Barwell v Telford: Wilkin hails Bucks as they prepare to dig deep again

The Bucks rescued a draw in stoppage time at AFC Sudbury on Saturday, having missed several chances to put the game beyond doubt earlier on in the afternoon.

And while their wastefulness in front of goal remains a concern for the Telford boss, he admitted the context around their start to the season makes 17 points from eight games feel like a solid return.

“I always try to keep the challenges we’ve been facing in mind,” Wilkin said, when asked about Telford’s start to the campaign. “If we would have had more of our injured players available during those games I’d like to think we would have come through games more comfortably and been more of a threat against teams.”

He added: “Credit to the lads, because even when we haven’t had enough numbers to fill the bench they’ve found a way to win games.

“There were obviously some players who left that we’ve missed, as well as the ones who have been injured, there’s no doubt about that.

“You can look at things over a shorter period or a longer period, and I’d like to think taking more things into perspective when looking at things over a longer period gives you a better idea of where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going now.”

While Telford dominated large spells of Saturday’s game they still found themselves picking the ball out of their own net twice, bringing the number of goals conceded this season up to 15, nearly half of the 34 goals they conceded in the whole of last season.

“There was never an indication in pre-season that we’d be as open as we have been, or that we’d suffer the injury situation that we’ve already suffered,” Wilkin explained. “Getting through those challenges is important, we’ll have bumps in the road as we have done already this season.

“You don’t know how those bumps will affect you, and I’ve got to say credit to the characters we’ve got in the dressing room because we’ve been on a decent run since.”

He continued: “I still look at it as being very early days.

“There’s not a team in the league that hasn’t come unstuck, yet this season and it does look like a very open division. Someone might emerge from it and string together a good run of results, hopefully that team will be us. We don’t know how strong the teams we’ve played so far this season have been just yet, but we’ve been up against it with injuries and you can never take that for granted.”

Tonight’s opponents Barwell sit 19th in the Southern Central Premier, just inside the relegation zone with a solitary win from their first eight games.

The Bucks could be without exciting winger Ricardo Dinanga for the trip to Leicestershire after he picked up a knock on Saturday, while Sam Whittall is in line to return to the squad.