AFC Telford on-loan striker Andre Gray celebrates his winning goal

A 15-minute cameo from loan striker Andre Gray brought colour to AFC Telford United’s Christmas.

The teenage hot-shot opened his account in senior football with the winner three minutes from time to settle the Boxing Day derby with Stafford Rangers.

Gray latched on to Andy Brown’s pass and finished emphatically to ensure the Bucks’ festive triple bill started the right way.

The Shrewsbury man whipped his shirt off in celebration and promptly collected a booking for that indiscretion, though he cared little about that.

Telford just about deserved the points, and they needed them too, after their shocking showing in their last outing at Redditch 10 days previously.

But assistant manager Larry Chambers was just delighted to get back to winning ways.

“After the Redditch game we said if we’d had a bigger squad we’d probably have left 10 of them out,” he said.

“Some of the players who played on Saturday were probably fortunate to keep the shirt, and that’s not over-reacting.

“This result doesn’t really compensate for the performance at Redditch, they need to put a few more good ones in.

“Stafford will probably feel a little unfortunate, but over the 90 minutes we just about edged it and maybe the fortune was with us for a change.”

It was a dramatic finale, and there were plenty of talking points in the opening stages as well.

Telford felt they should have had a penalty within three minutes, and it certainly looked a clear-cut case when Damian Reeves went down under the challenge of Stafford defender Jon Patrick.

While the Bucks were still protesting about that, Rangers countered down their left wing and swept into a shock lead.

A disjointed defence gave Levi Reid far too much space and he cut in from the wing before arrowing a crisp strike into the bottom corner.

The setback clearly affected the confidence of a Telford team that was already low in morale after that much-maligned display at Redditch.

Over-eager to get back on level terms, they opted all too often for the long ball, a tactic that was never going to prove effective with the diminutive Steve Thompson as the target.

It always looked like it was going to need something a little bit special to turn the game on its head, and it came from the boot of Liam Blakeman.

The build-up to Telford’s 33rd minute equaliser was neat, Sean Newton with a sweet diagonal pass to pick out Jon Adams.

The midfielder spotted Blakeman running into the box and his lay-off was perfect for the 27-year-old, who didn’t have to break stride as he bent it into the far corner with the outside of his right foot.

Telford seemed to find belief from that, and might have gone ahead early in the second half as Reeves headed over from a Sean Evans cross.

But they then lost their way a little until the introduction of three substitutes in a 12-minute period midway through the half.

Phil Trainer had been dropped for his lethargic display at Redditch, but he looked like a man eager to make amends this time.

He went closest to putting his side ahead with a bullet of a volley off an excellent cross from Gray.

That one came thudding back off the bar, to the great relief of the visitors.

Stafford probably felt that was a let-off, and they looked to make the most of it as they created a succession of chances in quick succession inside the last five minutes.

Warwick Alexander and Reid were both denied by an alert Young before Jake Moult’s follow-up was headed over by Killock.

Yet Telford responded with a swift counter-attack of their own as Gray got the goal his lively contribution deserved.

The hosts negotiated four minutes of injury time as they claimed Boxing Day success against Stafford for the second year running.

By Chris Hudson