Reference an instance of slide-box via a popover link?

The title is quite self-explanatory. All I want really is to be able to use ng-click="nextSlide()" just like I use it in the header or anywhere else in the main document. Seems though that from this bit,

<script id="popover.html" type="text/ng-template">
      <ion-popover-view>
        <ion-content>
          <div class="list">
            <a class="item" ng-click="nextSlide()">
              Link_1
            </a>
            <a class="item" href="http://ionicframework.com/docs/" target="_blank">
              Link_2
            </a>
          </div>
        </ion-content>
      </ion-popover-view>
    </script>

which is the template for the popover, it doesn’t work. Any solutions?