Paul Carden: I nearly passed out after AFC Telford win

Carden admitted that although he felt his side were in a good place, the tension of a game against a side just one place above them at the foot of the Vanarama National League North table was evident in his side’s performance:

“Watching training on Thursday and how the lads were at it, I was confident. I was confident in what we’ve got, but there was a sense of anxiousness on the pitch, you could feel it, but the sense of relief when we scored… I could have passed out, to be honest; it felt like someone had hit me over the head!”

“It’s tough for everyone concerned when you’re at the bottom of the league. Everyone’s feeling it, and every game is huge, and although I’m delighted with the win today, nothing’s achieved yet. We’ve got to keep going, and we’ve got a massive game next week.”

The result kept the Bucks in 19th place, but they were the only team in the bottom six to record a victory. With just one team being relegated, staying ahead of those below them is critical, and Carden felt the win over an impressive Gloucester side trumped any deficiencies in the Bucks performance:

“It’s about points at this stage; six games ago we went to Brackley and were the better team, something admitted by their manager, and anyone who was there would have witnessed that, but we came away with nothing. It’s all well and good saying “we played well”, but what did we get out of it? Today we haven’t played as well as we know we can, but we’ve taken three points, and at this stage of the season, that’s what counts.”

“If you look at the league table, there’s no column for games where you’ve played well, it’s just about points. We can only win our games, and we did that. We made some good blocks and defensive clearances, and we didn’t play anywhere near to the way we can, but it was the never say die and resilience about us today that was capped off by a great finish from Burkey.”

Carden felt new signing Harry Flowers demonstrated exactly the qualities he signed him for, opening the scoring on his home debut:

“He’s six feet four and he’s a beast in the air. When we get the delivery right, he’s going to be a threat. We’ve got good presence as a side now, in terms of the height we’ve got. We’ve got good options. Harry popping up with a goal on his debut is a great start for him; he’ll get better and better for us. He’s a great age, a great lad, and he’s been a leader wherever he’s played, so he’ll be a great addition for us.”