"The expectation is rising all the time" - Kevin Wilkin relishing the pressure as Telford look to mount play-off charge
Kevin Wilkin has called for his Telford squad to embrace the added pressure of their National League North play-off run in.
The Bucks travel to league leaders South Shields this afternoon knowing a victory would keep them in the top seven and on track for an unlikely shot at promotion into the National League.
For most people associated with the club at the start of the season, a successful campaign for Wilkin's side would have been one that was comfortable and incident-free, with the main aim being to survive in the division after promotion out of step three last term.
However, with two thirds of the season done survival is all-but secured and there instead there is plenty for the Bucks to play for at the top end of the table, something Wilkin believes is a privilege for him and his players.
"The expectation is rising within our group all the time," Wilkin explained. "They keep proving to one another what they're capable of and with that comes new levels of expectation.
"We were bitterly disappointed not to win the game on Tuesday and we went into it feeling very confident that we would win it, and I think that's a bit of a measure of where we are hopefully moving to.
"Speaking to a few people around the club they agreed that if, at the start of the season, you would have offered us this position that we're in now I think we all would have been pretty pleased with where we are at the moment.
"We all want to understand how we've got to the position that we're in, the way that we play and how we can manage games better now moving forward.
"I want to be able to crystalise that with achieving something and hopefully we can get into the play-offs and do exactly that.
"There's a lot of work to do and a lot of tough games to come, and none tougher than the one this weekend, so we're not getting ahead of ourselves. We know we could hit some bad form, we've had some lads missing through injury and suspension, and now more than ever we have to be consistent and make sure we do our jobs to the best of our ability.
