Cowan wants Chorley defeat to be a defining moment for Brackley

The Saints had claimed an impressive 1-0 home win against Peterborough Sports last Saturday, but they couldn't maintain the momentum in midweek.

Scott Pollock did manage to score in the 68th minute to get Brackley back in the game after they had gone in at half-time 2-0 down.

But Chorley then finished the job with two strikes in the final 15 minutes.

It was a frustrating night for Brackley, who remain third in the Vanarama National League North standings ahead of Saturday's trip to Marine (kick-off 3pm).

And Cowan wants his players to use the defeat at Chorley as a springboard to a strong run with 15 league matches still to play.

"We'll have to take stock," the Saints boss said.

"There's no sulking and we don't want any sympathy from anyone.

"Ultimately, this will be definitive.

"The lads have got to stand up now, take their medicine and just get back to it on Saturday.

"We've got to show everyone what we're really made of.

"Not taking anything away from Chorley, but we didn't put in the performance we know we're capable of.

"We went off script quite a lot, which isn't like us, and key moments, game management, it wasn't like us.

"At this level, good teams are going to punish you - and we got punished on Tuesday night."

Reflecting further on the midweek defeat to a Chorley side who are are now fourth in the standings, Cowan added: "Obviously losing 4-1, we're really disappointed.

"We started really slowly and credit to them, they started a lot faster than us and we didn't really get into our rhythm.

"We had a good spell in the first half in the middle of it where we looked like we were getting a bit of a foothold in the game, but in the last 10 minutes of the first half they got on the front foot a bit.

"To concede on half-time is sacrilege from us really.

"They're a team that are well known for set pieces and it wasn't something that was particularly worked on, it was just the desire to get the first and second contact.

"We just felt if we could get through to half-time then we could hit the ground running early in the second half.

"We got the goal back and arguably had a blatant penalty that we didn't get but we can't have any complaints because we lost the game and we have to take our medicine.

"It's a long season, still 15 games to go and we have to try to use this as a defining moment in the season for us.

"We have to use this as a learning curve and we're still left in a very positive position so we need to pick the bones out of it and go again on Saturday."