Gavin Cowan ready for changes at AFC Telford

The Bucks lost 3-1 on Saturday to bottom-of-the-league Blyth Spartans, with a Callum Roberts hat-trick securing Spartans’ first league win in 12 attempts, and Cowan could only empathise with supporters unhappy with what they’d seen.

“Blyth were more clinical and had that bit of belief in the final third,” admitted Cowan.

“We’re lacking a bit of belief at crucial times, and that’s a psychological thing. I understand it’s difficult for supporters, who come all this way and feel let down, it’s something I understand.

“We have to make our own luck, and that’s what the players have got to do. We need to turn things around; we take the responsibility and I apologise to the supporters, of course, but we’ll come out of the other end of it if we stick together.”

Asked about whether Cowan felt the answer lay wholly within his current playing staff, the manager’s response was straightforward.

“I’m looking outside of the group,” Cowan added.

“We have to do that; the players need to be pushed and if we’re not getting results then we have to make something happen, so I’m sure there will be players going out and coming in over the next couple of weeks. I don’t want to be a contradiction, because we do have to stick together, but some players need to know when their time is done.”

Cowan felt there was more effort from his team compared to the performance in losing 3-0 at home to Nantwich in the FA Cup a week previously:

“Last week’s performance was completely unacceptable, and I wanted players in there this week who I knew would go in there and give their everything, and I think they did that today.”

“I think the difference from last week was that there was a lot of endeavour and hard work. I thought we were actually the better team, which is easy to say, something I expect I’ll get hammered for saying, but between the two boxes today I felt we were clearly the better team. It came down to chances today; we didn’t take our chances and we got punished at the other end.”