Boss confident Bucks can triumph

AFC Telford United boss Rob Smith insists they will bounce back from their latest disappointing defeat, declaring: "We'll bale ourselves out of this."

The Bucks went down 3-0 at Fleetwood last night, a result that condemned them to back-to-back losses for the first time in more than a year.

They lost their previous game 2-1 at Matlock, and with the 0-0 draw at home to Ashton last month included have now taken just one point out of the last nine on offer.

But Smith is convinced they have the inner strength to find a way out of this rocky spell.

"I don't think we're caving in, we've played worse than we did last night and won," he declared. "We've got Lincoln at home next (on February 24) and we've got to focus on that. We've got to bale ourselves out of this, not anybody else.

"The lads are tired and they gave it everything they've got, but we didn't lose the league last night."

Telford now have an 11-day gap before their next game, and that rest period has been welcomed by their manager. "I don't think we're physically tired, but we're mentally tired," he said. "We've got a break now, and it's a welcome break.

"We will regroup. We've got 12 games to go and we'll start again."

Smith took plenty of positives from last night's defeat, picking out a number of his players for praise.

"There were some good performances out there but key goals at key times have killed us," he added.

"Richard Teesdale and Indy Khela were absolutely tremendous. I think Lee Vaughan had a good game. I think Scott Willis was tremendous and Tyrone Barnett, when he came on was superb - he'll start the next game.

"After the weekend we've had I thought they gave everything they had and I'm not going to criticise them at all," he added. "Fleetwood's delivery at set-pieces was the difference and we got punished every time."