Blog: AFC Telford United need to be more clinical

We were unlucky to come away from the North East without a point,

.

I was hoping that last week's comprehensive victory would buoy the lads onto a new level of confidence that would see our form improve in the league. We did play well, but again our inability to be clinical in front of goal let us down. We had more chances than Darlington, whose confidence did seem to be shot after their off-pitch antics this week.

We played a similar squad to previous games, with the only change being Greg Mills replacing Dwayne Samuels, who is out with a broken toe.

Mills did well this week, but I would've liked to see him use his pace a little bit more, as I feel that we do more damage that way. He did also provide our best chance of the match, coming from a free kick that was well saved from the keeper.

It was a game where neither Telford nor Darlington showed any dominance. Both teams had their chances and Darlington had their chance through a penalty decision that could have gone either way. Shane Killock felled their attacker in the box and the referee blew for the penalty, which Bridge-Wilkinson converted well.

Darlington's lack of confidence showed throughout the rest of the game, as they sat back and didn't pose much of an attacking threat. Telford kept pushing, missing chances through Sharp and Mills. I personally felt we deserved a point, but we are not going to get them if we don't punish the opposition by converting the amount of chances we are creating for ourselves.

At this stage of the season, we still haven't been in the relegation zone. It is positive, but we need to start gaining some consistency to steer ourselves away from the drop.

I would start trimming the squad slightly, even if we cut the squad by two or three fringe players and spent their wages on one quality player, it might make a difference. It has been proved that since Sinton has been playing similar starting line ups, we have looked better, so we can afford to lose a couple of those fringe players.

We do create ourselves good chances and the Bucks pass the ball like a professional side. Telford are a side that has great potential to do well in this league. We just need that extra edge.

But now onto the FA Cup next week. Let's hope we can boost ourselves and enjoy a good cup run. Up the Bucks!