Shropshire Star

Telford fear five may miss FA Cup tie

AFC Telford United boss Rob Smith could be without five key players for the FA Cup tie at Worcester City tomorrow.

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The Bucks enter the second qualifying round clash at the Victoria Ground (3pm) on the back of two defeats in the National League North.

A 3-1 loss at Gainsborough Trinity was followed up by a 3-0 defeat at Gloucester City and to make matters worse, Josh Wilson (hamstring) will not feature.

Also on the injury front, Jack Rea (ankle) and Darren Campion (groin) have been described as having 'a very outside chance of playing' by Smith.

Ben Bailey will serve his one-match suspension after picking up two yellow cards at Gainsborough, while Sean Williams is unavailable.

On the likelihood of Rea and Campion figuring, Smith said: "I would say they are very doubtful. They are both struggling at the moment. Those are the players I miss because they wear their hearts on their sleeves."

"We have missed Jack massively in the middle of the park.

"We rested him purposely at Gloucester with the hope he will be available for Saturday but it's still touch and go.

"Darren is the same, he has got a groin strain, so we will have to wait and see."

Wilson, who is one of three Telford players as joint-top goalscorer with two goals this term, went off in the closing stages at Gainsborough last weekend.

In terms of when to expect him to be fit again, Smith gave a timetable of around two to four weeks.

The boss is looking for more application and desire from the side – no matter who starts the game.

"We've got to rally the troops and they have got to rally themselves to give the supporters something to shout about," added Smith.

"If I was coming down here as a supporter – travelling and paying money to get in – I would be giving out abuse so fair play to everyone that has done that.

"The minimum requirement is to put the effort in and we haven't seen that in the last two games.

"Irrelevant of who we put out there, they have got to wear the shirt with a bit more pride."

Worcester come into the match on the back of two league wins in four days following a sticky start to the National League North season, and are currently 12th in the table, four places above Telford.

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