AFC Telford 2 Gloucester City 1 - Report

Visitors Gloucester City may only have lain one place ahead of the 19th placed Bucks before kick-off; however, only one defeat in their last nine matches had enabled Lee Mansell’s to quietly open a six-points gap over the bottom four, and they tested Carden’s Bucks, and the nerves of the home crowd, in an absorbing encounter.

The Bucks were looking for a fifth game without defeat, but after two slightly anxious draws at Guiseley and Farsley Celtic in their last two matches, a victory was really the only truly acceptable outcome.

Carden made three changes to his side; Salford City loanee James Melhado returned at right-back, whilst Rob Evans and Byron Moore, who were the catalyst for a Bucks revival at Farsley last weekend when introduced from the bench, got the nod to start.

From the kick-off, both sides showed their intentions, and City made the better start. Captain Jordan Piggott made a smart block as the ball ran loose to a Gloucester man on the edge of the box, and the visitors, prompted by the excellent Kevin Dawson and Tommy O’Sullivan in midfield, prevented the Bucks from imposing themselves early on.

The Bucks began to show a bit more energy and began to press Gloucester in the final third, winning possession and swiftly putting City on the back foot. However, it was still slightly against the run of play when the Bucks took a 19th minute lead.

Recent signing Harry Flowers is a player Carden had coveted for some time, the manager admitting that as soon as there was even a possibility of signing him it was a deal the club simply had to get over the line. Carden had also felt that Flowers would give the Bucks more threat from set-pieces, and so it proved.

The danger from Brendon Daniels’ 19th minute corner looked to passed as the ball travelled over the top of those gathered in the six-yard box, but when Piggott headed the ball back across goal, the towering Flowers rose to nod the ball over the line as keeper Harry Wiles-Richards failed to make his catch. City argued that the ball hadn’t crossed the line fully, but although O’Sullivan headed the ball clear Flowers was in no doubt, and neither was the assistant referee.

Lifted by the goal, the Bucks went at the visitors. Gloucester’s nickname is the Tigers, but it was the Bucks who were more tigerish for a spell, and more pressing forced a turnover of possession to Devarn Green; he advanced into the box but his low shot couldn’t beat Wiles-Richards across the keeper’s body to the far post.

The Tigers still occasionally showed their claws, and Melhado’s excellent covering tackle denied them on a swift counter-attack. Soon afterwards, Flowers and City striker Matt Green tangled, and perhaps still annoyed that he hadn’t won a free-kick, Green miscued horribly when connecting with a resulting cross, the ball clearing the crossbar comfortably.

In the 37th minute the Bucks should have stretched their lead. A poor back-pass went straight to Jason Oswell; however, one-on-one with the keeper, Oswell was denied when Wiles-Richards got down to his left to turn Oswell’s shot around the post.

The Tigers responded, and just as the game edged into first-half injury time, centre-half Jordan Thompson was lefting kicking himself when he headed over the bar from six yards out when picked out by a ball played in from City’s right.

Ahead at the break, the Bucks came out eager to add the security of a second goal. Within a minute, Green set up Daniels at the near post on the left, and whilst often the talisman, but the out-of-sorts Daniels could only blaze his shot wildly over the bar.

Burke then drilled a low cross into Wiles-Richards’ midriff, whilst a City player could only hook the ball a long way over the bar when trying to execute a scissor-kick as the ball dropped kindly from a corner.

Burke was overlapping well on the left, but it was a cross from the right that Oswell headed straight at Wiles-Richards in the 52nd minute, another great chance. Green, of the Bucks variety, was lively also, and a sweet turn that saw him let the ball run before leaving right-back Jack James floundering resulted in a booking for the City man as he grabbed Green to stop his progress.

The Bucks’ early impetus hadn’t brought a goal, and as if to prove the old adage that you often regret not scoring when you’re on top, City began to go through the gears. A swift counter-attack saw Dawson set-up by a low ball from the left, but the midfielder’s shot was charged down, City claiming it was done by the hand of Robbie Evans. A follow-up shot was also blocked, and the Tigers sensed the Bucks were vulnerable.

Daniels made way for the more dynamic Mace Goodridge, but City began to dominate. Melhado flung himself into the path of a goal-bound shot, but in the 63rd minute they levelled. Defender Tom Harrison enjoyed a real battle all afternoon with Oswell, but from a corner found himself doing what Oswell hadn’t been able to when the ball dropped kindly to him and he stabbed the ball in past a despairing dive from Luke Pilling.

Melhado tried to turn the tide when he advanced inside from his right-back position and into room 30 yards or so from goal. Given the invitation to shoot, he struck a wicked shot that beat Wiles-Richards before crashing off the underside of the bar to safety. Observers suggest the ball was a good foot or two over the line, but neither the assistant nor referee David McNamara, saw it.

Harrison was booked for preventing Pilling setting the Bucks on the counter-attack after making a catch from a corner, and in the 75th minute Pilling did terrifically to deny Green. The City man took a long ball over the top down with a delicate touch, but his attempt to lift the ball over Pilling failed as he stretched to get fingertips on the ball, catching it at the second attempt.

The Bucks were throwing themselves here, there and everywhere to deny more City efforts in the final third, and Carden introduced Keaton Ward and Marcus Marshall in an attempt to turn the tide.

The tide did turn, but when it came it was from a most unexpected source. Burke, on loan from Mansfield Town, played for his parent club’s under-23 side on Wednesday, scoring the winner in a 1-0 Nottinghamshire Senior Cup victory. With the Bucks needing a hero, Burke donned his cape and surged onto an inviting Goodridge pass into the inside left position. Showing commendable composure, the 21 years old Dubliner drilled a low, left-footed shot on the run past Wiles-Richards dive and into the far side of the goal.

Pandemonium ensued. Hearts must have been thumping in the stands and on the pitch, but Carden’s side took a collective deep breath and readied themselves to see off City’s last throw of the dice. Their attempts to keep the ball in the corner of City’s half failed, and a miskick from Flowers gave the Tigers a corner with the clock already well over the four minutes of added time. Keeper Wiles-Richards joined the attack and may have connected with a header, but Pilling snared the ball and the threat was gone.

Around 1,200 people all breathed a collective sigh of relief as the whistle blew, and with other results assisting them the Bucks took another step along the tightrope they are on, towards safety.

Referee: David McNamara.

Assistants: Zharir Mustafa, Graeme Kearney.

Attendance: 1,210.

Telford (4-3-3): Pilling, Melhado, Burke, Flowers, Piggott, Nolan, Evans (Ward 85), Daniels (Goodridge 58), Moore (Marshall 82), Green, Oswell.

Subs not used: Bood, McNally.

Scorers: Flowers (19), Burke (86).

Gloucester City (4-3-3): Wiles-Richards, James (Leadbitter), Thompson, Harrison, Hall, Barkers (McClure 87), Dawson, O’Sullivan, Hulbert, Green, King (Tomlinson).

Subs not used: Armstrong, Mensah.

Scorer: Harrison (63).

Cautioned: James, Harrison.