Analysis: Tortuous season ends with AFC Telford feeling sheer relief

But thankfully, just thankfully, they can add one more emotion to the mix as the campaign finished on a big and rare bright note.

Relief.

That sense of comfort was palpable come stoppage time of Saturday’s season-finale 1-1 draw against York City. At full-time Telford celebrated an achievement – but they also celebrated a feeling of relief.

Paul Carden’s Telford retained their National League North status by the skin of their teeth. There can be no underplaying just what step two survival means for this football club. This was as important as any match in 15 years. Promotion pushes, play-off finals, can all be achieved again – the drop can leave you in the abyss without a way to recover.

“Going down would be a disaster for Telford” has been on the lips of many this season. The intricacies of why can remain untold for now, they are not worth worrying about. But the club would be all too aware that life without a National League status – and surely with hundreds fewer fans through the door – would have been extremely difficult. Even with the new backing of Walter Gleeson, it would have set the club back so far.

Sliding doors moments sprung to my mind while witnessing Telford get over the line on Saturday.

That day, certainly those final 10 minutes, felt like a sliding doors moment.

Now, with the passion and ambition of chairman Andy Pryce working with the board alongside Gleeson – who headed and kicked every ball on Saturday – the club can really look up and kick on. To achieve what? Who knows. But the ambition is for a secure club built on safe and solid foundations to compete for promotion back to the National League.

Under Carden, too, they have a manager who, despite continued struggles at the wrong end of the table, has won many admirers for the way he has conducted himself and led the team to safety.

His aim when appointed from step three Warrington Town in late November was to haul the Bucks out of trouble. There was a long time to achieve it in, granted, but boy was there a lot to be sorted. The manager acknowledged what a big job, and feat, it had been while swigging a beer on Saturday evening.

That manager said to assistant Carl Baker “imagine if we get this place rocking” as a big crowd of 2,600-plus cheered the Bucks. Carden and Gleeson were left with no doubting the scale and potential.

It took Carden a little while to put his stamp on things. It was the best part of a couple of months before he was able to bring even a handful of players in. Prior to that the squad still had a look of Gavin Cowan’s and Dennis Greene’s. Carden had first needed to focus on methods and mindsets.

Striker and top scorer Jason Oswell was the only player to start Carden’s first game, in the FA Trophy at Felixstowe on November 27, and remain in the line-up for the final day.

There have been ups and downs. Comings and goings aplenty. The recruitment has been impressive, to say the least. Carden has been backed to bring top players in on contracts after big characters and earners departed.

Yet it still took until the closing stages of the final day. That is just how fine the margins were.

Two places and two points did it in the end – but that does not nearly surmise a chaotic rollercoaster of a nerve-shredding afternoon at the New Bucks Head.

The permutations were pretty clear – better Guiseley’s result. Farsley Celtic, third-bottom, were not out of it either and so that would prove in a wild second half that pulled and played with Bucks fans’ emotions like no TV, film drama or theatre play ever could.

The party appeared to have started early when Keaton Ward, the on-loan Mansfield midfielder, curled in a beauty inside 20 minutes. It was redemption and atonement of the highest order for Ward, who turned 22 last week and picked the perfect time for his first Telford goal at the 19th attempt, particularly after his bad misses late on at Southport in the previous fixture.

Farsley fell behind in their fixture, leaving them in a perilous position, but fingernails on most of the boosted 2,621 gate at the New Bucks Head were chewed to the bone as Guiseley took the lead at play-off chasing Alfreton 10 minutes after half-time.

That made things nervy and York came on stronger. When the Minstermen’s Akil Wright netted a fine strike from 22 yards with 15 minutes to go to make it 1-1, the fans in the home stands became agitated. Mobile phones were out almost everywhere, checking scores, updates came and spread like wildfire.

It is to Carden and his team’s credit they managed the final 10 minutes plus stoppages well. It would have been very easy for the players to implode and totally lose their heads.

Telford, for the best part of 15 minutes or so, were one York goal away from being sent down to the Northern Premier League at step three after 15 years. It could not have been more perilous. And it was York in the ascendency.

And then, in the 89th minute, an update from Derbyshire was received like an AFC Telford United match-winner – Alfreton had equalised against Guiseley.

That pretty much did for the Lions’ hopes. Guiseley, managed by former Bucks boss Steve Kittrick, then had all dreams eliminated as Alfreton scored a second to lead 2-1 deep into stoppage time.

That news spread around Telford fans and celebrations started even before the referee’s final whistle. A Bucks fan, one of the first to see the news, stood up near to the press box to deliriously share the scoreline with Telford chairman Pryce, who was with new shareholder and investor Gleeson just behind

That was it. Job done. Just. But deservedly so. Hundreds flooded on to the pitch and deserved their celebrations. This has been a more-than trying season of vast ordeals. Winless on the road. Three managers – including an interim. The new manager, who has been through the wringer in just over five months, needed to conduct a summer recruitment process on the whole squad while battling against the drop. It has been tortuous at times.

Anyway, thankfully, that experience is all behind Telford and their fans now. When looking back to the 21/22 season in, hopefully, happier times ahead they can recall two vital moments – Carden’s appointment and the final stages of May 7. Survival.

What comes next is fascinating. The club are expecting to reveal the futures of players in the coming days – those out of contract and likely the futures of those on non-contract.

Carden and Telford, as things stand, have four players under contract for next season. Harry Flowers, Jordan Piggott, Brad Bood and Liam Nolan – three defenders and a midfielder.

The manager has identified other targets and will no doubt be quite far down the road in making some more additions, to ensure the Bucks are not left scrambling for bodies come pre-season.

It will be interesting to see how many other players, loanees or otherwise, who helped the Bucks to safety, will be part of the squad for next season.

There are certainly more individuals who have made a big impression. Goalkeeper Luke Pilling, the February signing from Stafford Rangers, has lived up to his highly-rated reputation.

Others, too, including Robbie Evans and Devarn Green, both on short-term deals, have done enough to put themselves in the conversation, though the likelihood is that certainly the latter will have interest elsewhere. A decision is also needed on the future of a big name in Byron Moore, who was injured on the final day.

Gleeson, the co-founder of music distribution giants Music Magpie who came on board in January, revealed to the Shropshire Star a board meeting is to take place tomorrow. Things will be thrashed out and plans laid to ensure much, much better next time around.