"Exceptional" - Telford boss praises new signing's immediate impact

Telford boss Kevin Wilkin has admitted he is hoping to manage the minutes of new signing Mal Benning after his stop-start pre season.

The 32-year-old left back was released by Shrewsbury in June and only agreed terms with Telford in the first week of September.

It brought an end to a pursuit that had rumbled on all summer, and Wilkin shared his delight at adding a player of Benning’s experience to his ranks.

“I’d been in contact with Mal’s agent during pre-season and when we first spoke we weren’t offering close enough numbers wise to what he wanted,” Wilkin explained. “He obviously didn’t get what he was looking for and now we’ve been able to do a deal.

“He’s had a fantastic league career and hopefully Mal’s technical ability and understanding will be a good addition to what we are.

“We’ll need to help him with his fitness because he probably didn’t get too much done through pre season, but only time will tell if what he did do will be enough.

“Physically his stature will add something to us as well, and without any shadow of a doubt the biggest factor that I’m most pleased about is that he’s naturally left footed, which with Jordan (Cranston) and Jamie (Meddows) missing we needed an addition to bring some balance down that side.”

Benning was thrown into the starting 11 straight away at Scarborough on Saturday, and Wilkin admitted three games in a week could be a challenge for his new recruit.

“In an ideal world we would have been comfortable in the game and able to take him out of the firing line, but he saw it through for us,” the Bucks boss said. “I think Mal understands what it takes and the demands that come with a three-game week, and he’s done really, really well to come in and play the full 90 off the back of not many minutes during pre season.

“He did exceptionally well but we don’t want to over face him and put him at too much risk of getting injured.

“We have to manage the situation to the best of our ability, and I’m always speaking to players and asking them how they’re feeling themselves, how their bodies are responding.

“Going Saturday-Tuesday and having to go again on Saturday is a challenge and if players need to take some downtime in between time to recover then I have no issue with that, the most important thing is making sure they’re out there playing and available every week for games.”