Kevin Wilkin takes delight in ruthless AFC Telford avoiding rustiness with eight-goal haul
Kevin Wilkin was delighted to see his ruthless AFC Telford United shake any potential rustiness during a remarkable 8-0 hammering of Curzon Ashton.
The Bucks shook of recent postponement disappointment to go goal crazy at Tameside Stadium with eight unanswered goals in their first fixture of 2026.
It lifted Wilkin's troops above 13th-placed Curzon and into 10th in a packed National League North middle ground, but Telford will now cast an immediate eye on the FA Trophy in the hope of it being third time lucky in the twice-postponed fourth round tie at Hornchurch.
“We had the opening 10-minute spell, when we've got into a lot of good areas and weren't maybe as ruthless as we need to be," Wilkin said.
"We found ourselves in some good situations and haven't taken a goal, and I said to Mark (Noon, assistant manager) 'we need to take one of these now, because Curzon will improve'.
"But when we found the first goal and had that edge about us to go and drive on for a second and third, we were pretty well relentless then."
Matty Stenson and Kanya Leshabela netted two apiece with goals from Dylan Allen-Hadley, Jamie Meddows, Ola Lawal and Jimmy Armson completing a memorable victory.
The weather-enforced break had at least helped the Bucks recover bodies after a threadbare Telford lost 3-0 at Kidderminster last time out on December 30.
Wilkin added: "Tuesday was our first session for probably a couple of weeks and there's a little bit, not at the start of the session, but towards the end, a little bit of rustiness I noticed in one or two. We got together on Thursday, worked hard, the lads applied themselves in a good way,
"I’m delighted that we've come out of the game as well as we have.
"It's a fantastic opening game for our 2026, but it's one game and, we've got another massive game on Tuesday.”
Wilkin admitted he felt some sympathy for opposite number Mark Bradshaw after such a humiliating scoreline.
“Maybe things have gone for us," the Bucks boss said. "They've had one or two moments where they probably should score at the end, and maybe they should score a goal in the first half as well.
"You feel for the opposition when you're on the end of those sorts of results, and nobody likes for that to be the case. It's nice to enjoy as a winning manager, and it's just nice off the back of the disappointment of how we had to set up (at Kidderminster).
"With the greatest respect to all the players and everything else, we had some real good players missing from that group in such a crucial game."
