Bucks 1 Lincoln 3 — match report

In front of some legends of the club’s FA Cup past, AFC Telford United produced a performance – if not a result – to honour their memory.

It is 25 years since the old Telford defeated Lincoln City in a first round replay en route to an eventual fifth round elimination at Everton.

That run remains part of the club’s folklore and a number of ex-stars were guests to witness the class of 2009 try to make lightning strike twice.

It was not to be, though former boss Stan Storton will surely have nodded with satisfaction at the gutsy second half display that oozed quality.

The League Two side barely deserved their half-time lead, and they owe their place in the second round to some clinical finishing on the counter-attack after the break.

Their goal lived a remarkably charmed life, while goalkeeper Rob Burch earned his pay cheque with a series of important saves.

One of those was to deny fit-again midfielder Carl Rodgers, who went so close to drawing Telford level for a second time with a 35-yard missile.

Feelings

And he summed up the mixed feelings of the whole Bucks changing room as they reflected on their defeat.

“We really gave it a go and it’s a bit disappointing that we put in a good performance and haven’t come out with what we thought we deserved,” he said.

“We were told at half-time just to go for it because we had nothing to lose at 1-0 down.

“Once we got back to 1-1 I thought we had a good chance to go on and win it but it wasn’t to be.”

Lincoln had started brightly enough, their movement up front clearly causing Telford problems.

The warning signs had been there, and there could be no complaints when they went ahead on 14 minutes, Sergio Torres finishing after Telford keeper Ryan Young had saved Jamie Clarke’s strike.

Yet the Imps failed to build on that and instead started to look vulnerable themselves as the non-League outfit began to find their feet.

It was not until the second half that the Bucks truly came to life, though it took just four minutes after the re-start for Liam Blakeman to head them level.

The midfielder is in the midst of a hot streak, having now matched his goal tally for the whole of last season.

The latest came as he got on the end of Jon Adams’ cross and skilfully placed his header over Burch into the top corner.

That signalled a sustained spell of domination by the Bucks, who must still wonder how more goals did not follow.

Phil Trainer – with a 25-yard bullet – and Steve Thompson forced Burch into further saves before Rodgers’ screamer, which struck the bar.

But between the last two of those near misses, the Imps went ahead on the break as Jamie Clarke finished with aplomb.

That goal was totally against the run of play, and so was the third, put away in deadly fashion by Aaron Brown.

Even then, Telford refused to go out with a whimper, continuing to lay siege to Lincoln’s box.

Lee Vaughan forced another Burch save and Gavin Cowan had a header cleared off the line before Trainer drew another fingertip save out of the keeper.

The last throw of the die went to Sean Newton, whose free-kick from the right side went through a packed box and came back off the post.

Lincoln must have been relieved when the final whistle finally sounded, though their boss Chris Sutton had a rather myopic view of proceedings.

“We knew it would be a difficult game and they didn’t disappoint us in that respect,” said Sutton.

“I think we were comfortable in the first half at 1-0, but you know 1-0 is never a comfortable scoreline in football.

“They scored a decent goal to get themselves back in the game, but we withstood that.

“Our keeper made one or two decent saves but, on the balance of play, I think we deserved it.”

That was most definitely the minority view inside the New Bucks Head.

Telford may have failed to replicate the feat of Storton’s stars all those years ago – but they can still hold their heads high.