AFC Telford United 3-0 Bradford Park Avenue - Report

As a result, the Bucks climbed out of the basement of the Vanarama National League North with a second successive victory. The performance bore similarities to last week’s victory over Darlington, and whilst another 5-0 victory would have been a huge ask, a clean sheet and a sense of a team who are knitting together confidently has resulted in some big strides towards a positive future.

The Bucks’ Brad Bood may look like a boy amongst men; however, his performances and approach to the game suggest a maturity greater than his 18 years. Bood took part in a trial match at Premier League side Brentford this week, and whilst he must have been feeling ten feet tall, Bood remains short on height, although certainly not on talent.

Bood’s lack of stature played a role in the game’s pivotal moment, which arrived just seven minutes into the contest; as players positioned themselves for an Avenue throw into the Telford penalty area, Bood pushed Avenue’s Dylan Mottley-Henry; the Avenue player responded by swinging his arm backwards. On a taller player, Mottley-Henry’s injudicious act might have caught them in the chest, but instead it caught Bood flush in the face, and he crumpled to the turf.

Referee David McNamara didn’t appear to have seen the incident clearly; as the Bucks fans howled for sanction, he consulted his assistant before calling Mottley-Henry to him, reaching for his back pocket and dismissing the Avenue player. Leaving the field at possibly the furthest point from the dressing room, Mottley-Henry had a lengthy walk, past his own team’s dugout en route, to contemplate his act.

Down to ten men, a clearly unhappy Avenue boss Mark Bower withdrew striker Oli Johnson into midfield to replace Mottley-Henry, leaving Brad Dockerty on his own up front. Avenue sat deep, arguably making the Bucks task harder by giving them the challenge of breaking through two lines of four players.

The Bucks had started the game brightly, Brendon Daniels and Kai Williams both having goalscoring attempts, but now faced a different test; one of their patience. With 80 minutes to play against ten men, surely the chances would arrive? They did; however, Carden felt his team were guilty of being over-eager to assert their advantage, and for all they enjoyed lots of possession and territory, Avenue stood resolute, led by former Bucks captain Luca Havern.

The next goalscoring opportunity fell to the visitors, Bucks captain and custodian Russ Griffiths having to push away a shot from distance, but the hosts then went closer still. Jason Oswell and Keaton Ward waited at the far post for a cross from the left, and when Ward knocked the ball down, Oswell swivelled onto it to smash the ball against the crossbar, the ball ricocheting to safety.

Just a handful of minutes later, a rejuvenated Oswell looked set to be on the end of another cross before a defender’s intervention took the ball off his head. The Bucks onslaught continued a minute later; this time a cross was too high for Oswell, but was collected by Williams whose shot from a tight angle beat keeper George Sykes-Kenworthy and came off his near post before flying through the six-yard box and clear before anyone could capitalise.

The Bucks’ full-backs, Bood and Jordan Piggott, were both keen to create overloads on either flank, overlapping but without the final ball to match. Just as it seemed that Avenue had seen the Bucks off, they struck, and Piggott was pivotal. Striding into a ball played into the inside right position, Piggott reached the ball half-a-yard of Avenue’s wily veteran Nicky Clee. His tempting cross was missed by defence and forwards alike, but not Brendon Daniels, who calmly side-footed a powerful angled shot past Sykes-Kenworthy and into the far corner.

That goal came on 40 minutes, but the Bucks were grateful to Griffiths for having a half-time lead. From an Avenue attack, Clee hooked the ball on towards the edge of the box where he located Johnson; slipping the ball to his right, it was met by Dockerty, left unattended, but Griffiths managed to get fingertips onto his shot to send it just wide of the far post.

Carden revealed that his half-time instructions involved telling Bood and Piggott to hold back a little, to give their team more space to move the ball and create the spaces to really open Avenue up.

In the early stages Oswell was again on the end of their attacking moves, unable to take advantage before Sykes-Kenworthy dropped on the loose ball from a corner and then heading straight at the keeper.

Avenue still carried a threat, Clee’s corner delivered just too high for Havern at the far post, and the sense that the Bucks needed the insurance of a second goal grew. Sykes-Kenworthy tipped over a Daniels cross that became more of a shot the closer it got to goal, and then Oswell was left frustrated when he controlled a cross and found space to turn but saw his effort blocked.

Oswell’s frustration was soon to end. The striker has had some lean times leading the Bucks line, but was a real handful in this game, making the right runs to meet the deliveries. He was in the right place when Avenue gave up possession in their own half; Williams took the ball on and nudged the ball to his left for Oswell, and his close-range finish and celebration were either nonchalance personified, or those of a man relieved to have the metaphorical monkey off his back.

Two goals ahead, and things were looking good until a few seconds later, when the Bucks were hit with a setback. Avenue’s Sam Fielding, on loan from York City, caught Williams with what Carden later described as a “naughty challenge”, one he felt might have been punished by more than the yellow card it received. Williams limped off, later heading for the dressing room on crutches.

The Bucks sent on Brayden Shaw to replace Williams, and Avenue also sought to gamble, sending on forward Lewis Knight. Oswell really had the bit between his teeth after his goal, and saw two shots in fairly quick succession saved by Sykes-Kenworthy as he tried to put the game beyond Avenue. He was to make way for Andre Wright soon afterwards, but had put in a good afternoon’s work.

With Avenue tiring and the Bucks moving the ball confidently, Wright looked keen to record his first goal in Bucks colours. Wright and Mace Goodridge each had further efforts blocked. In the closing minutes, Liam Nolan, the defensive midfield bedrock of this victory, put a rare blot on his copybook when booked for a raised foot in what looked a 50/50 challenge with Knight.

It mattered not, especially when the Bucks closed the game out with their third goal, on 88 minutes. Goodridge had scored twice in successive games and was felt by many to be the team’s outstanding performer against Darlington. He stretched his scoring streak to three matches when he spun onto the ball from a right-wing cross and fired past Sykes-Kenworthy at his near post.

Wright curled an injury-time effort wide, one which would have given him the distinction of scoring the club’s 1000th league goal since their reformation in 2004, but that will have to wait for another day.

At the end of the game, defensive partners Zak Lilly and Theo Streete joyously celebrated not just the victory, but a second clean sheet in succession. Both achievements had been a real team effort, and although Carden stressed afterwards that much hard work still lies ahead, the Bucks appetite for the fight appears renewed.

Referee: David McNamara.

Assistants: Daniel Stokes, Joshua Hackett.

Attendance: 1,157.

TEAMS

Telford: Griffiths, Streete, Bood, Piggott, Lilly, Nolan, Ward, Goodridge, Daniels (Baker 86), Oswell (Wright 76), Williams (Shaw 7).

Subs not used: Bower, White.

Scorers: Daniels (40), Oswell (50), Goodridge (88).

Cautioned: Lilly, Nolan.

Bradford (PA): Sykes-Kenworthy, Ross, Hinds (Nowakowski 76), Lund, Havern, Fielding, Mottley-Henry, Hopper, Dockerty, Johnson (Knight 67), Clee (Guilfoyle 81).

Subs not used: Hall, Toulson.

Cautioned: Fielding.

Dismissed: Mottley-Henry.