Boss Cowan hails Brackley 'monsters' after big win at Darlington

The Saints had gone 2-0 down during the first period, but Matt Lowe headed home 10 minutes before the break to cut the deficit.

And Brackley really took control after half-time, with Lowe netting a fantastic overhead kick four minutes after the restart.

Justin Donawa put the Saints ahead for the first time in the game on 53 minutes, and Gaz Dean smashed home a Morgan Roberts corner six minutes later to make sure of the three points.

The impressive away victory lifted Brackley up to second in Vanarama National League North, level on points with leaders Chester FC and with a game in hand.

"The lads were excellent - I'm really pleased with the performance, the attitude and the application," Saints boss Cowan said.

"We know we've got minimum requirements in terms of our hard work, our desire and we felt like we didn't have that in the first half. We weren't ourselves.

"But it was an incredible second-half performance and it's credit to the lads because they came out, made the decision they wanted to win the game - and they did.

"We were 2-0 down and up against it, and at that point we were nowhere near it.

"Darlington were playing brilliantly well, they were really good in possession and probably the pitch wasn't making it a very nice game of football.

"It takes real efficiency and for people to be courageous to get on the ball. Darlington do that and they're excellent at it because they are very brave so we struggled early doors with them.

"Tactically it was something we'd set up for but it just felt like they wanted it more than us, which is not like us, but getting the goal just before half-time was really good and a bit of a momentum swing.

"We just asked them to make a decision at half-time and asked them what it is they want to do this season and what they wanted out of the day.

"There's been a lot of effort gone into the trip, the club are backing me and the players and putting a preparation together for us to be the best we can be.

"They just decided second half and you see some of the performances... there were some monsters in that second half.

"We really came out of the blocks and we're really pleased.”

With no midweek match to contend with this time, Brackley can freshen up ahead of Saturday's home clash with Alfreton Town.

"It's very unusual because we've been going Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday," Cowan said.

"The lads have been great and it's great we can now dissect it and make sure we look at ourselves.

"We'll come back in and be a bit sharper.

"We've got 11 huge games, cup finals for ourselves.

"We can only control the controllables and we believe we've got enough in that dressing room so we'll make sure we're the best we can be."