Kevin Wilkin confident Telford cup mistakes will not be repeated

The Bucks crashed out of the FA Trophy at the hands of lower league opposition last season in a game that marked the lowest point of the club’s campaign, and recent history as a whole.

And ahead of this afternoon’s clash with tier eight side Cleethorpes Town, Wilkin is certain that the mistakes of last season have been learned from.

“Absolutely (the Quorn game sticks in the memory),” he admitted. “You can’t take any game lightly, especially when teams come to the SEAH Stadium and get lifted by the surroundings.

Wilkin added: “We played Quorn, who beat us fairly comfortably despite being at a lower level, we were poor that day and found out a lot about some players on that day.

“There were lots of players that played in that game that didn’t ever feature for us again, and if there was anything positive to come out of that day it was that I’d seen enough up to that point and knew I had to make drastic changes, which I did.”

Tre Mitford, James McQuilkin, Twariq Yusuf, George Forsyth and Brad Bood all exited Telford following last season’s premature exit from the competition, and Wilkin is not prepared to risk making wholesale changes ahead of the game.

“It’s incredibly difficult, and you’ve got to have a really deep, strong squad, to start mixing things around,” he explained. “I’ve said many times previously that I’m not one to make wholesale changes, and we need to take every opportunity we can to build connections and relationships.“When you start chopping and changing and getting too clever with things it makes things difficult, and it’s difficult enough as it is. That’s never been my style, I want to win every game, and I’ll put out the best side capable of doing that.”