Cowan tells Brackley players to move on quickly ahead of big league battle
Gavin Cowan has urged his Brackley Town players to move on quickly from their Isuzu FA Trophy agony as they prepare for a 'big, big game' at Alfreton Town on Saturday.
The Saints suffered second-half frustration on Sunday as Hashtag United came back from 2-1 down to secure a 3-2 Trophy success on home soil.
Brackley had appeared to be in control thanks to goals from Morgan Roberts and Matt Lowe, but the hosts levelled on 75 minutes and eventually scored in added time to win it.
Cowan knows there is little time to dwell on that though as Brackley turn their attentions back to their Vanarama National League North promotion bid this weekend.
"The lads feel a bit disheartened but you've got to move on," the Brackley boss said.
"Alfreton are next for us and it's a really tough test.
"We need to be on our mettle.
"We've got two away games coming up (Brackley go to Rushall Olympic next Tuesday) that we really need to approach in the right way.
"It's a big, big game this weekend."
Brackley had gone six matches unbeaten before Sunday's defeat at Hashtag United.
And Cowan said: "We're obviously really disappointed.
"We wanted to change it around a bit to try to utilise some of our players who haven't had as many minutes as they would like, and we tried to look after a couple of players.
"It was a disappointing few minutes at the end.
"We felt like we weren't really at the races in the first half, and they could have gone in ahead at that point.
"But we came out in the second half and I thought the lads were excellent for 25 minutes. We were really in control of the game.
"We went 2-1 up and we were in cruise control really, and I thought we showed a little bit of weakness there to allow them to get back in the game.
"We needed a bit more leadership on the pitch and a few more people trying to use their game management skills a bit better.
"But it wasn't to be and credit to Hashtag who go into the next round with a winner at the end there.
"It was two really poor goals to give away from our perspective.
"I say to the lads all the time that I can't criticise them as long as they're working hard, showing desire - that's the cornerstone of what we do - but I felt like we lacked that a bit.
"It wasn't like us and I don't know whether they felt we were taking a bit of a backseat, but that certainly wasn't the case from a staff perspective.
"We're disappointed because we feel like the lads who had been out of it should come in and it should be pretty seamless.
"There's no excuses - it's a performance that was well below-par."