Cowan knows Brackley must be at their best for Hartlepool clash

But Cowan believes the Saints should approach the National League encounter with real confidence after they came close to winning at Aldershot Town last Saturday.

Brackley had gone 2-1 up inside the final 10 minutes but they were immediately pegged back and had to settle for a 2-2 draw.

Still, it was another positive performance in a season full of them so far.

And Cowan is happy that his players now have a free midweek to regroup and recover ahead of the long trip north this weekend.

"The players have been in need of it (a midweek break) because it's a new league for us, a hectic schedule, non-stop," the Brackley boss said.

"The players have earned a rest, a week of ticking over, bringing them down a little bit.

"We're going to need to be at our best this week because Hartlepool have recruited really well.

"They've got lots of good players, we go there and it's another good test for us.

"But if you look at what happened at Aldershot and in previous weeks, we're more than capable when we're at our best.

"We can be a tough test for anyone so let's be a bit more ruthless in front of goal and there's a lot of hope moving forward."

Brackley went 1-0 down five minutes before the break at Aldershot last weekend, but they levelled things up on 65 minutes thanks to Shane Byrne's penalty.

Ben Jackson was sent off for the foul that saw the Saints awarded a spot-kick, meaning Aldershot had to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.

And it looked like Brackley would make them pay when Matt Lowe put the away side ahead with nine minutes of normal time to play.

However, Aldershot had the final say two minutes later as Archie Taylor netted the equaliser.

"With the sending off, we're disappointed not to see it out but ultimately credit to Aldershot - what an expansive and brave team they are," Cowan said.

"They're something to marvel at when they're going forward because they commit so many numbers, they're so brave, but we were set up for them and contained them to two opportunities.

"They're a team who have now scored 22 goals this season and to contain them like we did was really impressive, but we did have a few choice words at half-time.

"We did have a few choice words at half-time because we wanted the lads to be braver and understand we're in the game as well.

"We wanted to be courageous when the ball turned over and we showed how good we are in the second half because we dominated it.

"They had a man sent off, we got in the ascendancy and we should have won the game.

"It's disappointing because we know that being really rigid and tough to beat is one of our strengths.

"You saw how expansive we became second half and I'm really proud of the lads in how they went about the game.

"We've just got to be more ruthless and the lads have got to learn because we should be converting these chances.

"We've come to Aldershot, a very big club and we're really proud of the players but also a bit frustrated.

"We see it as two points dropped but there's loads of positives and we move on to Hartlepool."