Scott Davies, the player-manager of Slough Town, describes his role as "tough, stressful, completely draining … but I absolutely love what I do." His team, sitting third from bottom in the National League South, holds a unique distinction: they are the lowest-ranked side remaining in this season's FA Cup.
A Dual Life: Manager and Mentor
Balancing management with another vocation, Davies's week is a study in contrasts. One day, he is on the 3G pitch at Arbour Park, overseeing a rain-soaked training session shared with a junior team. The next, he stands before a lecture theatre of sixth-formers at an Aylesbury grammar school, delivering a sobering talk. His subject is the gambling addiction that derailed his promising professional football career, strained his relationships, and brought him to the brink of ending his own life.
Davies has not placed a bet in ten years, following a stint in rehab. He now works as an educator for Epic Risk Management, warning of gambling's dangers. His message is rooted in painful experience. He recalls the high of scoring a free-kick against Chelsea's Petr Cech in a 2009 pre-season friendly for Reading, believing he had "made it." By then, aged just 21, his betting was already spiralling out of control.
The Addiction That Cost a Career
As a talented Championship midfielder, Davies would sneak out of training to visit bookmakers, fabricating excuses like dentist appointments. This deception unravelled when his then-manager, Brendan Rodgers, demanded he call the dentist to confirm. Unable to do so, Davies was subsequently frozen out at Reading.
The addiction deepened. After a missed transfer to Leeds United, he lost £7,000 in a single day. At Crawley Town, he began gambling on his own matches, sneaking into toilet cubicles at half-time to place bets. Later, at Oxford United, he would stay up all night betting. By 26, his career was in freefall, culminating in a drop to the seventh tier with Dunstable Town.
"I remember looking at [Reading's] ground as I went past it and thinking: 'What has happened?'" Davies says of the bus journey to his Dunstable debut. "I'm never going to forget that moment."
Building a New Culture at Slough
Now 37, married, and a father to a 10-month-old daughter, Davies has found stability and a new purpose in management. His assistant at Slough is Tony Fontenelle, his former coach at Dunstable. Together, they have fostered an environment deliberately opposed to the macho culture Davies encountered as a young player.
"We always stress the importance that we're not just managers: we're life coaches, we're counsellors, we're father figures," Davies explains. The dressing room has become a space where players can openly discuss personal struggles, a far cry from the isolation he felt during his addiction.
He believes young footballers are particularly vulnerable to problem gambling, citing the combination of disposable income, spare time, competitive instincts, and perceived "insider knowledge." "When you put all of those things together, you've pretty much got the perfect customer for a bookmaker," he states bluntly.
The FA Cup Dream and Righting Wrongs
Davies's management career began abruptly three years ago when the Slough board offered him the job following a resignation. Despite having done little coaching since his first badge at 16, he embraced the challenge, recently earning his UEFA B licence and planning for his A licence.
"There's a lot of regret," he admits, "but the beauty of coming out the other side and moving on to management is that I'm going to right the wrongs of my playing career with what will hopefully be a long, distinguished management career."
That ambition now intertwines with a historic FA Cup run. Slough have navigated four rounds already and face Macclesfield in the second round. The club has never reached the third round, and their eight second-round exits are a non-league record. The financial stakes are monumental; a draw against a Premier League giant could mean a seven-figure windfall for a squad filled with builders, personal trainers, and teaching assistants.
Davies allows himself to dream of a tactical showdown with the likes of Pep Guardiola, albeit with realistic expectations. "It's one of those where you'd be happy to lose the football match just for the experience," he says. "It's incredible to see the non-league teams that get drawn against some of these giants over the years. You see it and you think: 'One day, can it be you?'"
For Scott Davies, after a long road through addiction and recovery, that dream is now tantalisingly within reach.
