Telford boss eager to take on old play-off rivals again

After losing 2-0 to Bucks in the Southern Central Premier play-off semi-final last season, Sports now compete in the Northern Premier League following a summer reshuffle. But after drawing the Derbyshire outfit in the FA Trophy first round this weekend, Wilkin is keen to reignite the battles of the previous campaign.

“We did (have some battles last season), there were a few really keenly-fought games,” he recalled. “They obviously had a terrific start to the campaign last season, and I know they’ve had a managerial change since then, but we still expect and will get a tough game, there’s no doubt about that.”

Wilkin added: “We’re really looking forward to facing them again.

“I’ve not been able to watch them so I’m a little bit blind on that front, but we’ve done our background on them as we always do and have got as good a handle on them as we possibly can.

“Most importantly it’s about imposing ourselves on the game and doing the very best that we can do.”

Despite sitting just a point outside the Southern Central Premier play-off places it has been an indifferent season for the Bucks, who have been plagued by inconsistency.

And their manager is hoping to build some momentum in the FA Trophy to help transform their league campaign.

“You look at lots of teams still in the FA Cup that aren’t quite having the league campaigns they would have wished for but are still doing well in the cup,” Wilkin explained. “I don’t think you can draw a line of comparison from league to cup, clearly everyone wants to do well in both if they get the opportunity.

“We all see this as an opportunity to bring some momentum to our season and start to string a few victories together.”

And while he has a full squad to pick from, vast changes are not expected from Telford this weekend.

“I don’t think you have to play them differently, you just set up to win the game as you always do,” Wilkin said. “There are some clubs who’ll do things a little bit differently and mix their squad around if they have that sort of depth, but as I’ve said previously that’s not what I do.

“I’m looking to build some continuity of what we’re trying to do and allow our players the opportunity to do exactly that. It’s valuable regardless of how many times they’ve played together, building up momentum with that continuity, they go hand-in-hand generally.

“That’s certainly how I tend to look at it and how I run my teams, it’s what I’ve tried to do at all my clubs, and I’ve had a degree of success with it.

“I’ve never been one for taking liberties and shuffling things around because it’s a different competition, that’s not where we sit at the moment.

“It’s early in the season, we need to pick ourselves up and start stringing together some results.”