Togetherness key as Brackley bid to produce more away-day heroics

The Saints secured an incredible result on Tuesday night, winning 4-3 at Alreton Town despite having outfield player George Carline in goal for more than a half.

Goalkeeper Jonny Maxted was sent off a minute into first half added time for a dangerous challenge with Brackley 3-1 up.

Alfreton scored from a free-kick to cut the gap to a single goal before the break, and the hosts levelled things up two minutes into the second period.

Brackley somehow managed to hold out, with Carline growing in confidence between the sticks, before Matt Lowe popped up in the 90th minute to grab a late winner for Cowan’s side.

And the sixth-placed Saints, who are just three points adrift of table-topping Kidderminster Harriers, now travel to Curzon Ashton this weekend.

This weekend's hosts are currently second, two points ahead of Brackley, having played one game fewer.

But Cowan is backing his players to deliver another memorable away day.

"We go into every game with confidence," the Brackley boss said.

"We've been on a brilliant run and we're full of belief.

"We feel we can trust the players to go out there and carry out the game strategy.

"They don't come much tougher than Curzon. It's an incredible setup and a really good team.

"There's a long way to go in terms of the season and we want to pick up as many points as we can.

"These lads are pulling up trees, they've been doing it all season, and you can see the togetherness they've got.

"We're going to need that because we want to go to places like Curzon and pick up points.

"We're going there and we want to win the game again."

Brackley looked in total control at Alfreton after Alfie Bates levelled the scores on 16 minutes.

Carline made it 2-1 before Connor Hall added a third, but things threatened to unravel after Maxted's dismissal.

"You go through all the emotions," Cowan said.

"We felt completely in control in the first half, but then in a mad one minute the whole game turns on its head and just after half-time we found ourselves 3-3.

"I felt like we were going to run away with the game at one point because we were absolutely on it and there was only one team in it, but they evened it up and I'm sure the supporters would have gone through those emotions with us.

"It was a hard night and the red card was probably what made it that."

Cowan added: "He (makeshift goalkeeper Carline) certainly grew into it and it was great that he had the courage to go and do it.

"We spoke at half-time and we were quite excited because it's a really tough place to come and I just wanted to know a bit about my players.

"I said that, regardless of the result, I wanted to find out about them.

"We've got aspirations to go and achieve big things this season and if we're going to do it, we need to come alive in moments like this.

"I wanted to see what we were about. Were we fitter, faster and stronger than them? Could we put in a performance like we did in the first half with 10 men?

"Me and the staff got it right tactically. We were really focused on nullifying them at set pieces and the players carried it out magnificently.

"We felt like we were going to get a moment if we could defend brilliantly.

"We knew if the ball turned over we would be a good position to catch them out - and we did that.

"It's an unbelievable performance, we got three points but we've still got a captain who's moaning because we conceded three goals so it just shows the standards we're setting."