AFC Telford United head into play-offs with confidence sky high

Goals from Montel Gibson, Orrin Pendley and a late brace from substitute Reece Styche secured three more points for Kevin Wilkin’s side in their final scheduled league fixture – and, importantly, the Bucks collected no injuries of any note.

While five other teams scrapped and stressed over the three remaining play-off positions, Wilkin’s side could concentrate on themselves.

Since their last defeat, the Bucks have recorded eight wins in nine matches and have closed the season with six consecutive victories.

Goals, once a commodity they struggled for, have been arriving with regularity, and with a full squad to select from, Wilkin’s team is in rude health for the post-

season.

Confirmation on Friday of the failure of Mickleover’s appeal against a 12-point deduction meant that the Bucks were guaranteed a second-place finish.

If there was any temptation to rest players, it was one that Wilkin resisted, and the outcome vindicated the manager.

Defenders Ellis Myles and Orrin Pendley and midfielder Remi Walker all returned, with Jared Hodgkiss, Ricardo Dinanga, and the Bucks’ only injury doubt, Byron Moore, stepping aside.

Coalville was guaranteed a top-half finish, but it has been a disappointing campaign for the Ravens. On last season’s closing day, they lost the league title and promotion on goal difference to eventual champions Tamworth.

Unable to rebound in the play-offs, Coalville’s hangover from going so close has lasted for most of this season, and they had little to play for but pride.

It was evident from the early stages that neither team had any genuine need for urgency.

Gibson was in the mood for Wilkin’s team while for the hosts, Terrell Pennant, the nephew of former Liverpool, Arsenal, and England winger Jermaine Pennant, looked lively in attack.

The Ravens won a couple of early corner kicks but failed to threaten, and the Bucks responded with Jordan Piggott and Nathan Fox combining for the latter to cross invitingly. Gibson awaited the ball at the far post and was left waiting, a home defender making a timely headed clearance.

The Bucks were slowly turning the tables on the hosts. Goalkeeper Paul White raced from his area to kick clear from Gibson, and a few minutes later a block denied Pendley after the defender latched on to a loose ball in the box, Matty Stenson having teed him up after a long throw into the box.

Gibson’s slightly frustrating propensity to stray offside surfaced with the halfway point of the half drawing closer; the forward got to a ball over the defence and lifted it over White on the first bounce, but it mattered little as his effort cleared the crossbar.

White had to kick clear from Gibson again, and at the same time, he launched a quick counter-attack for the Ravens. The Bucks looked a little stretched and would have been relieved when Tom McGlinchey, picked out by a ball from the right, leant back and skied the ball over Brandon Hall’s crossbar.

Bucks’ midfield starlet Remi Walker went close to recording a seventh goal of the season with an effort that beat White but rebounded to safety off the crossbar.

Matty Stenson had a deflected shot on the turn bounce into White’s clutches, but it wasn’t all Telford, and Pennant carried the Ravens’ main offensive threat. His acceleration got him behind the Bucks’ defence and in against Hall in the 26th minute, but as the keeper came out to challenge him the youngster fluffed his finish. The best chance for either side in the opening half-an-hour fell to Gibson, but the Bucks’ leading scorer attempted to head the ball back across White from the far post, and although the idea excelled, the execution didn’t, and the ball went wide of the post.

Having missed a relative sitter, it was less than a minute later when Gibson fired the Bucks ahead from a much more difficult chance.

With around 20-25 yards between him and the target, Gibson drilled a powerful effort that either swung in the air or took a slight deflection to beat White.

The Bucks set about making one goal into two, and Piggott’s effort struck down into the turf and up into White’s arms was tame.

In the 43rd minute, Coalville levelled the scores, and it surprised few that Pennant was the man who found the target. Pennant saw Hall block his angled shot at the near post, but with the keeper still prostrate, the rebound fell back to Pennant, and he jabbed a second effort over Hall and past a defender on the goalline.

Given how close they’d come on several occasions, being level at the interval felt a little less than the Bucks had been worth, but ultimately that feeling that it didn’t matter too much pervaded.

Walker’s deflected shot past the post brought a corner but no reward, and Piggott’s effort when retrieving possession was off-target, too high to trouble White.

Bucks had to wait until the 64th-minute to net again, and it came from Pendley. Unsurprisingly it was a set-piece, a free-kick from the right after a foul on Piggott, and when the ball dropped, Pendley the predator struck, smashing the ball high into the net.

With the lead for a second time, the Bucks looked keener not to let it slip again.

Both teams made substitutions, both freshening things up for different reasons, and it was the Bucks’ substitute Styche who made the biggest impact.

After scoring from the bench against Berkhamsted, Styche went one better a week later and grabbed two goals to raise his season’s tally to eight.

In the 82nd minute, Styche’s quickly-taken effort from the left of the box found the net.

He netted again in the third minute of additional time. Awarded a free-kick to the left and around 25 yards out, Styche struck a curling effort over the defensive wall and to White’s right.

A May Day meeting with Mickleover now lies ahead for Wilkin’s Bucks in the play-offs.

AFC Telford United: Scott, Myles, Fox 70, Storer (Brown 69), Pendley, Kerr, Walker, Whittall, Stenson (Dinanga 69), Gibson, Piggott. Subs: Gibson, Moore.