DANNY Scopes admits Concord Rangers ‘could not have asked for a harder tie’ in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

The Beach Boys are set to do battle with National League South rivals Slough Town as both sides enter the competition.

While his side overcame high-flying Slough at the Aspect Arena earlier in the campaign, Scopes concedes tomorrow’s visitors have improved considerably since that meeting.

Concord chief Scopes said: “They made a bad start to the season and lost three on the bounce, but they had a lot of injuries at that stage.

“Slough have had a consistent squad over the last few seasons, so I think the injuries affected their start.

“We played them at a good time for us and we caught them on the perfect day.

“But they deserve credit because they have gone on a very good run since and are now second in the league.

“Slough will come into the game off the back of a good win at Chippenham last week and we could not have asked for a harder tie at this stage.

“The good thing is that we are at home and our form at the Aspect Arena has been fairly consistent this season.”

Concord made a flying start to the campaign, which was helped by a 2-1 win over Slough in the first contest of the season.

However, the encounter proved to be a turning point for Slough as they have lost just twice in all competitions since and climbed up to second place in the National League South standings.

Slough head to south Essex having recorded a comfortable 3-0 win over Chippenham Town last time out, while the Beach Boys bounced back from a two-goal deficit to seal a late 3-3 draw with Dorking Wanderers.

And Scopes believes his outfit will head into the weekend full of confidence.

“The win earlier in the season gives us a little bit of confidence ahead of playing them again,” added Scopes.

“But it’s such a tight league that you can’t read into it too much.

“Slough are in a good moment at present and it would be great to beat them for the second time this season because we want to progress in the competition.

“We would like to think that we have not got the points our performances deserve.

“We are confident about what we are doing and we will treat it like any other league game.

“The game will be totally different to last time we played them because they have been pretty consistent since and we have evolved in that time as well.”