Telford 0 Brackley 2 - Report

Their need for a win, or at least a positive result and performance, was pressing, given only one win in four league matches and with last week’s FA Cup exit a far from distant memory. Given that scenario, one of the last teams you’d want to end up facing is Kevin Wilkin’s Brackley; the visitors have established a reputation as being well-drilled and notoriously hard to get anything from. Buoyed by a start to the season where they have already won three away matches by the same 1-0 margin, Cowan’s Bucks might have expected they’d be handed little for free.

The Bucks were also hampered by further injury and suspension issues. Nathan Pond’s red card against Stamford meant his three-match suspension ruled him out, whilst right-back Arlen Birch also had to sit this one out; Cowan revealed after the game that a knock he picked up but had been playing with had eventually proven too much for Birch.

Shorn of defensive options, Cowan drafted a new signing; Kevin Berkoe, from Salford City, filled the left wing-back berth and made a fine debut. On the opposite flank, midfielder Jed Abbey filled in at right wing-back for Birch; however, one of his early contributions was to play a role in Brackley’s opener after just 6 minutes.

Brackley began more purposefully than the hosts, who had to repel Twariq Yusuf’s dangerous cross and saw Russ Griffiths hold Lee Ndlovu’s volley, driven into the turf and held on the first bounce.

Brackley’s goal was a similar finish but came from the boot of Matt Lowe. A corner was flicked on and Abbey, perhaps not getting a call that the ball was going wide, or fearing it was headed into the top corner, headed the ball out to Lowe; the winger is in rich scoring form, and claimed his fifth goal of the season by striking down onto the ball from an angle and seeing it bounce up and into the net inside the angle of post and crossbar.

The Bucks almost responded instantly. Berkoe’s desire to drive forward won a corner, and when Jason Oswell headed back across goal, Jack Byrne couldn’t make a firm connection with his head to turn the ball home, keeper Danny Lewis grabbing it to safety on his line.

The game settled into a predictable pattern, Brackley able to contain what the Bucks had to offer whilst being conservative in their own attacking intent. Griffiths held a low Yusuf shot, and on the half-hour, the Bucks had a let-off; from another corner, Lowe ghosted in unnoticed, made contact but could only flick the ball up onto the underside of the crossbar, the Bucks hacking the loose ball to safety.

Brackley continued to look the more likely, with full-back Ellis Myles fizzing a shot across goal but wide; however, in the closing minutes of the half, the Bucks had two penalty appeals. The first, when Adam Walker claimed he was fouled, saw the Bucks skipper the only man convinced of his claims. Within a minute, Walker’s surge inside the Brackley penalty area had the Saints on red alert, and when Abbey crossed the ball several Bucks claimed a handball, referee Michael Ryan waving away their protestations.

Trailing at the interval, the atmosphere inside the New Buck’s Head was subdued. Brackley still looked the more purposeful, and it was difficult to see where the Bucks knowing where the Bucks might find a spark.

Debutant Berkoe wasn’t carrying any hangover from the Bucks’ early season woes, and he began to push forward on the left to good effect. He too had an unsuccessful penalty appeal when going down under a challenge, prompting the first genuinely vocal response from the crowd. In the 60th minute, another foray forward saw him cut along the edge of the penalty area, and when he offloaded the ball to Elliott Durrell the midfielder took a touch before unleashing a curling shot that beat Lewis to his left but thudded back into play, striking the post halfway up.

Alas, any optimism that the Bucks were about to seize their moment was short-lived. As Brackley escaped upfield following that scare, Zak Lilly, restored to the team, made a rash challenge on Lowe that demanded censure; Cowan afterwards described it as worthy of an ‘orange card’, more than a bookable offence but not quite a sending-off. The laws of the game didn’t allow Mr Ryan that luxury and Lilly was dismissed whilst Lowe writhed on the turf.

The Bucks momentum had killed almost before it had been born, and Brackley are not a team who need a second invitation to finish a wounded prey. Within 10 minutes, striker Lee Ndlovu made sure he kept pace in the scoring charts with Lowe when he made the most of the space afforded to him on the edge of the box; Ndlovu fired a powerful right-foot shot across Griffiths and past him to his right, and the game was up for Cowan’s men.

With the extra man, Brackley went close to extending their lead; Brad Rolt’s angled effort flew across Griffiths and over the angle of post and bar, whilst substitute Tre Mitford drew a decent stop from the Bucks keeper, standing up at his near post to beat away the shot.

The game ended with an air of resignation hanging over the Bucks players and their fans. A crowd of less than 800 signalled their displeasure with some boos at the final whistle, as the Bucks winless run in all competitions extended to five matches.

Their earliest opportunity to break that run comes next Saturday, as they head north to face Darlington in a match postponed from the season’s opening day. Alas Cowan’s team don’t get to start the season all over again, and a positive result is starting to look like a necessity.

Teams

Telford (5-3-2): Griffiths, Berkoe, White, Jed Abbey, Streete, Lilly, Walker, Oswell (Williams 67), Byrne, Bennett (McHale 74), Durrell.

Subs not used: Bood, Jez Abbey, Bower.

Cautioned: White, Walker, Durrell.

Dismissed: Lilly.

Brackley Town (5-3-2): Lewis, Myles, Yusuf (Richards 81), Murombedzi, Lomas, Dean, Lowe (Cullinane-Liburd 90), Prosser, Ndlovu, Rolt (Mitford 88), Walker.

Subs not used: Wise, Worby.

Scorers: Lowe (6), Ndlovu (71).

Cautioned: Rolt, Yusuf.