Analysis: AFC Telford United are on the charge as win puts them in fifth spot

Goals from defender Orrin Pendley, his fourth of the season, and an injury-time insurance marker from substitute Tré Mitford, brought Kevin Wilkin’s side the victory their performance warranted.

It also extended their current unbeaten league run to six matches and lifted them to fifth place in the Southern Premier Central, the division’s final play-off place.

Some observers might have expected an easier contest against the league’s bottom-placed side; however, a combination of Long Eaton’s obduracy and a timid first 45 minutes from the Bucks, meant that the anticipated downpour of goals did not materialise.

There was an anticipated downpour of rain, with the conditions most accurately described as ‘soggy’, but that was the same for both teams. The Bucks did have to deal with the early loss of the quietly influential Byron Moore, the midfielder picking up what appeared to be a hamstring injury after 7 minutes.

Wilkin’s side adjusted, but it took a while, and in the meantime, Long Eaton’s belief slowly grew, albeit it never reached a point where they might have started to consider that they could win the game.

For a fourth game in succession, Wilkin named an unchanged starting XI and a substitutes bench showing no changes either. Wilkin cites consistency of selection as a key factor in the Bucks’ recent improvement, but they were forced into a shuffle before the contest had got going.

Moore limped out of the action after trying to continue but quickly realised his race was run. Jared Hodgkiss, a defender, replaced him and dropped in at left-back, with Wilkin pushing the regular left wing-back Nathan Fox further forward into a left midfield role.

Long Eaton had recorded just one win and one draw all season but buoyed by a couple of new signings appeared to be keen to make an impression. Cieron Keane, one of those new arrivals, fired a 25-yard shot too high to trouble Brandon Hall after Tom Hewlett’s surging run.

The Bucks’ response was to win a corner through Ricardo Dinanga, and from Remi Walker’s flag kick, Montel Gibson’s near-post run allowed him to meet the ball but glance it marginally too high, keeper Ross Durrant untroubled.

Gibson then fired a speculative shot too high from twenty yards after good work from captain Jordan Piggott, but the game was starting to fall into a pattern. Long Eaton was restricting the Bucks to efforts from outside the box whilst making an occasional sortie forward on the counterattack. The Bucks likewise dealt with those moments comfortably enough.

It all added up to a less-than-satisfying contest for the spectators, although the Bucks did show a bit of invention as the game entered injury time at the end of the half.

A free-kick close to the right corner flag saw Fox and Reece Styche, the Bucks’ midweek hat-trick hero, engaged in whispered conversation, and they almost conjured up a bit of magic. The cunning Fox took the kick, left-footed, and instead of putting it into the obvious near-post area, pulled it back towards the penalty spot. Styche had lost his marker, peeling away to meet the ball but getting underneath it and clearing the crossbar with his thumping drive.

Wilkin, speaking after the game, admitted that he had had to ask for more from his side during the half-time interval, feeling they were playing within themselves. They responded to his request, but it wasn’t instant.

Styche created a great opportunity for himself in the 49th minute, turning two defenders and spinning through 180 degrees, a move that saw him face-to-face with Durrant, but a despairing challenge stifled his shot and brought a corner, not a goal.

Long Eaton sprung another counterattack from the corner, and Hewlett again led them out and into the Bucks’ half. Wilkin’s side was undermanned, but Ellis Myles tore back to cover and hooked away the ball from in front of Hall as the cross was delivered.

Pendley responded to the crowd when moving forward into space and being encouraged to shoot, but should have ignored them, as his shot flew much too high and wide.

Defender Sam Whittall, who has been a rock since his arrival last month, was also finding space to come forward, and he linked up with the rapidly maturing Remi Walker to win a corner. Gibson had a subdued afternoon but got his head onto the delivery to head the ball down and off the inside of Durrant’s right post, the visitors clearing before Piggott could follow up.

Keane, one of Long Eaton’s best performers, sent a curling shot into Hall’s arms on the first bounce, but he and his colleagues were soon to be left crestfallen, as the Bucks made the breakthrough.

With Pendley still in the penalty area following set-piece, the Bucks retrieved possession and Whittall’s lay-off to Hodgkiss saw the left-back deliver an inviting, out-swinging cross. The ball dipped in over the defender at the near post and Pendley rose highest to direct a header down and into the net to Durrant’s right from just a few yards out.

The Bucks celebrated in the now pouring rain, and immediately made a change, replacing Styche with Mitford.

With the lead secured, the Bucks started to move through the gears. Dinanga sent a low, skidding shot wide of Durrant’s right post from 20-25 yards, and the keeper, who had made some decent saves, began to display a few eccentricities and misjudgements. He was almost left red-faced when he didn’t claim a routine cross, but with the ball at his feet unexpectedly and with little support, Gibson couldn’t turn to get a shot off.

In the 82nd minute, the second goal looked certain to be scored, and it would have been, but for a desperate goal-line clearance from the visitors.

Dinanga remains something of an enigma, although he looks more effective from his new role on the right, having been switched from the left by Wilkin. His low effort across the goal may have been a cross or may have been a shot, but it was going wide until Mitford slid in to redirect it. Luke Martin rescued the situation and punished Mitford for not making sure when he somehow got the ball off the line.

Long Eaton substitute Casey Johnson went close with a firmly struck and rising shot that flew wide to Hall’s right as the clock ticked down, and Walker had a shot blocked by a defensive lunge after a neat sidestep in the box following Dinanga’s set-up.

It took until the sixth minute of added time for the Bucks to get the second goal which reflected the game overall.

Durrant will not wish to see it again, however, as it was his error that finished the contest.

In 30 seconds which summed up his afternoon, he made a fine diving save to push away Dinanga’s shot to his right for a corner. The kick was cleared but when it was returned to Durrant’s penalty area, his mishap put the ball at Mitford’s feet, 12 yards from goal, and the forward couldn’t miss, tapping the ball into an unguarded net.

Did the Bucks make slightly hard work of this win? They did, but there was also a feeling that if they just stuck to their task, victory would come, and it duly did.

That sort of belief, or more a quiet confidence, is something that has been lacking around the New Buck’s Head for some time. There is no doubt that Wilkin needs more depth to his squad, something he knows and continues to work on, but there now appear to be partnerships developing in most areas of his team, suggesting there could still be much more to come.

Attendance: 879.

AFC Telford United: Hall, Myles, Fox, Piggott, Pendley, Whittall, Dinanga, Walker, Gibson, Styche (Mitford 69), Moore (Hodgkiss 7). Subs not used: Forsyth, Webster, Jones. Cautioned: Myles.

Long Eaton United: Durrant, Martin, Campbell-Gordon, Hanson (Atwal 36, Johnson 81), Bertram, Cook, Spruce (Nyahwema 62), Keane, Hewlett, Rogers, Tyson.

Subs: Cocks, Moore.

Referee: Jake Allsopp.

Assistants: James Hosie, Dean Steatham.