Jon Adams looks for an exit

The season’s lowest crowd saw the season’s lowest performance as AFC Telford United bowed out of the FA Trophy with a pitiful display.

Just 938 paying fans braved a wet and windy night – and must by the end have wished they were back on their sofas with the other stay-aways watching a good movie instead.

For quarter-of-an-hour Telford were fast and furious, exploding out of the blocks to take the lead inside three minutes.

They also hit the woodwork before Stalybridge Celtic knew what hit them. But then they lost their way completely to be out-fought by visitors who showed more heart and desire.

The Manchester side bossed the second half and were full value for their seventh away win of the season in all competitions.

A chorus of boos greeted the final whistle and a clearly angry and disappointed Bucks boss Rob Smith declined to face the media for the usual post-match interviews.

Chairman Lee Carter did front up, admitting he was as fed up as his fellow fans – though he also insisted an over-reaction would be counter-productive.

“I was booing myself, I really was,” he said. “It was poor – really poor.

“There’s no excuse, and there never are at this football club – and those that look to make excuses will not be here, it’s simple as that.

“But I know we’ve got a good team of staff and a good set of lads.

“It’s a bad 80 minutes in what has been a good month and we need to use it in the right way because we always seem two steps away from a nervous breakdown – and it does us no good.”

There was no sign of what was to come as the Bucks took the game by the scruff of the neck in the early exchanges.

Shane Killock put them in front by firing in from Phil Trainer’s knock-down off Danny Edwards’ corner, the makeshift left-back scoring his first goal for the club.

Edwards also saw a long-range effort take a deflection off Stalybridge skipper Keith Briggs and hit the bar, while Trainer and Jon Adams both had shots that whistled inches over.

It took Stalybridge until the 16th minute to muster a shot of any kind, but the first sign of a crack in the Bucks armour came when Joe O’Neill ghosted through a crumbling defence to fire straight at Ryan Young.

A minute later the visitors were level when Briggs was given too much space on the right and struck a low shot that deflected off Gavin Hurren into the bottom corner.

The rest of the first half passed in a mundane blur as neither side showed much.

But whatever Smith said to his side at the break became null and void as Stalybridge took the lead within two minutes of the re-start.

O’Neill got on the end of Andrew Smart’s punt into the box and headed over Young, who was stranded in no-man’s land.

From there, Telford failed to offer any real response – not even managing another shot on goal until Lee Vaughan fired straight at keeper Dave Carnell from 25 yards seven minutes from time.

Celtic, by contrast, could easily have extended their advantage as Matty Barlow twice went close and O’Neill blazed over the bar.

The lively Dave Hankin also saw his cry for a penalty fall on deaf ears when he went down under a challenge from Gavin Cowan.

The introduction of Carl Rodgers and Sean Newton did see some improvement from the hosts, who at least enjoyed some possession in the closing stages.

But it was much too little and far too late, leaving the frustrated chairman to call for an immediate reaction.

“It was dire. It was not pleasant to watch and I hope we react in the right way,” he said.

“It’s gone – it’s done and dusted and we have to move on and focus on the next challenge now.

“If Stalybridge had had a bad 80 minutes last night, what would they have done? They’d have got on the bus, gone to training on Thursday and got on with it again on Saturday. That’s exactly what we have got to do.”

By Chris Hudson