Kevin Wilkin knows there is more to come from AFC Telford United

Despite sitting level on points at the top of the Southern Central Premier, the general feeling around the SEAH Stadium is that The Bucks are yet to fully find their feet.

And while Telford find themselves in a much better position than they did this time last year, Wilkin is far from getting carried away after a ‘decent’ start to the season.

“We should’ve won more games more convincingly, there’s no denying that,” he admitted. “It’s all about taking moments when they come, and we’re still finding out how some players respond to different things.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve missed some of the lads who departed in the summer, and we’re still waiting for some players to reach the levels that we know they can, and that we need them to.

“It’s nice when you’re winning games and can still point out to the lads that we need more from one or two of them, and I’m not going to hide from that.”

After suffering a humiliating 5-1 defeat to Stourbridge in their first home game of the season Telford have bounced back with five consecutive league wins.

And that bouncebackability has pleased the Telford boss greatly, even if performances are still leaving a lot to be desired.

“We’ve had a decent string of results, but that’s not to say we can’t improve,” Wilkin commented. “I’m certainly not getting carried away by our start, yes I’m pleased with the character that we’ve shown through those games, but there are certain games that I would’ve expected to win in a more comfortable fashion.

“That’s the reality of it, and players have to up their games.

“Hopefully the players understand that, because that is the long and the short of it.

“There are lots of capable sides at this level and we’ve got no right to win games more than anybody else. We’ve got to work hard day in day out, and if it gets us to the levels of last season then hopefully we can stay at the sharp end of the table.”

The break also allowed the Telford coaching staff to analyse their games more deeply and reach conclusions as to why their start to the season has been more difficult than they perhaps expected it to be.

“The area to improve is clearly to do with the fact that, at times, we can look a bit fragile,” Wilkin explained. “We want to control games, but we have been conceding stupid, sloppy goals that previously we hadn’t been guilty of, certainly during the good run last season.

“That’s something we’ve got to eradicate from our games, we’ve got to manage the ball better in certain areas and retain the ball high up the field. When it keeps coming back at your defence opportunities will be created by the opposition, so that’s an area we certainly need to improve in.”