'Tough conversations' beckon as Brackley boss admits some players 'aren't good enough'

The Saints suffered a fifth successive National League defeat last Saturday, losing 2-0 at Woking.

Brackley will now take a break from league action as they look forward to a huge televised FA Cup second round tie at home to Burton Albion on Monday night (kick-off 7.30pm).

And Cowan said: "We've got three weeks (before the next league game) now and we've got to a point where we understand what we've got in the building.

"I think at this point now, some of the players aren't good enough. I think on their day they are, but consistently they're not good enough, whether that be mentality, ability or football IQ.

"They're all great lads, some of them are more than capable, but some are being let down by others.

"There are a few tough conversations now with some of the players because I feel they are good lads but probably not quite good enough.

"We're on the lookout now to try to change it around.

"For the most part, we don't want to rip it up and start again, but we clearly need players who have that mentality to be good enough at this level, and maybe some of them have had a good go, had the odd good game, it's probably gone to their head a bit and they've not performed in other games.

"We need to have a look at the group, see where we need to improve and see who needs to fall by the wayside.

"We have to have players in the building who trust our process and how we want to play.

"It worked for the first 11 games of the season but now we need players who can do it every week with a minimum requirement of a job and a half as well as a football IQ.

"Last Thursday night we were working on the press until 9.30pm but it all goes out the window when we get to Saturday.

"We had players coming on the pitch on Saturday and not being up to speed, miles off it, when all we talk about is being up to speed.

"At the end of the day, this is a professional football league and you have to have a professional footballer's mentality, whether we're part-time or not.

"All of the excuses are great but they signed for a part-time club, they knew what they were getting into so there can be no excuses.

"Where there is a little bit of a grey area at the moment is I feel like the referees are hurting us. The standard of referees and the arrogance of the fourth officials probably isn't helping us but that's what's in place, we can't change that, we can only try to be the best version of ourselves.

"There are seasons within seasons and at the start we had a very good 10 or 11 games, now we've had a particularly poor 10 or 11 games, so we know it's in there.

"We do need to now start looking at the pack and making sure we improve the quality of the group."

Cowan added: "It's easy to fall into a victim mentality and think the world's against you.

"Ultimately you go though phases whether it's life or football, and in this particular phase we're suffering.

"We're suffering at the hands of officials but I'm sure there will be a lot of other teams who will think that, but it's elongated for us now - it's been going on a while.

"We've also got to be better because a number of players didn't win their battles.

"Between the boxes, I didn't feel like every player was good enough.

"Certain players are good enough to turn up week in, week out with the mentality to play at this level, but there's two or three who just aren't capable of doing it every week.

"Maybe next week they'll be incredible but then I'll be worrying about the week after.

"We live and breath it with the preparation and how hard we're working.

"I like to think we're going well above and beyond but there's not a knight in shining armour coming round the corner to save us.

"At the moment, it's just not going for us."

Brackley went 1-0 down in 11 minutes last weekend and then had Zak Lilly sent off five minutes later.

The Saints kept battling but Woking doubled their lead with a penalty in the 59th minute, leaving Cowan to reflect on another frustrating afternoon for his side.

"It was made particularly difficult by the sending off but I've got no arguments with it," the Brackley boss said. "It was a poorly timed tackle and gave us an uphill task on the day.

"We've got to be better because we didn't track runners for their first goal and he just slots it in, which is not good enough.

"We felt we should have had a clear goal but this is the run we've been on and nothing is going to change unless we force the hand.

"We're spending so much time moaning about these decisions and I get it because the players feel aggrieved and everyone can see it should have been a goal. There was no shirt pull and if anything Matt Lowe's the one being fouled, but that's the way it's going for us at the moment and we've got to do something to turn it around.

"It (the penalty decision) was so harsh because the lad kicks it against his hand. One of those happened against York the previous week that we felt was a penalty but understandably the referee didn't give it because it was point blank.

"They are the things that aren't going for us at the moment and you've got to be good enough to get those big moments, but we're not right now."