Paul Carden: Telford clean sheet record has to improve
Boss Paul Carden stresses AFC Telford United must find a way to keep the back door shut while letting their attacking stars flourish, writes Lewis Cox.
Recording clean sheets has been a long-standing problem for the Bucks, who continue in a ‘dogfight’ – according to Carden – to scramble clear of the single National League North relegation place.
Carden’s men managed three shutouts on the spin to claim seven points from nine in January and February but have no clean sheet in seven, with a single win in that period.
Telford, who yesterday signed former Wrexham midfielder Robbie Evans to further bolster their squad after Devarn Green’s arrival, head to in-form second-placed Brackey Town tomorrow before a trip to fourth-placed AFC Fylde on Tuesday.
“I was told when I first came in the Felixstowe (FA Trophy) win was only the 11th or 12th clean sheet in four or five years,” Carden said. “I couldn’t believe it, it’s not something you overly look at, but I was shocked. If you’re only keeping 11 or 12 clean sheets in five years chances are you’re not winning as many as you should and chances are you’re open to bad losing streaks.
“We’ve got to address it, got to fix it, by winning. We never go into a game where we want to hang on.
“There are times when the game progresses we might think ‘let’s tighten up here and take what we’ve got’, but certainly when the game starts we try to win.
“We’ve got good attacking players who can cause any team in the division problems. We’ve just got to find a formula to make the attacking players function but also keep the back door shut. We need to work as a team at doing.”
Gavin Cowan’s Bucks managed three clean sheets in 15 this term but no goals against was tough to come by historically. Carden has led his side to four clean sheets from 18 appearances.
Telford have not won away in the league since November 2020.
“It’ll be a nice time to get the away win,” Carden added. “Brackley are going really well and are really strong, they have a good know-how of the league. We had them watched on Tuesday and they won convincingly (5-0 at Telford’s drop-zone rivals Guiseley).”
AFC Telford (4-3-3): Pilling; Melhado, Lilly, Piggott, Burke; Nolan, Evans, Goodridge; Moore, Oswell, Daniels. Subs: White, Ward, Shaw, Green, Wright.
