'I can't blame anybody else' - Kevin Wilkin on AFC Telford sinking to the bottom

Kevin Wilkin took responsibility for an AFC Telford United performance that extended a winless start to the season to five matches, and which ladled pressure on to Bank Holiday Monday’s home fixture with Bedford Town.

A 2-1 defeat in their Friday evening trip to Morecambe pushed the Bucks to the basement position in the fledgling league table, and they are now the only side in National League North without a victory.

Wilkin suggested several players needed to look at themselves but pointed the biggest finger of blame at himself for a poor start to the game, which mirrored his side’s poor start to the campaign.

“You can't start a game like that against a side that's searching for their first win as well,” he said. “It was a dreadful first start from us, and I have to take responsibility for that. It's my fault.

“Players haven't played to the level or conducted themselves to the shape and form that we asked of them. I have to take responsibility and take the blame for it.”

Two Teddy Collis goals condemned the Bucks to a glum trip home, netting at either end of an opening period in which the hosts dominated.

His first goal, after two minutes, set the tone, yet despite being largely second-best, the Bucks almost snatched an unlikely draw. Wilkin admitted he’d have taken the point, even if his side’s display hadn’t warranted it.

“I think we came out (better) in the second half,” he said. “Look, that's how strange it is: as dominant as they've been in the first half, we can go and take a point right to the death, and it's another gilt-edged moment that we've missed, as much as we perhaps don't deserve it. The fact is that I think it's probably the best chance of the game.”

Substitute Louis Moult’s 88th-minute goal, his first for the club, appeared a mere consolation, but had Matt Stenson hit the target in added time with a header following a free-kick, the Bucks would have wriggled from the hook they’d impaled themselves upon.

Wilkin was honest in admitting it would have been undeserved after a first half where the Bucks were overrun, and he identified a lack of intensity and the fitness to deliver it as the biggest factor: “If you come here and get a point from the position we were at in the first half, then like I say, you'd be absolutely delighted with it, but yeah… Our openness in the first half and the lack of energy and quality at certain times.

“I can't blame anybody else. I've brought these players to the club. There are a few there who aren't performing at the level I need them to.

“Look, there's lots of players in there that we've got to get improvement out of; the players that I've tried to spend the money as wisely and sensibly as I can.

“I think we've got a decent enough spine to the side. I think there are certain players here that aren't at the fitness levels that I need them to be at, and as I say, I can't blame anybody else. It's my fault. I brought them to the club.”