Liam Watson: AFC Telford are improving
AFC Telford United manager Liam Watson reckons his team's surprise win at Woking shows they have adapted to playing in the Conference Premier.
The Bucks, who won the Conference North last season, claimed just their second win of the campaign at the Kingfield Stadium.
And he said: "I think we came here giving Woking an awful lot of respect.
"We lined the team up to make us very hard to beat which we have been doing of late but we did it a little bit more on Saturday.
"I had two reports on them and both of them said they were the best team they have seen in the league this season.
"But I think we are growing. I kept on saying that in the last five games before Saturday we have grown into the league.
"And it is going to be a long, hard season. I know that but you have seen that one or two people are coming through."
Regarding the team's performance, which was crowned by a Mike Phenix brace and a Sam Smith strike, he added: "Phenix is scoring goals.
"He will get a bit of the headlines but I thought Kristian Platt was outstanding, I thought Freddy Hall had a terrific debut in goal and pulled off a great save in the first half.
"And after that he was just a (commanding) presence but I shouldn't be singling people out because it was a team effort.
"The pressure has been building. We all feel pressure and I have tried to very much keep it low key and take the pressure off.
"But I do believe a lot of the players will go on to have decent careers here and will go on to play (well) at this level.
"It is a learning curve for some of the players here. Some of them have never played at this level, a lot have played very few games at his level.
"And the easiest thing in the world is to go and bring a load of experienced old players and say 'get us over the line.'
"But if we can get over the line this season with the youth in the squad it will set the club up for a few years to come."
Watson handed Hall a debut in goal at the expense of Jonathan Hedge on Saturday and he said: "I think Hedgey needed taking out of the firing line because - I am not just pointing the finger at him - we have conceded a lot of goals.
"And there are a lot of question marks about a lot of the goals, who deals with them, and you have got to protect him.
"He hasn't played an awful lot of football going into this season. He was number two last year at Grimbsy and I just thought it was the ideal time to make a change.
"He will go back in on Saturday because Freddy is cup tied but he's had a break and hopefully this gives the lads a bit of confidence because we have defended well."
