Paul Carden urges his AFC Telford players to keep the faith
Paul Carden wants AFC Telford to take confidence and belief from their performance at Chorley – despite losing last time out.
The Bucks are fighting to save their National League North status with three games of the league campaign left, including this weekend’s double-header, beginning at home to seventh-placed Boston.
Telford are winless in two, having followed up a poor display at Hereford with a much-improve performance at Chorley, but lost 1-0.
“Obviously you don’t enjoy getting beat, it’s as simple as that,” Carden said of his second-bottom side. “You wouldn’t be worthy of any position in the game if you enjoyed a defeat.
“Against Hereford we didn’t perform, against Chorley we did and we didn’t get the result the performance warranted.
“When we perform as well as we did against a side that’s been up there all season, a side that is fancied, and we resorted to them just clearing aimlessly. It should give confidence in the performance and levels we can get to.”
Carden, who has a full squad to select from at the New Bucks Head tomorrow, added: “It shows how fine the margins are. If you think of teams we’ve played, a lot have been up the top of vying for the play-offs.
“The draws have been against a lot of teams around us, there’s only the Spennymoor game where there’s been more than a goal in it, and that was in our favour. We totally deserved that.
“When we’ve been on the wrong side of results it’s been really close, that’s the frustrating part but that’s the way the league is.
“We’ve just got to try our best to get the right side of the margin because they’re so fine.
“We know we’re capable of it because we’ve shown it. Even in some defeats away from home, Brackley and Chorley, they are pushing for promotion year in, year out.
“We’ve got to hit those levels, we need the numbers in the starting XI to perform, like they did on Saturday.
“We’re more than capable of beating teams in this league because we’ve shown it.”
Carden’s side are two points clear of basement side Guiseley, currently in the sole relegation place.
Asked what return he is aiming for from three fixtures against Boston, Southport and York, he said: “Just as long as finish above at least one team – that is the target.”
