Analysis: Harsh realities spelled out for AFC Telford United

For all the things they did better in this game, the Bucks didn't test opposing keeper Paul Cooper sufficiently.

They possess plenty of attacking options, but three goals scored in four matches is less of a return than they're capable of.

Their lack of production is one issue, but so is their worrying tendency to suffer lapses in concentration and awareness.

At step three, they may have got away with them, but at step two, they are seeing their errors exploited ruthlessly.

Those factors would be uncomfortable truths against a side with 11 players. However, the straight red card shown to the visitors' George Ward after 64 minutes just magnified the deficiencies and highlighted where the Bucks need to improve, in a way that was difficult for some home supporters to take.

Nothing is set in stone after just four games, and the Bucks' first-half performance suggested they had accepted Wilkin's critique of them as being too slow to get going in their opening three matches.

With Brandon Hall restored in goal in place of Alfie Brooks, and Jordan Piggott adding more energy in midfield, the home side bore a closer resemblance to the promotion winners of last season. Wilkin also selected Adan George for his first start for the club, although he played more as a right-sided attacker than a central striker.

There was plenty of industry, and the pressure they placed on Buxton in possession meant a side that likes to move the ball on the floor looked less than the full-time outfit they are. There were flashes of it, but the Bucks went a long way towards closing the gap.

One of those flashes came after just four minutes, when eventual match-winner Luke Brennan almost punished Oliver Cawthorne's loss of possession, firing a curling shot just too high of Hall's top right-hand corner.

Matty Stenson was involved in a clash of heads with Buxton custodian Cooper, who had to try to beat Stenson to a bouncing ball just outside the box. The Bucks striker felt Cooper had fouled him, heading his head and not the ball, but there was no free-kick awarded.

Buxton left-back Sammy Robinson overlapped soon after, providing a cross that Tai Sodje guided over Hall's crossbar when well positioned.

The Bucks responded, and their left-hand side was frequently the channel down which the threats developed.

Ola Lawal appeared to have the bit between his teeth, and Buxton conceded a succession of free-kicks, one of which brought the game's first booking, for Max Bardell. Jordan Cranston's deliveries from the set-pieces created pressure but not real threats on goal.

Ward's well-timed challenge denied Stenson as he looked to burst through, and Lawal tried but failed with an attempted spectacular conversion at the far post after the Bucks forced a turnover.

Half-chances came at both ends. Hall had to make a smart low save to an effort driven across his six-yard box from a tight angle. He also held a weak Kieran Burton header from a free-kick.

Set-pieces were looking as likely to provide a goal as anything either team could muster from open play, but the Bucks did go close before the interval.

Ward's foul on Rowe drew a booking, and then Stenson got a rare chance to drive at goal, linking up with Lawal; however, he was denied a clean strike by a last-gasp challenge and his low shot went a foot or so wide of Cooper's left upright.

The half ended with a third Buxton booking, forward Sodje needlessly leaving a foot out to trip Hall after the keeper teased the striker by aiming to let the ball run out of play, then grabbing it to safety as Sodje made a late effort to steal it away.

Goalless at the interval, both sides could feel that the game remained there for them to win, but it was the hosts who made the more determined efforts to try and force the issue.

Lawal can occasionally overlook better-placed colleagues in his desire to score, but nobody would have been berating him had a 51st-minute effort not been clawed away from Cooper's top-left corner by the flying Buxton keeper.

Buxton replaced the ineffective Ryan McLean with John Johnston, who had previously tormented the Bucks as a Redditch player, starting a bizarre sub-plot and sequence that saw the visitors substitute the substitute, before then replacing that substitute with another substitute.

Lawal's trickery set up a shooting chance for Khanya Leshabela, but Cooper was right behind his effort.

Lawal and Johnston exchanged similar efforts, both cutting in off their wing to shoot either wide or too close to the keeper, but Lawal was soon to be involved in the game's major flashpoint.

Ward, already booked, went into a challenge with Lawal with a raised boot and caught the forward painfully high up his leg. Referee Robert Claussen, who was to eventually dish out eight bookings, seven of them to Buxton, showed Ward a straight red card.

With the Bucks already having greater momentum and now facing a team one player short, surely the chances would come?

Wilkin made a first double substitution, replacing captain Luke Rowe and George with Dylan Allen-Hadley and Rhys Hilton.

Another double substitution, with Remi Walker and Manny Ilesanmi replacing the tiring Stenson and Lawal, sought to provide fresh impetus.

Compact Buxton largely kept the Bucks on the outside, and when they did work the ball over towards danger, Cooper was equal to their less-than-clinical goalscoring attempts.

Substitute Johnston appeared to pull his hamstring when he took an air shot as he tried to move towards the goal, and Ryan Viggars replaced him.

In the chaos of the final few minutes, as Buxton started to accumulate more of their eventual card count, Viggars was soon substituted, replaced by Sam Tomlinson after little more than five minutes on the field.

Whether that was to help run down the clock or was for a genuine injury was unclear, but Buxton's game management frustrated the Bucks, who, to their credit, did not simply resort to launching the ball into the box, believing they could find a way.

The Bucks swapped Jid Fridye-Harper for Ricardo Dinanga, whose unexpected cameo on the right of the Bucks' defence perplexed a now rather desperate home crowd, who wanted to see him operating in attack. The assumption must be that the move was due to injury, rather than a tactical decision.

The officials added seven minutes of play – would the goal come? Yes, but it was to go to the visitors.

Buxton's attacking play had all but vanished following Ward's dismissal, but when they advanced towards the Bucks' left corner flag, some sloppy play gave up possession to substitute Will Trueman in a pocket of space. Trueman's aim was true, and a darting run and low cross put the ball towards the near post, where Luke Brennan forced it past Hall, the ball trickling wide of the keeper to his right and over the line.

The Bucks of Shropshire were shell-shocked, while the Bucks of Derbyshire were astonished but jubilant. The clock showed 90+6 minutes.

There was almost no time for any Bucks response, and after the handshakes, Wilkin stood staring into the near distance, practically unable to believe what he had just witnessed.

While the Bucks had plenty of graft, they lacked craft, and it was a lack of quality that stopped them claiming what ought to have been a maiden victory back at step two.

This was a golden opportunity not taken, and they need to quickly wise up to how ruthless this division can be.

AFC Telford United: Hall, Fridye-Harper (Dinanga 90+1), Cranston, Pendley, Cawthorne, Piggott, Rowe (Hilton 71), Leshabela, George (Allen-Hadley 71), Stenson (Ilesanmi 80), Lawal (Walker 80). Subs not used: Fletcher, Williams.

Buxton: Cooper, Bardell, Ward, Burton, Robinson, McLean (Johnston 55 (Viggars 84 (Tomlinson 90+1))), Campbell, Kirby, Sodje (Trueman 80'), Martin (Hill 76).  Subs not used: Melville, Coleman.

Attendance: 1,302.