Luke Fearnall backs AFC Telford boss Rob Edwards to draw in the fans
Former Supporters Trust chairman Luke Fearnall believes new AFC Telford boss Rob Edwards can be invaluable in drawing a new wave of fans to the New Bucks Head.
Rob Smith and Larry Chambers departed the club late last month with Edwards appointed their successor shortly afterwards, amid talk of growing links between the Bucks and Wolves.
Edwards, a former first-team coach and interim boss at Molineux, has led Telford in four friendlies to date ahead of tonight’s Shropshire Senior Cup clash at TNS.
The Bucks have struggled to keep their heads above water in recent years, with Smith and Chambers twice pulling the club away from relegation danger with crowd numbers dropping.
And Fearnall, who sits on the current board with interim chairman Andy Pryce, thinks that Edwards’s style of management will have a pull.
The lifelong fan said: “He’s a coach, he’s coached at Wolves at all levels, his experience there is going to be invaluable.
“He’s got a great chance to pull the crowds in with the Wolves connection. Telford’s got a large Wolves fan base so will a few come down and watch? I think they probably will.
“It will great to get a few more on the gate, but it goes back to Rob and Larry as well, winning games of football brings people in.
“It doesn’t matter who you’ve got in charge if we start losing they won’t come in. If he starts and we’re winning they will, that’s got to be his aim, to go and win a few games of football.”
The new boss has tasted two wins and two defeats thus far in the build-up to the league opener at York.
Fearnall compared Edwards’s reign to that of former England international Andy Sinton, who managed Telford for two-and-a-half years between 2010 and 2013.
Sinton had previously been managing at Fleet Town before making the step up to Telford.
“We’ve always said that this football club, this football stadium, is a shop window for players, well Rob Edwards has got an opportunity himself now to come and prove himself as a manager,” added Fearnall.
“It’s the second time we’ve taken, not an inexperienced manager in Andy Sinton, but he’d come from the lower level and he was an ex pro, and it feels a little bit like that.
“He’s got a chance to come and make his mark so he’ll get all the support he needs from us.”
