportunity to head to the betting shop, often fabricating reasons to leave. When asked by his coach to prove it, Davies was unable to. He was not picked by Reading again.
While on loan at Wycombe, Davies was convinced he was headed to a bigger team. When he saw they had bought another player, he went to the betting shop and squandered £7,000 in a single day. Later on, at Crawley, he started gambling on his own matches and would disappear into a restroom at half-time to place bets. Then, at Oxford United, he would stay up all night to place bets.
The Turning Point
By the age of 26, Davies’s career was in freefall. He dropped multiple levels to play for Dunstable. His first game was an away trip that passed his old stadium. “It was a moment of realisation,” Davies says. “I remember seeing the ground from the bus and wondering: ‘How did I get here?’ I’m never going to forget that moment.”
His coach from that time is now his assistant at Slough and the pair have fostered an environment where players can speak openly about their issues, dismantling the barriers of macho culture that were prevalent when Davies was a youth and was afraid to discuss his problem.
The Perfect Customer: The Vulnerability of Athletes
Each person's story is unique, Davies believes young footballers are susceptible to becoming addicted. Financial means, idle hours, a driven personality, and the supposed ‘edge’ in wagering were all factors in his downfall. “Combining all of those things together, you’ve pretty much got the perfect customer for a bookmaker.”
Ahead of Sunday’s cup match, Davies is addressing two elite teams’ under-21 teams. “I do feel like there is a duty of care to safeguard the younger generation, aspiring players, and that’s why I do the work that I do,” he explains.
Future Ambitions and FA Cup Dreams
Now settled, with a family and the father to a 10-month-old daughter, Davies is yet to retire and is aiming to start on his advanced coaching badge. “I have many regrets but the beauty of recovering and moving on to management is that I aim to correct the mistakes of my playing career.”
Slough have navigated four rounds but have never reached the third round of the Cup. Given the financial rewards, drawing a Premier League club in the subsequent stage could bring a windfall in seven figures for a team whose squad includes tradesmen, personal trainers and teaching assistants.
The prospect of facing managers such as a world-class coach is a curious one for Davies. “I don’t think we would use any complex plans. It would be a game you’d be happy to be defeated just for the experience.
“It's amazing to see the non‑league teams that get paired with some of these giants. You see it and you ask yourself: ‘Someday, could that be us?’”
