Gavin Cowan: It’s a point gained for AFC Telford

Cowan’s side had Jack Byrne sent off early in the second half for a second bookable offence and then quickly fell a goal behind, but rallied impressively to share the spoils thanks to a terrific Brendon Daniels free-kick.

And Cowan was satisfied with the outcome, albeit not thrilled.

“I thought considering where we were at in the game at the time that it was great to come out of it with a point,” he said. “To be a goal down and a man down is quite distressing at the time, so although it wasn’t what we’d have taken before the game it was welcome.”

Referee Kristian Silcock’s overall performance and his dismissal of Byrne irked the Bucks boss though: “I thought he was poor – I thought the initial booking was pretty poor, and I don’t think Jack’s made more than three tackles in the whole game.

“It’s what we’ve had with this referee before so it wasn’t a surprise to me, but ironically it sparked us into life a little bit so it went well for us in the end, but it was a strange decision.”

Byrne should be available for tomorrow night’s trip to current league leaders Gloucester City, with any suspension beginning next weekend, but Cowan will face a selection dilemma with the news that likely replacement Henry Cowans will be missing from action for a while.

Daniels’ return could have meant a selection headache on Saturday, but as the manager explained, having to choose between Cowans and Lee Vaughan at right wing-back was a choice that was taken out of his hands.

He said: “I didn’t really have any time to think about it. Henry pulled his quad on Thursday in training so we’re not expecting to see him for maybe 3-6 weeks now, so we’ll wait and see how bad that is, but it is what it is. Brendon gets his opportunity to come back in and Vaughany flips back over to the right and it gave us the freedom to go out and play a bit.”

That might have been the plan, but as Cowan admitted, his team were on the retreat in the early stages, but a tactical change and the reaction to Byrne’s red card turned the tide: “We didn’t really get going, is the truth, for a long period of time; although we had the better chances, I’d have been happier with us getting on the ball a little bit more and trying to dictate play, but it wasn’t to be.

“At half-time we knew it needed to be better so made a change and brought Jordan (Davies) on, who I thought was excellent; he’s been waiting for his chance and he deserves it.”