Gavin Cowan looking for a reaction from his AFC Telford side

Cowan watched on as his side threw away a 1-0 goal lead, to go down for the third consecutive league game against Chester on Saturday.

He expressed his frustration at the officials for disallowing his side a goal, but also expressed his dismay at his players performance.

However he wants to see a reaction in the double header with Nuneaton on Boxing Day and New Years Day, and against Leamington on December 29.

He said: "The challenge for the players is to get a reaction and to see a better performance that we saw out of them.

"We did well in spells, but I could come out here and say we deserved a draw, but we come to win games.

"And when the opposition are better than you without showing real quality with no disrespect, that is not the team I put out there, and I was surprised to see the lack of application.

"The support was amazing to see, people clapped us out and no one left.

"But I want to reward them with three points, it is nice to take see them sticing by us, but I want to wish them a Merry Christmas and I hope the next three games we can bring them some presents."

In a full and frank assessment of his side at the Swansway Stadium, Cowan admitted his troops need to be strong minded and not wait to go behind to start playing.

On Boxing Day Telford host his former club Nuneaton, and he wants his players to take more risks in a bid to get back to winning ways.

He added: "We will re-coup now and sit down and see how we go about it.

"But the lads need to improve and we need to get back to winning ways, and they need to be more reliable, and be committed to the plan.

"They are a former club of mine and I've got some great friends there but it all goes out of the window for that 180 minutes over the next week.

"I want us to be more risky, take more risks in the final third.

"We need to take the safety catch off and gamble a bit.

"We have been banging on about it now for a few weeks, so I am not sure what the lads are quite getting."