March 2012

After a 100% record in February, I was hoping for more of the same in March. Unfortunately, things didn't get off to the best start. An away game at Droylsden provided me with only my second defeat as manager of AFC Telford. Two first half goals finished us off, and the own goal in the second half was merely a consolation in a 2-1 loss.

Lewis Alessandra was missing through injury for the Droylsden game, and was absent once again for our next fixture against bottom-of-the-table Hednesford. It's fair to say that we didn't miss our top goalscorer that much though, as Ryan Charles stepped up to the mark. It was his first half hat-trick that sealed a comfortable 3-0 win against a very poor Hednesford side (who incidentally had confirmed their relegation by the end of the month).

Fellow promotion contenders Ilkeston were our next opponents. Lewis Alessandra was back in the team for the game at New Bucks Head, and carried on where he left off by bagging a couple of goals. Ryan Charles, continuing his own good form, also scored twice in a 4-0 victory, with his second of the game marking his 10th goal of the season.

We moved up to 4th in the league after the win against Ilkeston; Telford's highest position of the season. 5th placed Nuneaton Town made the relatively short journey over to Shropshire a week later, in what was another tough encounter for us. Ryan Charles opened the scoring from 25 yards just after the half hour mark, for his 6th goal in 3 games. Lewis Alessandra then doubled our lead shortly after, and we managed to hold on despite a second half goal from Nuneaton, which was the first goal Alex Cairns, who reclaimed the number one spot against Hednesford, had conceded in over 350 minutes of football.

As if we hadn't already had a pretty tough month in terms of fixtures, our next game brought us up against league-leaders Southport. We were leading 2-0 thanks to goals from Alessandra and Netan Sansara, until the a 70th minute penalty brought Southport back into the game. They then equalised 10 minutes later and that was the way things finished. A good result, but it was slightly disappointing that we couldn't hold onto our lead.

The final fixture in March was against Redditch, a game which we comfortably 2-0 through two Jake Simpson goals. We finished the month in 4th place, three points off 3rd placed Stafford, nine points off 2nd placed Southport and 11 points off the leaders Hinckley. Next month will see the climax of the Blue Square North season, and realistically, I think we should make the play-offs. With six games left, the gap is probably too big to win the league and claim the only automatic spot. I was 3rd in the Manager of the Month awards this month, but Ryan Charles was awarded with Player of the Month. All of the teams we have left to play are currently in the bottom half of the table, with the exception of Hinckley, who we play on the final day of the season. That could definitely be interesting.