Analysis: The harder they work, the more luck AFC Telford United enjoy

Montel Gibson scored twice to reach 13 goals for the season and was the benefactor of the bad luck that struck fellow forward Matty Stenson.

Stenson enjoyed a 30th birthday bash of the unwelcome variety; his clash of heads with Harry Vince as the pair attempted to make contact with a Jordan Piggott cross put Stenson out of the game with a nasty cut.

It brought Gibson into the game before half an hour had passed, and he made the most of the unexpected opportunity, winning the game for his side with two goals within 10 second-half minutes.

What isn’t lucky is that the Bucks have forwards of the calibre of Gibson and Stenson vying for the starting role. Manager Wilkin’s patient building of his squad has slowly added depth and that was evident in his team selection.

Wilkin hadn’t gone overboard about his team’s 1-0 defeat at AFC Sudbury the previous weekend; however, with the Bucks entering what some of their new US investors might call the ‘stretch drive’, or the crucial weeks for contending teams, the Bucks boss was determined that result should be a bump in the road and nothing more.

Ellis Brown, Ty Webster and Gibson stepped down to the bench to allow captain Fraser Kerr, Ricardo Dinanga and Stenson to be reinstated to the starting XI. With Kerr alongside Orrin Pendley in defence, Sam Whittall moved into midfield.

Kerr had been absent since the 1-0 victory at Stamford in February when a groin injury late in proceedings saw him leave the game.

His return was timely, giving the Bucks a more robust look for a game against opponents who play a clean but physical game. The Bucks were going to have to match that aspect and then hope that their quality would emerge.

It did, but it took a while. The first half was entertaining and absorbing, but the chances tended to come from set-piece situations.

Pendley made a fine block to prevent a Stamford shot from reaching Brandon Hall when the visitors got a second bite of the cherry from an early free-kick. The big defender, who has five goals to his name this season, then went close to a sixth when a Bucks free-kick in response put Stamford under pressure. Remi Walker’s delivery from wide on the right found Pendley, rising above a crowd of players, but his header flashed over Dan Wallis’s crossbar from close range.

Stamford enjoy the nickname of ‘the Daniels’, given to them in honour of Daniel Lambert, a goalkeeper and animal breeder of the late 18th and early 19th century who lived in the town and was once reputed to be the heaviest man in England, at 52 stone.

A couple of Daniels’ players went down in the penalty area in quick succession in the 12th minute, but was referee Lewis Smith minded to give a spot-kick? Fat chance.

The Bucks were enjoying marginally better of the exchanges. Stenson gamely made himself available down the middle, whilst a corner in the 18th minute met by Pendley at the near post was kept out by Wallis on the line, aided by his defence.

Stenson was to be involved for only a little longer. Jordan Piggott, still at left wing-back in the absence of Nathan Fox, made ground and then checked back to cross with his right foot from the left. Stenson and defender Vince both had the same idea and arched to try and head the ball, but their meeting of minds left them both a little dazed and Stenson with a deep cut on the right of his brow. Stenson left to have the cut glued, and Gibson was handed the task of holding the forward line together.

Daniels’ full-back launched a missile from 30 yards that was off target, and Gibson began to link up with his colleagues, setting up Byron Moore for a run into the box before his cross was blocked.

The battle for physical supremacy was more often the focus as the half began to move to a close. Wilkin’s side were exhibiting a bit more quality, and certainly more than they had a week earlier, but it was fitful and not enough to turn the screw on Stamford.

It was the visitors who ended the half the strongest; Oli Brown-Hill sent an ambitious volley wide and then forward Jack Duffy’s driving run brought a corner, as well as a bit of pain for Duffy, who collided with the advertising hoarding. From the corner, defender James Blunden might feel he should have done better, getting above a Bucks defender at the far post but directing a header wide after making a poor contact.

The Daniels were proving to be a tough nut to crack, but early in the second half, they softened just enough for the Bucks to win the game.

In the 48th minute, Gibson broke the deadlock, and the visitors paid for their inattentiveness as the forward got beyond the defence and in behind them, free to run at Wallis. It wasn’t an easy chance, but Gibson gobbled up the opportunity, beating Wallis from just inside the penalty area.

The goal appeared to relax the Bucks and they began to click into a higher gear. Dinanga’s go, stop and then go again rook him past defender Will Glennon to float over an inviting cross that no-one attacked in the six-yard box.

A counter-attack following a Daniels’ free-kick was launched by the again impressive Walker, who has become an almost indispensable part of Wilkin’s side. He moved the ball on to Byron Moore but the move broke down when Gibson, who thought he had support, deliberately stepped over the ball and saw it run to Stamford to clear.

An offside flag and the palms of Hall denied Duffy when he latched on to a Morgan cross, but the visitors were soon to be facing an uphill struggle. Some lax defensive work in their box was punished by Gibson, who almost couldn’t believe his luck, striking a low shot that took a big deflection to wrong-foot Wallis and beat him into his bottom right-hand corner.

Stamford were going to have to change things to get anything out of the game, and for a while, it looked as though the Bucks would hurt them again, as they began to try and play higher up the pitch, taking risks.

Tendai Chitiza instigated and almost finished a Daniels’ attack, bringing the ball from midfield and then continuing his run into the box to meet Rob Morgan’s cross. Chitiza struck the ball pretty well, but straight at Hall from 12 yards, and the Bucks’ keeper thrust up a couple of strong hands to parry the ball to safety.

Walker fired a 25-yard shot wide to Wallis’s right in response, but in the 74th minute, the visitors produced the goal of the game. There appeared to be no immediate danger when Vince, a midfielder by trade and pushed forward by manager Graham Drury, found himself with time and space, 25 yards out. Vince released a bullet of a shot that Hall barely had time to move towards before it was past him, to his left.

A nervous end to the contest could have been averted in the 79th minute, when Walker again prompted and the unselfish Gibson, on a hat-trick, chose to play Moore in rather than take a shot himself. Moore got too much lift on his shot over the advancing Wallis, and cleared the crossbar, burying his head in his hands rather than the ball into the net.

A flurry of yellow cards came as the game’s competitive edge strayed over the line, and more chances came too. Piggott’s energy propelled him into the box and onto a diagonal ball from the right, only for Wallis to save his angled shot.

Morgan tried to fire his side level but his lateral movement put him off-balance as he cut in from the left of the box and he skied the ball high and wide. Five minutes of added time were then extended by an injury that forced Whittall from the field, but the Bucks weren’t to be denied.

AFC Telford United: Hall, Myles, Piggott, Storer, Pendley, Kerr, Walker, Whittall (Styche 90+3), Stenson (Gibson 26), Moore, Dinanga (Brown 73). Subs not used: Webster, Hodgkiss.

Cautioned: Moore.

Stamford AFC: Wallis, Vince, Bartle (Bennett 67), Glennon, Offler, Blunden, Chitiza, Morgan, Duffy, Shaw, Brown-Hill (Chettle 60).

Subs: Armstrong, Siddons, Tsagium.

Cautioned: Offler, Duffy.

Referee: Lewis Smith.

Assistants: Ashley Devonport, Joel Kinghorn.

Attendance: 1,194.