They’ll play better this season for sure, and they’ll win by bigger margins as well.

But it is unlikely AFC Telford United will record a more important or more desperately needed league victory. 

See our photo gallery here and read the full story in today’s Shropshire Star

After such a wretched start to 2009 the Bucks had started to look like they could not buy three points for love nor money. 

Yet this is a team that seems to thrive on gathered momentum – once they start winning it is a habit they pleasingly seem to find difficult to shake off. 

In a run of just one defeat in 23 earlier in the season, and that at League Two side Southend in the FA Cup, they put themselves firmly in the promotion picture. 

If they can do something similar now there will very likely be something to celebrate at the end of it – and this damp night in south Birmingham will be remembered as the game they got going again. 

It is said that what goes around comes around, and just as Telford had been reduced to 10 men and then gone behind straight away at Fleetwood on Saturday so it was the same in reverse last night. 

Solihull defender Liam Daly was rightly sent off on 27 minutes for a horrible challenge on Lee Vaughan and the visitors swept into the lead from the resulting free-kick. 

There had been familiar frustrations in the early stages, boss Rob Smith showing clear irritation at the failure of his midfield to close the hosts down. 

That laxity presented Junior English with an early chance to shoot from 30 yards out before Daly found room to get on the end of a Darren Middleton free-kick, and the Bucks were lucky that the effort drifted wide. 

Telford’s first chance arrived in the 16th minute and Danny Carey-Bertram should have done better, leaning back as he got on the end of Danny Edwards’ corner and blazing well over. 

Gavin Cowan also let a golden opportunity slip by, heading wide after a terrific turn and cross by Phil Trainer. 

Then Moors pressed the self-destruct button as Daly earned his marching orders for a terrible two-footed challenge on Vaughan. 

From the resulting set-piece Edwards curled the ball into the danger zone and Cowan applied the finish to ensure the hosts paid twice over for the foul. 

Carey-Bertram added a second within minutes after a fearsome strike from Jon Adams that Solihull keeper Daniel Crane could not hold. 

But the 10 men gave themselves a lifeline as Theo Streete scored from close range – the Bucks conceding from a corner for only the second time all season. 

Any jitters in the Telford camp were eased just short of the hour as Liam Blakeman fired in his long-overdue first goal for the club, just reward for an industrious display in the middle of the park. 

Telford might have added two more late on, and Terry Fearns will doubtless still be wondering how he failed to get a touch as he slid in at the far post to meet a cross from Trainer. 

Substitute Martyn Naylor was also desperately unlucky as he unleashed a thunderbolt from 35 yards that shook the post. 

Having played against a depleted Solihull side for over an hour, it is too soon to be able to say for sure whether the Shropshire side really have turned a corner. 

Their next league outing sees them head to leaders Tamworth and that promises to be a challenge of an altogether different standard. 

An FA Trophy tie away at Blue Square Premier side Kettering awaits before that, and Smith will feel they will have to raise their game to come away with anything from that one. 

Never mind the performance, though. On this occasion it really was all about the result.

By Chris Hudson