AFC Telford United manager Kevin Wilkin reaches the 100 club

Saturday’s meeting with St Ives Town will see the Bucks boss reach a century of matches at the helm at the SEAH Stadium, during which he has overseen a huge change at the club.

After being unable to rescue the club from an almost-inevitable relegation his first season in charge, the former Brackley boss almost guided AFC Telford to an immediate return to step two, missing out in the play-off final to Leamington.

And as the Bucks look to go one better this season, Wilkin admitted he is desperate to deliver success at the club he ‘loves'.

“It’s been a bit of an up and down period hasn’t it, it’s been a journey,” the experienced boss reflected. “When I look back on the squad I inherited I’m not sure many people would’ve been able to keep it in that division to be honest with you, and the proof in the pudding is where all of those players are playing now.

“It was disappointing, but I knew I wasn’t in it for the short term, and I wanted to make a change on what had gone on at the club previously, which I think we have done.

“Last season we narrowly missed out on winning the league, and for whatever reason we had a decent play-off experience up until the very last knockings.”

Wilkin continued: "Starting again this season, and losing some key players in the summer, clearly I’ll hold my hands up and say there’s been a question mark around whether I’ve replaced them.

“Sometimes these things happen, but with the best will in the world we’re trying hard to pull things back around.

“I’m trying to do my best because I love this club, and I really want to be successful here.”

The Telford boss also admitted he enjoys working at the club, in what he described as a ‘challenging environment’ amid budget constraints and supporter expectations.

“Looking at the investment going on at other clubs at this level, it’s astronomical, and we’re nowhere near the biggest spenders in this division. We’re doing our best with what we’ve got,” Wilkin said. “I don’t want to make excuses, and I’ll hold my hands up and say I have made one or two mistakes, but any manager would do that.”

He finished: “I know there’s people that are unsettled and there's a little bit of unrest, but these are similar traits that have been going on at Telford, forget about myself, with previous managers before.

“Somehow that has to be addressed, and we need to change the way we do things, we need to look at other ways of doing things and hopefully that’ll happen in the coming weeks.

“It’s a challenging environment to work in, and we do understand that, but I enjoy it.

“I want to be accountable, and if people aren’t happy they’re perfectly entitled to that opinion.”