The Bucks’ highflying start to the new season in the Blue Square North came down to earth over the last few days with two successive defeats on the road.
They went down to a single goal defeat at Droylsen on Saturday, a limp, lacklustre affair, and on Tuesday lost 2-0 at Harrogate. But while the margin of defeat was greater, so was the calibre of AFC Telford United’s play.
But Harrogate are not among the promotion favourites for nothing, and they maintained their 100 per cent home record with two well-taken goals.
The match was very much a game of two halves - the first was very much a Harrogate in charge affair while the second was ruled by the Bucks and the home goal seemed to live a charmed life.
Harrogate opened the scoring in the first quarter of an hour but, all credit to the Bucks, the defence then stood firm in the face of pressure.
The Bucks showed more purpose at the start of the second half and looked more threatening as the second period wore on.
They went close several times with Terry Fearns and Gavin Gowan both missing good chances.
The game became stretched in the final quarter as Telford left gaps at the back in a calculated gamble to press for that elusive equaliser.
They paid for that as they were caught late on with a quick home break, Darren Dunning applying the finish to wrap up the three points for his side.
It leaves disappointed Telford without an away win to show for their efforts so far this season and on a run of three consecutive games without a goal.
But altogether this was a much better show than at Droylsden and augurs well for the future.
Indeed, the team seemed to have heeded a bleak warning from boss Rob Smith, in the wake of that 1-0 defeat - a result which ended their undefeated start-of-season run - that he would not hesitate to make sweeping changes.
He commented later: “A bit of quality has done us and I’d say they’re the best team we’ve played so far, but if we’re serious about challenging then we’ve got to get on with it and show what we’re all about.”
Nobody would deny that given their indifferent performance the Bucks were perhaps lucky, until the weekend at least, to have seen results go their way.
Their luck ran out with a single goal three minutes into the second half of a rather dull affair with hardly any attacking sparkle.
Telford never seriously threatened to get back on level terms after falling behind, despite some bold substitutions and it highlighted the growing need for the Bucks to discover their old fire.
To some degree, they found that again on Tuesday night. All they need now are the just results.
