Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde has nothing on AFC Telford United right now.

The Bucks seem capable of going from the sublime to the ridiculous in the blink of an eye, and it is a trait that is threatening to ruin a season of such promise.

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Three wins in a row had raised morale to the point that their manager was talking about going through the rest of the campaign unbeaten.

There had even been tentative talk of a late, great title charge.

Yet today, as the dust settles on a Farsley fiasco, they are once more peering anxiously over their shoulders and fretting over holding onto a play-off place.

They will fail, too, if they produce eight more performances as flat and uninspiring as this.

Defensively they looked uncharacteristically nervous and could easily have conceded more than the one that found the back of their net.

Going forward they were little better. In the first half they did at least carve out a few openings, though the finishing let them down. In the second half, they virtually surrendered with barely a whimper.

It was a display that brought a typically robust and honest appraisal from their manager who has seen it all too many times before this season.

Defeats to the Blue Square North’s also-rans have come about depressingly regularly and left arguably the most gifted squad in the league well off the pace.

Workington, Vauxhall Motors, Blyth Spartans – all places where Telford had been expected to win in recent weeks and all games that also ended in frustration.

The pattern continued at Throstle Nest, where the hosts deservedly took the spoils.

Telford’s evening started badly when they lost midfielder Phil Trainer just 11 minutes in with a suspected medial ligaments injury.

They seemed to have shaken off that setback as they twice went close with set-pieces, Ricky Sappleton heading down first for Andy Brown to fire over then for Danny Carey-Bertram to have a shot blocked.

The game started to turn on 21 minutes as Damian Reeves headed in off Dominic Krief’s corner, only for the effort to be disallowed for a foul on Ryan Young.

It was a lucky escape for the visitors, but they did not learn the lesson.

Sloppy defending by James Meredith gifted Reeves another golden opportunity and it needed a strong challenge from Indy Khela to snuff out the danger.

But it was third time lucky for the Celtic striker as he pounced on a Krief free-kick, which should have been cleared, and gleefully fired past the keeper.

Still the Bucks should have been level by the break, Sappleton seeing a tamely hit shot cleared off the line after Meredith’s corner had been headed down to his feet by Stuart Whitehead.

There had been enough about Telford’s play to suggest a fightback was still on the cards, and they freshened things up by bringing Mark Danks on for Carey-Bertram at the break.

Yet their second half display was mystifyingly poor, with no shots of any note to trouble Farsley goalkeeper Curtis Aspden.

Indeed, the home side actually looked the more likely of the two, with the nippy Gareth Grant proving a handful up front whenever they got away on the break.

Grant had a decent shout for a penalty when Khela grappled with him inside the box just short of the hour mark.

And Reeves sent a spectacular bicycle kick narrowly over off Rory Prendergast’s cross as the Bucks continued to labour.

Emeka Nwadike did force Aspden into a routine save off his header in injury-time, but it was all too little, too late to produce an about turn in fortunes.

Four bookings in the last 20 minutes were testimony to Telford’s frustration – the most damaging a 10th of the season for Lee Vaughan, who will now have to serve a two-game ban during the run-in.

That at least means he should no longer be at risk of being suspended for the play-offs.

That, though, may be of no concern to anyone in white-and-black unless they can stem the flow of damaging defeats.