We must believe in ourselves, says AFC Telford's John Marsden

It’s been a frustrating time for the Bucks, who have endured a five-match winless run in the league and had their weekend game against Nuneaton Town postponed due to a frozen pitch, writes Paul Joannou.

Darlington picked up a point to drop Telford into the bottom three, but Marsden isn’t panicking just yet.

“Nobody’s happy with where we are but we’re not worrying too much,” said the forward. “Apart from the first half against York City where we were poor we have performed well.

“We were more than a match for Salford in the first half, it was just a couple of individual mistakes that cost us but bar that we gave a really good account of ourselves, and in the second half against York we showed we can compete with anyone in the league.

“We just need to do that for 90 minutes but I think it may just be self belief.

“I couldn’t put my finger on why we were so poor in that first half against York but we’ve put runs of back-to-back wins together of wins at the start of the season and that’s all it will take to get the confidence back.”

Rob Edwards’ side haven’t played a bottom-half club since mid November and have faced four of the top seven sides and Marsden feels only fine margins let them down during that difficult run of fixtures.

“When you look at it on paper we couldn’t have had a tougher Christmas period,” he explained. “We played Kidderminster twice, Brackley, Salford and then York who are all up there.

“We weren’t expected to take a lot from those games but we got two very good draws against Kidderminster and Brackley. It was just a few errors that let us down over that period

“We just need to turn performances into results and keep those levels for 90 minutes we need to get points.”

The former Stockport man believes there is enough quality in the Bucks squad to get out of trouble and expressed his delight about the club’s latest signing.

“We do have a bit of experience in the squad but maybe not all been in the environment of a relegation battle,” added Marsden. “Ellis Deeney has come in and he’s a top player, very composed on the ball and was always tough to play against for Tamworth.

“It’s really tight down there but we have the games in hand so we’ve just got to stick together.

“We’ve got a good group here and a great dressing room. We just need to have belief in our selves.”

Telford will be hoping to bounce back against Harrogate Town this coming weekend.