Pressure on AFC Telford star for next season - boss

The 31-year-old netted 32 goals for the Bucks last season and helped secure them promotion back to National League North.

And Wilkin did not play down the importance of having the in-form goal scorer in his ranks ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

“Players like Matty are hard to come by,” the Bucks boss said. “What he achieved last season was fantastic and a large reason for our success.”

Wilkin added: “Against stronger, more physical players who are playing at a higher level it will be a challenge for him, but he was a big player for us last season and we need him to be that again.

“We want to try and progress at this level rather than just make the numbers up, and people like Matty who are great around the place and have a real winning mentality are important.

“If he can get anywhere near the amount of goals he got last season that’ll help us be really competitive.”

Wilkin also confirmed that the club faced significant competition from other clubs when it came to retaining the striker and put together an impressive offer to the striker to keep him at the club.

“Of course when you have a player score 30-plus goals in a season at any level they’re going to attract attention and improved offers for their services,” he explained. “It was definitely something that we were to-ing and fro-ing over, but I know Matty loves it here, we love him here and the fans love him here.”

He added: “The two-year deal is something Matty wanted as part of the deal so we had a look at it, and he’s still at the age where we feel he can be a major asset to the club, and he’s going to need to be.

“The club’s done its best to keep Matty on board and hopefully everyone is happy with the deal that’s been done.”