No Telford fans to enjoy it – but Gavin Cowan wants to take bragging rights

With Shropshire set to enter Tier 2 of the government’s post-lockdown regional system tomorrow, Telford are allowed to admit 2,000 fans to their home games – but Hereford rejected the Bucks’ request to push their game back 24 hours on to the first day of the new coronavirus regulations.

Instead, two of National League North’s biggest clubs – who are separated by just 44 miles – will do battle without supporters in the New Bucks Head.

And with in-form Telford having moved up to fourth in the table, Cowan is determined his side continue their upward trajectory.

“It baffles me as to why they wouldn’t do it,” said the Telford boss. “Although I am disappointed and I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t want to do it, I’m not in the boardroom at Hereford – so if they have made the decision, we have to respect it.

“We move forwards as normal – we have good momentum and as a manager it doesn’t matter if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday.

“I think the football club obviously would have liked it to have been Wednesday because of fans and for us as a team – the lads were getting very excited about the prospect of us having our own supporters in the ground.

“As a manager, I have to play the cards I’m dealt – which can be tough sometimes – but ultimately you have to carry on with it.

“From our perspective, we have good momentum, we feel very confident, but we are are really, really injury-hit and that’s tough – players that are currently available are even struggling.

“We’re sticking together as a group at the moment and that’s why I’m really pleased with the players and it’s another game we’re really excited to be playing.”

And even though the fans will not be inside the ground to enjoy it, Cowan believes there is plenty of pride at stake for the two teams – as well as three precious points.

“You have two teams who play in nice grounds with good history, so you would expect the players to raise their games and that really excites me to see two teams go at it like that,” said

Cowan. “We’ve got people like Shane Sutton who has a lot of Hereford fans around him and he wants bragging rights, so we’ve got a lot of motivation on our side and equally they have as well, so it makes for a really exciting encounter.”