Gavin Cowan: Every place up for grabs at AFC Telford

The Bucks were on Saturday dumped out of the FA Cup 2-1 at Warrington Town, who play a level below Cowan’s side.

It was Telford’s third straight away defeat. They are back at the New Bucks Head on Saturday but face the National League North table-toppers Chorley.

“Every place is up for grabs. Every position. From the goalkeeper, all the way through. From one to 11, it’s up for grabs,” said Cowan.

“It’s not about starting again and ripping it up but I’m going to see in training this week who actually wants to come and play.

“It can’t be any other way.I have to be fair as a manager and I have to say there’s certain people who aren’t delivering that quality.

“For all the willing and running, they’re not delivering that quality.

“We need players with quality – the players who played the first eight to 10 games.

"The quality was shining through but we’re not seeing that at the moment. We need to pick the players who will go and do that.”

Cowan called for his charges to regain the ‘arrogance’ which was present as they went on an eight-game unbeaten run throughout August and the beginning of September.

“They were full of running, full of willing, but running and willing doesn’t always bring that quality,” he said.

“That’s what is missing at the moment.

"We need to tidy up a bit in possession and I’ll be working very hard throughout the course of this week to make that happen.

“You’ve almost got to have an arrogance about you when you’re in the league above.

“You’ve got to be respectful, show humility, but also have that arrogance – to say 'we are the team from the higher division and we are going to win the game, because we should'.

“For some reason, whatever reason, they seem to be questioning themselves.

“They don’t need to do that. We give them the freedom to play in the middle and final phase and ask them to be disciplined outside of that so people will be training this week, looking to play their way into the team.”