"We need competition" - Kevin Wilkin keen to add to his defensive options as pre season raises fresh concerns
Kevin Wilkin has admitted AFC Telford United are on the lookout for reinforcements at centre back ahead of today's season opener.
The Bucks travel to King's Lynn Town this afternoon for the opening game of the 2025/26 National League North season, but only have Oliver Cawthorne and Orrin Pendley available as recognised centre backs.
After defensive issues last season the expectation was for Telford to boost their defensive options, but so far they have been unable to do so - something the manager says is not for the lack of trying.
"We've got three players that you would look at as definite options to play there, but I think we do need to add some competition yes," Wilkin said. "Hopefully who we want to bring in will be decided in the next few days and we can sort it out."
He added: "There are still lots of players without clubs and on the look out trying to find somewhere, so it's certainly an area that is under consideration for sure.
"That's not to say the lads we've had there haven't done well, they have for periods and the reason we've been shipping goals hasn't been down to our centre half situation.
"Looking at the pre season games that we've played we've generally looked like we can score goals, but equally we've conceded more than I would be comfortable with and for me that's the biggest area that we need to address if we're going to be really competitive this season.
"We need to do some work on it to try and bring about an improvement in that area, and if we can't do it with the people that we've got we'll have to expand our way of trying to address it and potentially look at other players.
"It's been a learning curve for some of our players in pre season, and if they take that on we know we can be more than competitive."
