Full-back James Meredith is determined to help AFC Telford United to the Blue Square Premier – then make his stay at the club permanent.

The left-sided defender, currently on loan from near neighbours Shrewsbury Town, is likely to be in the line-up to face Farsley Celtic tonight.

He is out of contract at the Prostar Stadium in the summer, and is quick to dismiss suggestions that he may return to his native Australia.

“I’ve had thoughts about next season and I’d like to be at Telford,” he revealed.

“I’m going home for the summer but I’ve booked a return flight so there’s no chance of me going home to stay. I’ll definitely be coming back to England.

“I’ll just have to see what happens and see what the manager comes in with. I’ll weigh every option up, but I like Telford – the lads are great and so are the supporters.

“If Telford were in the Blue Square Premier that would make the proposition a lot more attractive and that’s why I’m really pushing to go up.

“I’m going to put everything into it to take this football club into the league above.

“I reckon we’d cope a lot better in that league because they’re nicer pitches and they play more football.

“There won’t be sides just sitting back.” The Bucks still need a maximum of eight points from their last four games to guarantee a play-off place in the Blue Square North.

Tonight’s clash at home to Farsley is one that has been identified as a ‘must-win’, especially given their disappointing defeat at the Yorkshire club’s home just two weeks ago.

“We need to win a couple more games to cement a play-off place,” added Meredith.

“Playing so many games in a short space of time is starting to catch up with the whole team generally, but we’ve just got to roll up our sleeves and do the job.

“We’ll definitely want to put Farsley to bed tonight because we didn’t play very well at their place.

“The conditions were awful but that’s no excuse. I hope we can turn them over on our turf.”

Meredith is one man who is actually fresher than most, having only just returned from a two-game suspension.

He got that for picking up his second red card of the season in the 1-0 win at Barrow in the Setanta shield northern area final – and missed the televised national final at Forest Green as a result.

“It was really hard for me,” he said. “Especially with the Setanta Shield final, because I wanted to be a part of that.”

By CHRIS HUDSON