Nuneaton v Telford: Bucks hope frustration will give way to super Sunday

Despite Nuneaton being unable to host games at their Liberty Way home, the two play-off chasers will face off at Barwell’s UK Flooring Direct Stadium tomorrow afternoon.

It was another disruption for Kevin Wilkin’s side, and the manager did not hide his frustration at the issue.

“A lot of people have worked really hard to make sure we have a game this weekend,” he said. “It’s wrong that any club should have to pay for where another club finds themselves.”

Wilkin added: “Other clubs having to pay for where Nuneaton find themselves, having to shuffle things around and be inconvenienced by it, I think that’s unfair.

“We expect to play our games on Saturday, the fact they’ve allowed themselves to get into that position means we have to be inconvenienced by it which isn’t great.

“We’re not going to make any excuses; we’ll get on with it and give it our very best.”

Getting a game on this weekend was vital for the Bucks, especially after they returned to action with a win last weekend.

And Wilkin is desperate to ensure his side are not left with a fixture pile-up in the new year.

“It was just good to have a game to be honest, all the uncertainty of everything isn’t ideal for us or for anybody,” he explained.

“Losing Tuesday and then the concerns as to whether we’d have a game the following week, that could potentially have been one game in five weeks which is absolutely unheard of especially at this stage of the season.

“We’ve moved ourselves into a pretty good position at the minute with the run that we’ve been on, but the worry is that we’ve lost the Coalville game, if we would’ve lost the Nuneaton game, we’d be going Saturday-Tuesday for most if not all of January.”

Sunday will be the second meeting between the two sides this season, with Telford thrashing the Boro 7-0 at New Bucks Head in August.

Despite having the psychological edge over their opponents as a result of that win, Wilkin admitted he doubts it will have any bearing on the outcome this weekend:

“They’re a different side to the one we played and beat earlier on in the season; they’ve had one or two change arounds that they’re reaping the benefits of,” he said. “It’s going to be a really tough game for us, and we can’t take any notice of the previous game ahead of it.”

Wilkin continued: “They’ll be wounded by that and driven by that, and it’s important that we understand that that game has gone, and this is a fresh start.

“They’ve got good players in the ranks, they’ve proved on this run that they’ve turned a corner and it’s going to be a real tough game.

“There’s not a lot between us in terms of positions and points which just adds to the spice of what the game will hopefully be.”