The New Bucks Head really did prove home sweet home for AFC Telford United as they recorded one of their biggest wins of the season. 

Only the 5-0 demolition of bottom-of-the-table Hucknall almost three months ago can better this effort. 

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And this one is arguably more impressive as it came against a side as good as any in the league on current form – Vauxhall Motors may not be in the promotion shake-up but they arrived in Shropshire on a superb hot streak. 

With five wins and two draws from their previous seven, they had not tasted defeat since late November. 

So it is to Telford’s credit that they erased the memory of their Workington woe on Saturday by coming from behind to produce a five-goal fiesta. 

The Ellesmere Port side struck first, taking the lead with a breathtaking display of counter-attacking football, sweeping forward from their own box for Karl Noon to apply a delightful finish. 

Telford, after a bright start, had struggled to break them down and might have considered themselves fortunate to be level at the break when Mark Danks finally broke free from the shackles of big defender Alan Griffiths to score the equaliser off a Danny Edwards corner. 

Alarm bells might have been ringing when Carl Rodgers was forced to stay behind in the dressing room at half-time – the victim of another ugly gash on his leg. 

Yet it was two more substitutions barely 10 minutes after the re-start that were to prove decisive – Terry Fearns coming on for Danks and Phil Trainer replacing Edwards. 

Danks had struggled to find room to get past Griffiths and put his electrifying pace to good use, while Edwards had also struggled to make an impact. 

The same could not be said about their replacements – Fearns taking a matter of seconds to make his mark. 

He re-acted quickest when Emeka Nwadike’s shot from the edge of the box came back of the post and tucked the ball away from six yards out. 

Vauxhall Motors were livid that the goal stood, and Fearns certainly appeared to have been in an offside position when Nwadike’s shot was unleashed. 

But their appeals fell on deaf ears and the goal really seemed to knock the stuffing out of a Vauxhall side who, up to that point, had looked capable of going on to win the game themselves. 

Lee Vaughan and Danny Carey-Bertram both tried their luck from distance before the goals started to flow once more in the final 20 minutes. 

It was another of the substitutes who was to take the limelight now, Phil Trainer living up to his reputation as a goalscoring midfielder. 

He extended the lead with a really cheeky goal – his initial shot was parried by James Coates but the ball rebounded straight to his feet and he nonchalantly lifted it over the astonished keeper with a luscious lob. 

Seven minutes later, he had a second – this time drilling the ball under Coates after good work on the right by Fearns. 

That really did signal the end of the game as a contest, but by now the Bucks had got a taste for goals. 

Vaughan went close to what would have been a goal of the season contender with an audacious attempt to lob the keeper from wide on the right and Coates did well to make an instinctive save. 

Then Liam Blakeman got in on the act with a long overdue first home goal for the club, picking his spot expertly from the edge of the box and driving the ball into the top corner. 

The margin of victory probably flattered the hosts and Vauxhall showed flashes of why they have been so successful in recent weeks. 

Yet the last half hour must have been encouraging for everyone with the best interests of the Bucks at heart, and especially for manager Rob Smith, who was celebrating his 43rd birthday today.  

Telford will certainly be hoping they have played themselves back into form – and back into the mix as genuine title contenders. 

By Chris Hudson