AFC Telford United were today dusting themselves down from a night of cup drama – and preparing to continue their Blue Square North play-off push tomorrow.

The Bucks upset the odds with a stunning 1-0 Setanta Shield northern area final victory at Blue Square Premier side Barrow last night thanks to Ricky Sappleton’s first goal for the club.

They now meet Forest Green Rovers in the final televised on Setanta on April 9.

Key playersBut so packed is Telford’s fixture list that they had little time to celebrate the victory with a key home clash with Droylsden looming tomorrow.Manager Rob Smith rang the changes for last night’s clash, and is hoping keeping key players fresh will pay dividends as the Bucks aim to consolidate their place in the top five.”We rested a few last night and have some players to come back in for tomorrow so we shouldn’t be too affected by playing last night, which is a good thing,” said the Bucks boss.While last night’s victory guaranteed the club £18,000 in prizemoney, it has also left Telford officials with a major headache with fixture congestion.They are currently left facing five games in nine days – and two in just 24 hours – although chairman Lee Carter was today working on easing that burden.”We were up there and said we’d give it a go but we wouldn’t have been too bothered if we’d have lost,” added Smith.”Typical of our players, they’ve come and given it a right go and I think we deserved it on the night.”We’re pleased. It’s another chance for the lads to play in front of the television cameras. It’s a great achievement for the players.”One blot on the night came with the sending off of full-back James Meredith for two bookable offences, the second of which was for alleged time-wasting after the ball slipped from his hands when he took a throw in.”The lads are gutted about it,” said Smith.”Mezza is a young Aussie lad and someone who would never cheat in his life.”The ball has slipped out of his hands as he’s about to take a throw-in, the referee has admitted he made a mistake and he’s going to try and rescind it.”But I don’t know you can do that when it’s a yellow card. It’s soured the evening a little bit.”