AFC Telford: Second half of season

Hey again everyone, and thanks for tuning into the second half of my first season in the Blue Square North with AFC Telford. When I last posted we were fighting for the play-off spots with numerous other times.Our home form is brilliant and our away form is, well, poor.

Just before i begin my roundup of the second half of the season let me just introduce the 2 signings i made in January. I didn’t really think I needed anymore players as the squad was strong enough but I couldn’t help myself when I looked at the free players:

Simon Heslop is a very strong central midfielder from Championship side Barnsley, loads of teams were after him so i’m surprised he chose us. He’s definitely going to be the main man in my midfield. Daryl Westlake was also another great signing from parent club Walsall. At the young age of 18 he’s already a lot better than my strongest right-back Luke Vaughn and will be in my first team straight away.

Right, that’s enough with the transfers for now. The first month of the new year contained some very interesting games, including local rivals Stafford away, Southport away and Gainsbrough at home. I was hoping for another stonking victory over Stafford like we did at The New Bucks Head and also to get revenge on the Gainsbrough side who gave us our worst defeat of the year (6-0!) but overall I was hoping  pick up maximum points in my 3 home games. Here’s the results :-

9 points out of 15 for our first month, which probably isn’t good enough! The most dissapointing being the shock loss to relegation threatened Stafford! It was still our away form that was holding us back! However I was very proud that we were able to beat Gainsbrough 2-1, just to show them that were not as bad as we were when we last played them. The loss to Southport was not unexpected as Southport are a strong team would of been nice to get a strong victory away from home however. The other home game victories over Farsley and Eastwood were relatively routine and were a easy 3 points.

February was going to be one hell of a tough month with 4 away games against: Droylsden (league leaders), Hyde, Harrogate and Blyth and then a home game mid-month against Redditch. This was a month that would either boost our confidence away from home or destroy it and seeing as the teams I’m playing are weaker I was confident we could pick up some away points! Here’s February’s results:

A very good month in my opinion! 9 points away from home! The best we’ve performed this season by far, maybe our luck had finally arrived. The game against Droylsden was never going to be easy so I guess that result was fair but I was unhappy with the home draw with Redditch, a team we really should be beating. If we want to go up, we have to stop dropping points we really should be getting.

March was going to be a very boring month, only 3 games and all at home against 3 struggling teams Solihull, Stalybrige and Hyde. 9 points out of 9 was definately on the cards and would be a great boost for the lads if we could get them.

Well, 6 points out of 9. What a poor rest against Stalybridge, I really expected us to win every game but I guess that’s football. good performances against Solihull and Hyde however so I suppose that doesn’t put too much of a downer on the month.

April was the final stretch and the last chance for us to reach the play-offs and we were to face some strong opposition in the forms of  Workington Corby and Gloucester. We had 3 away games and i reckon that over the course of the five games 9 points would keep us in the play-off spots. I was both excited and nervous to see how the team performed. Well without further ado here’s the final results of the year:

With the added pressure of reaching the play-offs I feel the team played very well over the course of the last month, picking up the 9 points I felt was needed . The only loss to report was Workington which I always knew was going to be difficult, especially when we were away. I was also unhappy with the Ilkeston draw as it proves that our away form just isn’t up to scratch still. By far the result of the month was definitely the victory over Corby, a team that knocked us out of the FA Cup and beat us in the league. I was incredibly pleased to be able to show how good we really are.

And with the final matches played, the point total for AFC Telford was 86 which was by far enough for us to finish comfortably in 3rd place! We finished a point behind Gainsbrough and 2 points behind winners Droylsden. Looking back over the matches we lost, we really should of won the league! The Failure to lift the trophy was largely down to the always poor away form which we will have to change next season. Here’s the final table:

So after finshing 3rd we were going to play Southport in the play-offs, a bit of a bogey team for us really as weve never actually beat them, we drew at home 2-2 and lost away 2-1. Still I was brimming with confidence and felt we had a strong chance of getting  to the final. The first leg was away so we need to at least secure a couple of goals to take into the home game.

Well what can I say other than a great performance! We have given ourselves a great advantage to go into the second leg with. The game started brightly for us as player of the season Chris Nurse scored a placed shot from the edge of the area. We then took advantage of the game, creating many chances before the half-time whistle blew.  Southport started to come out a bit more in the second half and pushed forward for a goal, but in doing so, the lads started a counter attack which eventually made Alan Moogan make a poor challenge on Aaron-Moses Garvey which produced a straight red for him.  With Southport limited to 10 men, we never looked like the game would slip out of our grasp, and backup player Stephen Thompson netted the second goal in the 80th minute to secure a strong win. Our away form all season ahs been dreadful but the team pulled it out of the bag when they needed to.

The second leg was going to be much tougher than the first and i anticipated Southport to throw all there attack at us, so i decided to hold back a bit and tell the guys to play defensive.

We were through! But what a nerve-racking performance. Perhaps the first time we’ve played better away than at home. The first half was appaling, I think the guys thought the job was done, which was simply not the case! We were down as early as the 20th minute and looked weak both up front and at the back. Southport got what they deserved before half-time with a 30 yarder from Steve Daley. I had to try and buck up the lads at half time and told them they can still win this! The second half was nail-biting it was very much end to end stuff and all we needed was one goal. We picked up in the second half and started to produce some lovely attacks full of menace! Suddenly a whipped cross found the head of 1st leg scorer Stephen Thompson. We had the advantage again! i quickly adjusted the tactics to ultra-defensive and a 5 men defence. We held on despite a barrage of attacks in the last 5 minutes! Out promotion dream was still alive!

Our final challenge was that of Gainsbrough.  We’ve had very mixed results with them. A heavy 6-0 loss at the start of the season but then a 2-1 win all but a month ago. I thought that there was a definite chance of beating them as long as we played to our full potential. The match was to be played at Blue Square premier side Wrexham’s ground The Racecourse and i expected the biggest amount of fans the club had ever had.

Yes!!!!! We’d done it!  A spectacular finale with both teams fighting for that one spot in the Blue Square Premier. It wasn’t easy though. I started the game with an attacking mentality hoping to produce an early lead but in truth it only produced a boring midfield battle with little chances. Gainsbrough finally managed to form a good move and Luke Beckett cooly slotted home to put us behind. With half-time fast approaching the lads looked down and out, something had to be said at half-time. I told the guys that I expected better, which was very risky as they may have reacted negatively. We created some better attacking moves which could have resulted in a goal but their keeper was very much on form and we couldn’t beat him until the 76th minute, when Chris Nurse blasted it in to give us a much deserved equalizer! I was thrilled and now felt we could win the match. Straight after the goal one of the Gainsbrough defenders stupidly gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area and Ryan Austin, our freekick specialist centre back, placed the ball right in the top corner. The fans were jubilant and so was I. The ball was very much in their court now, they had to do something to get themselves back in it. However a delightful counter attacking move freed Aaron Moses-Garvey (our top goalscorer) and he ran into open space and calmly placed the ball into the bottom corner of the net. That was it now surely they couldn’t come back from this. I don’t know quite what happened but instantly after our third goal the defence fell asleep and a poor header from Gary Cowan beat his own keeper Robert Ambrusics and made the last 10 minutes incredibly tense for both me and the fans. But we held on and had won promotion to the Blue Square Premier!

It was a great first season full of ups and downs and I’m looking forward to reporting on my second season to all of you.

Thanks for Reading! Please comment!