Shropshire Star

AFC Telford's trialists being given more time by boss Rob Edwards

Telford’s trialists have three more chances to impress Rob Edwards before the Bucks’ boss starts closing in on his squad.

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Telford boss Rob Edwards

Edwards is keen to keep his numbers to around 18 or 20 players, and is ‘starting to get a good idea’ of who he wants – but he doesn’t plan to make any concrete choices until next week.

The Bucks travel to Wolves Sporting tomorrow, before taken a team to The New Saints in the Shropshire Senior Cup on Thursday. On Saturday, they host Hereford at home.

“I had a chat with a couple of players yesterday, we’re now starting to get a good idea,” said Edwards. “We’ve got Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and then after that we can sit down and tell them. There’s still decisions to be made on a few.

“We’ve got a large group at the moment. On Saturday we had 20, that kind of squad size would be good. If a few drop out of that, we’ll bring in a few.”

Telford’s trialists include striker Ant Dwyer, goalkeeper Sheridan Martinez, midfielder Will Marsh, defender Aaron Hayden, and winger Jordan Evans – all who featured in a 1-0 defeat to Wolves’ Under-23s at the weekend.

Despite the defeat, Edwards was pleased following last week’s 4-0 defeat against an Aston Villa XI.

“No one likes to lose a game, but if we’re going to lose there’s a way to do it,” said Edwards. “I thought the lads worked extremely hard and showed real threat.

“In the second half we pressed better, won the ball back higher. It was pleasing to see them implementing some of the messages we’re trying to get across. The work rate was different class, the attitude was great.

“It was a really good game, the frustrating thing is we didn’t score.

"But it’s pre-season it’s about getting fit and staying fit and Saturday ticked all those boxes.

“We’re looking to improve in every single game. The message after last Wednesday’s game with Villa was we want to see an improvement and we certainly did.”

One of Telford’s trialists is former Solihull Moors keeper Martinez, who started ahead of No.1 Jasbir Singh.

“It’s good to have two goalkeepers,” said Edwards. “We definitely want to run with that, we don’t want to go into the season was one.

“Shez has made a good impression and Jas has been good too. He’s a leader experienced at this level but it’s important the two can push each other and at the moment they’re doing that.”