'We owe fans cup success'

AFC Telford United's managerial duo Rob Smith and Larry Chambers have finally broken their duck in major cup competitions and declared: "We owe the supporters a decent run."Telford won 1-0 in their FA Trophy clash at Buxton on Saturday, Carl Rodgers' goal just before half-time enough to book their place in the first round proper.

And it ended a long wait for Smith and Chambers, who lost at the first hurdle in both the FA Cup and the FA Trophy last year, and also saw their side beaten at Matlock in this season's FA Cup last month.

"It's early days so we're not going to get carried away, but to have a good cup run is the least we can do for the supporters," said assistant manager Chambers.

"It was a difficult place to go. The conditions weren't great and, sitting in the stands, I don't think people appreciated how much of a slope there was and how much the wind was blowing against us.

"It wasn't a great performance but I think we showed a lot of spirit. We were competitive and we dug in and I think we thoroughly deserved to win the game.

"I spoke to (Buxton's former manager) Nicky Law's in the week. He said they used to play teams week in, week out who didn't appreciate how difficult the conditions are.

"In Buxton you can have four seasons in one day. We took that into account."

Striker Lee Moore was dropped to the bench for the first time this season, but Chambers is backing him to come back all the stronger for the break.

"He hasn't had the best of times lately," added the No 2.

"He did well in the second half at Barrow last week, but in the two or three games preceding that I don't think he'd been on top of his game.

"He has been awesome for us all season and we thought the rest might do him good.

"We've got Michael Husbands and Luke Reynolds so we thought it was the right idea to give him a rest."

By Chris Hudson