Paul Carden rues performance switch in AFC Telford's draw with Blyth Spartans
Manager Paul Carden was left to rue a Jekyll and Hyde performance from AFC Telford United after their 2-2 draw with Blyth Spartans, writes Rich Worton.
The Bucks salvaged a point in injury time to extend their unbeaten run to six matches.
And though Guiseley’s 4-1 defeat at Gloucester City means they remain marooned at the foot of the table, the sense that the Bucks lost an opportunity to gain three points wasn’t lost on Carden.
“Our performances in the first half and the second half were poles apart,” he said. “Some of our play in the first half was really good – we got down the sides of them on numerous occasions, and they defended really well at times to prevent us getting a goal earlier.
“We’ve come in at half-time a goal up and looking forward to stepping on it in the second half, but we didn’t do a lot of the things we spoke about at half-time.
“I said before the game that we were passing it back too many times to Luke (Pilling, goalkeeper), but in the second half we just kept passing it back to him, and it was infuriating. We went away from a lot of the good stuff we did in the first half, and it caused us so many problems.”
Carden didn’t wholly lay the blame at his own team’s door, giving equal credit to Blyth: “They made changes, they changed their set-up and put us under pressure, and we suffered.
“They were two poor goals, defensively. The first one, we were wide open; a little bit of movement has caused us to be too far apart as a defence and the lad’s drilled it into the bottom corner.
“On the second, they got down the side of us far too easily, and there were one or two who could have scored it at the back post; it was just massively disappointing.”
Those goals cancelled out Jason Oswell’s first-half opener for the Bucks, but they showed they are made of sterner stuff under Carden to level the scores in injury time.
The boss added: “We lose that game a couple of months ago, but the little bit of quality we showed in the second half caused them problems, and it was quality from Byron (Moore) to deliver an unbelievable cross for Devarn (Green); I don’t even think he headed it, it’s just come off his side.
“I will criticise some of our playing and decision-making in the second half, but the fact that we keep going and kept going to get something out of the game shows that we want to win this fight.”
An injury to assistant referee Luis Martin in the first half meant a 15-minute delay while a replacement official was found, and in a bizarre turn of events it was Chris O’Donnell, the brother of one of Blyth’s players, who took the flag.
Carden had to agree to him taking over, but felt there was never any question of him not doing so: “I know of him, I know his brother; it’s a bit bizarre – his brother played for Blyth today, JJ O’Donnell. I’ve actually met him before, when we were both at Luton together. He’s an official at a reasonable, decent level, and you have to trust his integrity and his honesty to do the best job he can. I don’t think he had much to do, but it’s not too many times that the linesman goes off with a pulled calf.”
Carden was able to joke about the events, saying:
“A couple of people came forward, one who was a fan and one was from their board; I think their fan had just put his pie and his pint down, which wouldn’t have been ideal, but I didn’t think there was any issue with the officials today.”
