Rapid Devarn Green’s pace can be ‘game-changer’ for AFC Telford

Lightning attacker Green, 25, trained with his new side for the first time on Tuesday evening having checked in as a free agent following a departure from League Two Scunthorpe at the end of January.

Carden knows the speedster well. He coached highly-rated prodigy Green at Blackburn’s youth set-up before he monitored progress at the likes of Stourbridge and then Tranmere, where Carden himself had just exited. He also had the flyer on a successful loan at former club Warrington Town.

The Bucks chief, whose side remain third-bottom of National League North, has told Green he is keen to see the difference he can make to his team – beginning with a tough ask away at second-placed Brackley this weekend.

“I’ve know ‘D’ for a long time now, from when I coached in the academy at Blackburn,” Carden explained of Green, who can play anywhere across the frontline, either centrally or out wide.

“Devarn was a scholar at the time and highly thought of.

“He’s had a bit of an up and down, stop-start career, and the reason why you’ve seen him play in the Football League is because he’s got that quality and got that pace.

“He had a spell at Stourbridge and did really well. He moved to Tranmere, I’d just left there but I was asked about him while there, I said he was definitely worth looking at.

“He’s got real pace, game-changing pace, Tranmere took him in and he made a few appearances there and I actually took him on loan to Warrington and he did really well.

“I said to him on Tuesday night, hopefully we get that bounce from him, that enjoyment, spring in his step, get him scoring goals, making things happen for us, to get him back playing to a level that will generate interest.”

Green, a National League runner-up with Tranmere in 2018, made 62 appearances in all competitions during two years at Scunthorpe and Carden revealed his surprised that the attacker was released. The boss added: “He’s a good lad and when I heard he’d been paid up for a mutual termination at Scunthorpe I was thinking ‘what’s happened there?’ They wanted to free up some funds.

“He’s played a lot of football, made a lot of appearances for them, it was quite a surprise.

“But I’ve known him a long time, there was a few clubs interested and we moved to try to do something and thankfully he’s accepted.

“Whether people look at it and go ‘oh it’s another attacker, we need defenders’ – we do, we know we do – but I’m never going to turn down a player that improves us.”

Carden is looking to wrap up another new addition for his side ahead of Saturday’s trip to high-flying Brackley, who smashed Telford’s relegation rivals Guiseley 5-0 away on Tuesday evening.

Bucks goalkeeper Russ Griffiths, meanwhile, who has lost his place to former Stafford Rangers Luke Pilling has been weighing up options to leave the club. He is free to exit having refused to travel to the recent draw at Kettering.