Lowestoft Town vs Telford - Match preview

The Bucks travel to Lowestoft Town tomorrow afternoon in a return to Southern Central Premier action after an unsuccessful afternoon in Lincolnshire in the FA Cup first qualifying round last weekend.

And after feeling his side were ‘bullied’ by The Holy Blues, Wilkin explained what he wants to see from his side at Crown Meadow come three o’clock on Saturday.

“We were just a little bit too easy to play against (last weekend against Gainsborough Trinity),” the Telford boss conceded. “We need to understand that there are certain situations and moments where we need to be a lot better in.”

Coming off the back of three straight league wins there was reason for optimism among Telford staff and supporters alike, albeit The Bucks were made to work a lot harder for those nine points than they might have needed to. And Wilkin admitted that his side need to hold on to their ruthless, win-at-all-costs mentality when it comes to their promotion hunt.

“Finding a way to win is important,” he said. “You can see what it means to everybody on the touchline, we want to win games, and we want to be a team and a squad and a club that the fans can be proud of.

“Fair play to our fans this season, they’ve kept behind the lads and probably given us some leeway to be fair in games that we should have been more comfortable in.”

Key to any success Telford have will be their hard work and endeavour off the ball, an area of their game that most pleased their manager after the 2-1 home victory against Stratford Town on August Bank Holiday Monday.

And those attributes will be even more important against the newly-promoted Trawler Boys, who started the league season positively before suffering a 6-1 defeat at last season’s strugglers AFC Sudbury in their most recent league outing.

“We always want to get in the opposition’s faces and force them to kick the ball on to us because we fancy ourselves in the scrap,” Wilkin said. “You don’t just want teams passing around you, and that comes from an intensity in the front line, good starting positions and a desire to work hard.”

He added: “When we find ourselves in good moments off the back of that pressure the only thing missing at the moment is the quality to go and stick the ball in the back of the net.

“The crosses that we put in against Stratford really should’ve had us with a few more goals on the board, and when you’re in the ascendancy in games you have to make it count.”

With no new additions to the Telford squad expected before Saturday’s game it looks set to be another tough test for Wilkin’s depleted squad.

However, there is hope that injured duo Jordan Piggott and Matty Stenson will return to the fold in some form this weekend.