Wilkin aiming to establish AFC Telford 'at the top of non-league football'

The Bucks boss was visibly emotional when speaking shortly after his side’s 4-2 victory at Kettering Town in the Southern Central Premier play-off final on Bank Holiday Monday.

And while Wilkin is looking forward to a well-earned break in the off-season, he admitted the hunger is there to cement Telford’s place higher up the pyramid.

“Clearly it’s a step-up in level and a step-up in quality so we have to understand all those bits and pieces this summer,” he said. “The thing to do now is enjoy this promotion and allow the dust to kind of settle on things a little bit.”

Wilkin added: “Of course we want to get back on the horse and start plotting and planning for next season, but it’s important to take a little bit of down time now and balance it off with what we need to do.

“Clearly my hunger is there to move us forward and establish us at the top of non-league football, but there’s a lot of work to do between now and then.

“Hopefully everybody stays on board with it, and we continue to back one another, and hopefully we can have a really solid season next season.”

The Telford boss also heaped praise on his ‘resilient’ players for coming from behind twice to secure promotion in style at Latimer Park, and for ending his decade-long play-off hoodoo.

“I’ll make no secret of the fact that I’d been rubbish in the play-offs recently, but that was just great. I love it, it’s what we work for, and it was our day today,” Wilkin, whose previous four play-off campaigns had all ended in defeat, said. “The resilience we showed and the togetherness we showed to keep believing in those tight moments, we showed the lads some clips before of games where we’ve come back in games where we’re staring down the barrel

“We’ve had to show all that heart again today, and one or two did need a lift at half-time.”