Telford boss Kevin Wilkin's high hopes for 2024

The Bucks boss has now been in the hot-seat for over a year, in which time the club were relegated out of the National League North and have made a solid start to life in the Southern Central Premier.

And as a new year approaches, Wilkin admitted he hopes his journey with the club is only getting started.

“I want to be successful here and I haven’t done that yet,” he said. “That’s my aim and my goal, to try to make us successful this season which hopefully we’re taking steps towards.”

Wilkin continued: “We’re growing, and we’ll continue to grow, there’s certainly room for improvement and I want to improve us to a point where we can go and win something.

“I want a team that I can be proud of, and I know supporters are very much the same, and that’s always been the aim.

“I can’t always promise that we’re going to win every game, but I can promise that hopefully all of those players are going to go and give 100 per cent every time they take to the field with the Telford shirt on.”

2023 actually started positively for the club despite last season’s relegation.

Telford went five games unbeaten in the National League North but were unable to mount a survival fight, recording four wins, nine draws and eleven losses in the 24 league games.

And unsurprisingly Wilkin does not look back on those times with fond memories.

“The disappointment of relegation is something I’d never experienced before and that hurts,” he revealed. “Last season we were trying to unpick well over a season or more’s failures and were trying to do that in a short space of time with limited money.”

Wilkin added: “Recruitment hadn’t been where it needed to be for probably two seasons prior to my arrival.

“My intention is to try to get us back on the map and competing consistently so that we can hopefully be successful.”

Key to the Telford rebuild was a huge overhaul of players in the summer, with Wilkin and his staff recruiting 16 new faces to replace the waves of outgoings.

And while on-field talent is of course key, it is the off-field culture that the Bucks boss is most pleased to have cultivated.

“I just think looking at some of the personnel from last year you see what a changed group we are, I think we’ve brought more local players to the club and players that understand the club a bit better than those we inherited last year,” he explained.

“To give an example, Sam (Whittall) has been out injured but on Boxing Day he was helping with putting the kit out; Fraser (Kerr) when he was out would help carry bags and lend something to the dressing room.

“That’s a couple of examples of players in the group that are humble, obviously disappointed not to be playing but still offering something and we didn’t get that really last year, not as many.”

The Bucks boss added: “I’m not saying all the players last year were like that, there were some good characters in there, but there weren’t enough good characters or people who cared about the club or understood what a club like Telford expects of them.

“The players deserve tremendous credit for getting us out of the difficult patch and understanding the job at hand.

“I’ve enjoyed the opening half to this season, and I want to enjoy 2024 that is for sure.”