Cowan frustrated as dominant Brackley waste golden chances in Yeovil Town defeat

The Saints were the better side for long spells at Huish Park, and created numerous chances in a dominant first-half display, but failed to take any of them and found themselves trailing 1-0 at the break thanks to a 36th-minute strike from Josh Sims.

Brackley continued to more than hold their own in the second half, but as they pushed for an equaliser were hit on the counter-attack and Ben Wodskou doubled the home side's lead six minutes from time.

The Saints continued to press, and gave themselves a lifeline two minutes into stoppage time when Tyler Lyttle netted to make it 2-1, but it was too little, too late as Mark Cooper's Glovers held on to secure their first win of the season.

And although Cowan was more than happy with his side’s performance in Somerset, he was left frustrated at their profligacy in front of goal.

"We felt like we were worthy of winning the game, not just grabbing a draw," Cowan told @BrackleyTownFC.

"We could have been out of sight after half-an-hour, and at half-time we were really disappointed to go in 1-0 down.

"Their goalkeeper (Jed Ward) gets man of the match, and we feel we have dominated the game in all areas.

"They did have the element of the counter-attack, and it is a sloppy deflected goal that goes in in the first half against the run of play.

"We were then disappointed to conceded the second goal, as normally our numbers are really good to manage those counter-attacks, but Yeovil did well to counter us and get the second.

"But in terms of open play and restarts we were by far the better team, but we just couldn't hit the back of the net and their keeper has pulled off some fantastic saves, what a performance from him.

"There are also times when we need to have a little more composure to hit the target and the back of the net, so we are disappointed but that is this league.

"We have dominated the game, we have had plenty of chances, the keeper has pulled off some worldies, but at this level if you don't take your chances then the other team will punish you, which is what Yeovil did.

"But we put in such a big effort and I am proud of the players, who have been fantastic.

"We can't ask any more of them, other than hitting the back of the net.

"Mark Cooper will be in there now saying 'we had three chances and we took two of them', and that's how ruthless this league can be, and we need to take a little bit of a leaf out of that book.

"I think in the first half we had nine chances, with five shots on target, and we have to score one or two of those, at least.

"In football, you can dominate as much as you like, have as many chances as you like, but ultimately you have to hit the back of the net and that is something we will take away from this game."

The match was only Brackley's second league game of the season after their weekend encounter with Morecambe was postponed.

They are quickly back in action with a double header over the Bank Holiday weekend, with the Saints hosting early-season leaders Rochdale at St James Park on Saturday (ko 3pm) and then going to Tamworth on Monday afternoon (3pm).