'Quirky' Telford results leave Kevin Wilkin scratching his head

Telford boss Kevin Wilkin has admitted he is struggling to explain his side’s ‘quirky’ trend of results this season.

The Bucks have endured an inconsistent start to life in the National League North and currently sit 17th in the table, but have already had a significant say in the promotion race after twice beating the league leaders in their opening 14 games.

Both Oxford City and Hereford were top of the table heading into their respective clashes with Telford, only to come away empty-handed.

And having seen his side take maximum points from both encounters, Wilkin was left just as puzzled as anyone by their ability to overcome the division’s leading sides despite their struggles for consistency elsewhere.

“I wouldn’t know whether there’s an exact reason or whether it’s just a coincidence to be honest,” Wilkin said. “We played well enough on both occasions to win the games, but it is a bit of a quirky situation, especially when you see some of the games that we haven’t been able to win.

“I don’t think we’ve struggled in any game, there have just been moments in games where we haven’t been as good as we would have hoped.

“We’ve always given ourselves a chance in every game we’ve played, even against King’s Lynn where we’ve had a good moment and hit the post just before they’ve taken the lead.

“The consistent feature in the games that we’ve won is that we haven’t made any real mistakes.

“We certainly didn’t make any mistakes on Tuesday at Hereford, and consequently we took all three points.

“We’ve made some horrendous individual errors this season, and that’s not just one player, that’s various players who needed to step up in various moments and do a whole lot better.

“I’ve said for a long while now that when you eradicate those issues you give yourself a chance in games, and that’s what we showed against Oxford and Hereford.”

Wilkin did point to the fact that having a near-full quota of players to pick from has benefited him in recent weeks, with the return of Jamie Meddows this week proving especially beneficial.

“The better players we have out there, the more the small margins go in our favour,” he said. “Jamie is a big player for us and has that something extra that other players in the group might not have at the moment.

“They’ll probably get there in time and we hope they do, but we need it now and Jamie contributed to a fantastic first half performance on Tuesday, as did everyone.

“I was also really impressed with how everyone adapted during the game on Tuesday. Having been so front footed in the first half to having to play on the counter when Hereford were coming at us and changing players and formations is something the lads deserve real credit for.”