Telford analysis: Quality tells in the end battling Bucks are worn down
A third consecutive league defeat served as a reminder that progress needs to be matched by points for Kevin Wilkin’s AFC Telford United, who slipped to 19th in the National League North.
Defeat by the full-timers from Lancashire wasn’t wholly a surprise. The Bucks acquitted themselves reasonably well, but spent long periods without the ball, and the Coasters gradually wore them down.
The hosts showed diligence in their work, and although their will didn’t waver, the visitors were operating at a higher level. Craig Mahon’s side showed the benefit of being able to train daily; they were fitter, well-drilled, and comfortable in possession.
Their belief in what they were doing meant they didn’t panic when the Bucks took an early lead, but if there is a disappointing aspect of the Bucks’ performance, it was their inability to add to Remi Walker’s seventh-minute opener.
Fylde kept the game within reach, content that their superiority would show through, and sure enough, it did.
This could have been the first of back-to-back games against the Coasters, but Mahon’s side were toppled from the FA Cup in a replay by Darlington in midweek, a result which will send the Bucks to County Durham in the next round, rather than Lancashire.
Wilkin admitted that Fylde’s Cup exit meant they were likely to arrive in Shropshire looking to deliver a response, but they had just one shot to their name, from Ryan Colclough, saved by Josh Gracey, when they fell a goal behind.
A restart following the Bucks being flagged for offside was taken across the Fylde box, and Max Taylor’s momentary hesitation allowed Walker to nick the ball off him, advance and finished coolly to Zac Jones’ left.
The game then settled into a pattern that both teams likely anticipated. Fylde dominated possession, but the Bucks were diligent in their efforts to prevent them from opening up any clear chances.
It all made for a rather cagey game, with the Bucks moving to counter Fylde’s advances, and understandably, it lacked some of the thrills a crowd in excess of 1,600 might have hoped for.
When there was goalmouth excitement, it came from the Bucks’ counter-attacking moments. Dylan Allen-Hadley linked with Jordan Cranston and Walker in the 25th minute for the latter to whip in a tantalising ball, an open invitation for Adan George to try to get on the end of it.
George and keeper Jones were both within their rights to go for the ball, and the Bucks were left vexed when their 50/50 collision was assessed as a foul on Jones.
Gracey’s afternoon in the Bucks goal was to get busier, and he denied Luca Thomas when the left-winger cut in past Ammar Dyer. Those two efforts sandwiched an effort of Dyer’s own that flew over Jones’ top right-hand corner.
Fylde levelled 12 minutes into the second half and the goal and the goal was relatively simple in its execution.
Colclough’s spin and turn away from Khanya Leshabela broke through the Bucks’ midfield on the right, and his cross-field ball to Thomas invited a low cross that Charlie Jolley arrived to steer home.
Wilkin introduced fresh legs in Matty Stenson and Rhys Hilton, no doubt hoping to generate some threat whilst also trying to limit Fylde’s build-from-the-back approach.
But it was a Fylde substitute, introduced at the same break in play, who was to be the match-winner.
In the 78th minute, Jon Ustabasi collected the ball from a give-and-go with a colleague, looked up and aimed a perfectly-struck right-foot shot into Gracey’s top left-hand corner from 25 yards.
Their hunger for a third goal was commendable, but they clearly sensed the Bucks’ vulnerability and took advantage of it.
A corner was met by Taylor’s head and rebounded off the crossbar. Khanya Leshabela’s partial clearance was headed back towards danger by Colclough, and Corey Whelan put extra momentum on the ball, helping it past Gracey.
A failure to collect points against teams like Fylde doesn’t, in itself, cast doubt upon the Bucks’ ability to compete at step two, but it does highlight some of those points not gained against lesser teams.
There’s certainly no need to panic, but picking up points more regularly against teams outside of the division’s elite takes the pressure off games against the top sides.
