Shropshire Star

Liam Watson issues challenge to AFC Telford

AFC Telford United manager Liam Watson today challenged his side to go unbeaten in the Skrill Conference North for the rest of the season.

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The Bucks boss believes he has the squad at his disposal to build on three games without defeat for the remaining 15 fixtures of the campaign.

Watson is disappointed with Telford's failure to turn winning positions into victories in two of those three matches, but still has high targets.

He said: "On the flip side, we have got 15 games to go and I believe we have the squad to stay unbeaten, I am not ducking out of that one.

"We have just got to play on the front-foot and we need to be strong."

He made five changes for Tuesday night's 1-1 draw at Altrincham and will again shuffle his pack for Saturday's first-ever trip to Oxford City.

In came Dan Preston, Chris Lever, Russell Benjamin, Mike Phenix and Andy Owens to the starting line-up for a change of tactics against Alty.

Matthew McGinn and Tony Gray were not included in the squad, but are likely to return at the weekend against the third-bottom home side.

Neill Byrne, Charlie Barnett and Sean Clancy are also pushing for their places back, with player-coach Alan Moogan still to return from a groin injury.

It leaves Watson with a wealth of options to choose and it will be "horses for courses," depending on the opposition, on who gets the nod game-to-game.

He said: "There will be changes all of the time now and everyone will be in the reckoning for every game. But it's horses for courses.

"I am not going to turn round and say I am going to pick the same team between now and the end of the season, because that would be extremely naive of us.

"We take our opposition seriously, we have people watching everyone we come up against it and we set up in the way we think is right. You can only play what is in front of you.

"If someone plays well on a Saturday but maybe we don't think they are right for the formation on Tuesday, then that's tough.

"We need different people for different games. We have got a good squad, so we need to use it."