Kevin Wilkin demands more from Telford

The Bucks boss felt his side, who host Stratford Town today (3pm), should have been out of sight.

He said: “I think when you’re on top like that and as we’ve already seen in previous games this season, like Biggleswade away, where we were on top of the game and should have moved it away from them and didn’t... you worry that it’s going to be a repeat of that.

“We should have put more goals on the board, really.

“We looked comfortable in the game and were moving the ball quite well, finding good areas, good moments and good situations, but we haven’t worked the goalkeeper as much as I would have liked in the first half.”

Ricardo Dinanga’s 54th-minute strike from close range finally harvested the return the Bucks wanted against the Tulips, but they endured a few anxious moments against a Spalding team rocked by the departure of manager Elliot Sandy only 24 hours earlier.

While Wilkin would have hoped for better, he also recognised that Spalding’s hurt, combined with the lack of depth available to him and also being away from home, meant that the result had to be viewed positively.

He added: “We did brilliantly to get ourselves into the lead, but then I wouldn’t be happy that we were.. not hanging on, but understand we’re away from home, we’ve got limited options from the bench and yeah, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. The lads have dug in there really, really well. Could we improve in certain areas? Absolutely, there’s no doubt about that.”

Wilkin had five members of his first-team squad affected by injury, with midfielder Remi Walker the only one deemed fit enough to take a spot on the substitutes’ bench.

Managing those resources was made more acute because the Bucks faced a quick turnaround, being in action 48 hours later on Bank Holiday Monday, at home to Stratford Town.

The result meant that the Bucks rose to ninth in the Southern Central Premier, joining a cluster of teams on seven points from four matches and just three points behind current leaders Stamford.