AFC Telford in confident mood after upturn in form

The Bucks, still looking to confirm their National League North status for next season by ensuring survival, welcome struggling Blyth Spartans to the New Bucks Head tomorrow.

Carden said of his five unbeaten side: “I think confidence is a big thing.

“You watch top-level football, Premier League this week, there’s a team who has a little bit of confidence behind them in Burnley and a team who have zero confidence in Everton.

“And yet you’d probably take more Everton players than Burnley players – but confidence is crucial.

“Like I said before there’s no game in this division that’s ever easy, no matter where they are in the league.

“The teams that are at the top tend to be more consistent and have more confidence when they’re playing, that tends to be the difference between top and bottom.”

The boss added: “You can (sense it) because some of our performances in training as a whole group are top drawer, but training doesn’t get you points.

“I know people would say ‘well that’s how it should be’ – but it’s not always like that for different reasons but training’s been good, the lads are in a good place but we need to keep at it.

“We had a great win on Saturday, it was three points – a big three points – but that’s all it was. We’ve got six games, teams around us have got more, we need to just keep doing what we’re doing.”

Visitors Blyth have slipped to second bottom after a run of just one win in seven. Carden added: “All games are tough, I’m not saying that just to cover anything up.

“I watched Blyth a couple of times, they’ve got capable players, they won away at Chorley 1-0, drew at Boston (last week), they’ve won at Southport. They are capable.

“They’ve had defeats among those, but we have to do what we always do and make sure we are right with an eye on what we need to do.”