AFC Telford United boss Paul Carden admits 'lots of work to do' after 4-0 defeat to King's Lynn

Carden saw his team match the Linnets in the early stages, but the East Anglian outfit slowly took control of matters and scored four times in the final 30 minutes to leave Bucks fans somewhat despondent, and their manager admitting that changes may be needed:

“The way we folded; that was the big disappointment. We didn’t take our opportunities early on. I thought we started well. We were on the front foot; we caused a lot of problems and I think we should do better with the opportunities that we had.”

“I felt we allowed them to grow into the game, I felt we allowed them to get the ball into their front two too easily, and there wasn’t enough protection from our midfield to stop that.”

The Bucks began their season with four points from their first two games, but have conceded six times without scoring in their subsequent two fixtures, and although hampered by the unavailability of some players through injury, Carden acknowledged that the Bucks on-field set-up wasn’t working:

“I was saying only last week that we had been solid without being spectacular. Today we weren’t solid and we were far from spectacular.”

“There’s a lot of thinking to do, a lot of work to do. Do we have to change it up? Do we have to change the system? It probably looks that way. Bliss (Nate Blissett) was probably isolated too much and we may need to look at changing the system, because we not creating enough goalscoring chances or when not taking enough of the opportunities that we get because it’s a completely different game should we take the lead.”

The opening goal of the game came just after the hour, and a raised assistant referee’s flag did have some spectators feeling the goal should have been ruled out; however, Carden confirmed that a touch of the ball from Bucks player Liam Nolan meant the goal was legitimate. Jordan Ponticelli, the former Wrexham forward, profited to score, added a second within 10 minutes and then the Bucks collapsed, conceding twice more as Tyler Denton and Michael Clunan added the gloss for Lynn, and left the Bucks looking tarnished.

Carden wasn’t willing to look for external reasons as to his team’s defeat, however:

“Our own decision-making was what cost us today. I need to have a look at a few things, a few players. We’re into the season now, it’s up and moving, and we don’t want it to be the pattern it’s been it’s been in the last couple of games, because that’s obviously not going to be good. We need to have a little look at things, weigh things up and shake things up a little bit, as best we can.”