Day 175

I named an unchanged team for the trip to Telford. The boys have been playing so well together, and I don’t want to tinker with a successful formula.

Olembé nearly curled one in from way out on the left flank at the four-minute mark. We got a couple more chances in the opening ten minutes, suggesting that we were in for a high-scoring—or at least entertaining—match.

AFC Telford’s veteran winger Steve Jones went within inches of a freak goal in the 39th minute. His cross from deep went way off course, and Anyon had to react quickly to keep the ball from sneaking inside the post. The looks on both their faces told all the story needed—relief for Anyon and a bemused grin for Jones.

All square at the break, I couldn’t help but be disappointed that we didn’t manage to do more with the momentum we’d been building. I told the players I wasn’t happy, and sent them out to win the match.

The deadlock finally came on the hour mark. Omar Koroma received Richardson’s pass with his back to goal, but the striker quickly turned and sped past his marker. Racing unchallenged into the box, the striker fired low and hard towards goal, beating the diving Telford keeper with an excellent finish.

Olembé could have put the game beyond doubt ten minutes later, running on to a long through pass from the left wing. The Cameroonian’s shot ballooned into orbit, however—a great chance wasted.

Koroma took a knock in the 72nd minute. It didn’t look too serious, but it knocked the wind right out of his sails for several minutes. It proved most unfortunate when the striker was half a yard too slow to react to the rebound when Young could only parry Barnes-Homer’s shot.

We held on for the one-nil win, threatening to score a few more times in the closing stages, but it was far from convincing. I told the team off for underperforming. A win may well be a win, but a better team would have punished us for that lacklustre display.

Wrexham’s unbeaten streak finally ended, leaving them in third place seven points adrift (with a game in hand). Mansfield are still in touch with us, though, four points behind with a catch-up game still to play.

We’ve still got one match to play before the New Year, but we’re guaranteed to be top going into January. That’s the only news I could get (at this stage of the season) better than being top at Christmas (which we already accomplished).