Analysis: Make no mistake - Telford are firmly in the title mix

If they weren’t sure before, then the Bucks’ 1-0 win at Mickleover appears to have made believers of a good many more Bucks followers, who are now wholly of the belief that their team are genuinely in the Southern League Premier Central division’s title race.

Victory in the suburbs of Derby was secured by a goal from captain Fraser Kerr, his first for the club, and it was a result that deposed the league leaders and took the last unbeaten record in the division into the bargain.

It wasn’t achieved easily; Mickleover didn’t taste defeat until their 14th game of the season and had won their first eleven games to set a seemingly uncatchable pace. Slowly but surely, they have been reeled in.

They remain a hugely capable side and they asked plenty of questions of Kevin Wilkin’s team; however, whatever questions are asked of them, the Bucks are currently able to find the answers.

In this game, all the values that Wilkin has tried to introduce to the club and his team were on display. They were organised, resolute and worked incredibly hard for one another to retain the early advantage given to them by Kerr’s 9th-minute header. There was quality too, in how the Bucks managed the ball.

They were helped in that respect by Byron Moore’s return to the starting XI, with Sam Whittall also back in the side. Wilkin was forced into those changes by the absence through injury of Jared Hodgkiss and Jordan Piggott, who have both been consistent performers, but the fact that Moore and Whittall slotted in so effortlessly says much for the quality of player Wilkin has brought to the club.

The opening minutes on Mickleover’s 3G surface were a little untidy, but it was the hosts who had the first effort on goal. Andy Dales, a scorer in Mickleover’s 2-1 win at the New Buck’s Head in September, started a swift attack and ended it with a shot from the edge of the box that went low and narrowly wide to keeper Brandon Hall’s right.

The Bucks responded, and they did so with real purpose. Full-back Jake Bennett, once a Bucks youth player, headed an Ellis Myles cross out for a corner, and when the kick was taken, Mickleover’s failure to clear decisively allowed Remi Walker to cross and find the head of Kerr, who directed home a header inside Lewis Ridd’s left-hand post.

Wilkin’s side was braced for a Mickleover response but was also keen to try and consolidate their lead by adding a second, and Reece Styche, who was busy making a nuisance of himself, couldn’t keep his shot down when a clearance fell to him on the edge of the box.

Dales was the clear and obvious threat for the hosts, and he ought to have levelled the scores in the 19th minute when he was played through the Bucks rearguard; as Hall

advanced to narrow the angles, Dales aimed and got it horribly wrong, miscuing his shot comfortably wide.

Dales went close again a couple of minutes later, this time with a header, but he couldn’t both direct his effort nor get enough power on it to beat Hall, who held the ball to his left.

The hosts continued to try and restore parity, and from a clever short corner routine the Bucks had to stand firm to block an angled shot. Manager John McGrath has cultivated a passing style at Mickleover, and his team often tried to play out from defence. The Bucks were wise to it, and they pressed to good effect, with Ellis Brown prominent.

Just after the 30-minute mark, Styche went close to doubling the lead, when he got between two defenders onto a through ball; his lob over Ridd also cleared the crossbar.

Mickleover went closer still soon after. Dales was the catalyst for the move that ended when Marcus Barnes was located around the penalty spot. His firm, rising shot was fingertipped over the bar by Hall, although Barnes helped by firing straight at the Bucks custodian.

That exchange set the tone for the final 10 minutes of the half, with both sides looking for the game’s next goal. The Bucks came closest when Whittall had a placed shot from the edge of the box deflected wide for a corner.

Styche collected a booking for grabbing at an opponent’s shirt and Hall held a Barnes’ cross safely from the last move of the half.

The balance of play in the second half shifted much more towards the home side, but that was not surprising given that it was they who needed to try and force the issue. The dilemma for Wilkin’s Bucks was that if they tried to push on to make the game safe, they ran the risk of leaving themselves open.

That set the scene for 45 minutes where Mickleover had more of the possession, but also one where the Bucks placed their trust in one another to resist their efforts to level the score. Kerr, Whittall and Orrin Pendley presented a formidable barrier, whilst full-backs Ellis Myles and Nathan Fox applied themselves to the task of keeping Barnes and Ollie Greaves quiet down the flanks.

It was Myles who got forward to meet Fox’s cross in the 51st minute, nipping in front of a defender to release a left-foot shot that crept wide; however, that was a rare moment of offence for the away side.

Hall palmed a dangerous Dales cross into the air and away before it was cleared as the hosts started to go through the gears. They replaced the ineffective Stuart Beavon with another veteran, Leon Clarke, and he had more impact, albeit he tended to stray offside too often.

The Bucks could have made it two when nimble footwork on the left of the box by Styche took him through two challenges, but Ridd blocked his stabbed shot from a tight angle.

Styche then tested Ridd again, powering a header goalwards from a corner that Ridd tipped over his bar to keep his side in the game.

The tiring Styche was replaced by Ricardo Dinanga, but his attacking opportunities were limited as Mickleover started to dominate possession, but they kept running up against the near-impenetrable barrier presented by Kerr, Whittall and Pendley. Each of them showed huge commitment to the cause, blocking shots, and placing themselves between the ball and Hall’s goal on numerous occasions.

If it sounds like something from the Alamo, that would be an unfair representation. Yes, they defended hard, but it never felt like desperate defence from the Bucks, and rarely did it feel as though they were clinging on.

As Mickleover began to tire of constantly drawing a blank against the Bucks' defence, Wilkin’s forwards did have two late chances to make the game safe. Montel Gibson was hasty in taking on a shot and fired wide to Ridd’s right, and when Dinanga accelerated past a couple of weary challenges he couldn’t find the finish, sliding the ball wide of Ridd but also his far post.

It mattered not, as the final whistle sounded an end to a huge effort from Wilkin’s men, one that extended their unbeaten run to fourteen matches and brought an 11th clean sheet of the season, and their third in succession.

Three points gained are three points regardless of who you gain them against; however, the Bucks supporters who filed out of the Don Amott Arena were in little doubt that they had witnessed something more significant than just a victory.

When the Bucks last tasted defeat in the league, their defeat to Needham Market on 23rd September put them sixteen points adrift of Mickleover’s runaway train. With this result, the gap is down to a single point.

There are others in title contention too, but the Bucks are starting to exhibit many of the hallmarks of sides that go all the way.

Attendance: 713.

AFC Telford United: Hall, Myles, Fox, Walker, Kerr, Pendley, Brown, Whittall, Gibson, Styche (Dinanga 76), Moore.

Subs: Jones, West, Solley, Webster.

Cautioned: Styche.

Mickleover FC: Ridd, Bennett, Dolan, Atkinson, Delap, Mann, Dales, Bradley, Beavon (Clarke 65), Barnes (Ryder 86), Greaves (Sault 45).

Subs: Trueman, Bowman.

Referee: Harry Tarrant.

Assistants: Nelson Oppong, Callum Johnson.