No end to injury issues at AFC Telford

Both sustained suspected hamstring injuries on a heavy Latimer Park pitch, Daniels featuring for the first time in a month since suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury at Gloucester City but forced off the field after an hour.

However, manager Gavin Cowan was buoyed by the successful return from injury of central defender Courtney Meppen-Walters.

“I just felt today was a good day for Courtney, and he proved it. He stuck the ball in great areas, really showed his quality and was really big for us at set-pieces as well, so credit to him.”

Meppen-Walters had been absent for almost two months with a damaged hamstring, but Cowan felt his summer acquisition was better placed to handle former Buck Kyle Perry’s physical presence ahead of Zak Lilly, with Cowan adding:

“It’s no disrespect to Zak; he’s been doing great, but he’s played a lot of football.”

The conditions at Latimer Park didn’t lend themselves to a great spectacle in front of 514 supporters, but the Bucks manager was more than satisfied with how his team acquitted themselves:

“I’m really proud of the players today; their attitude, their application and the way they went about the game. We got no less than they (the players) deserved and at the end we could have nicked the win, which I don’t think anyone could have argued with. Football is about an accumulation of battles; technically, tactically and ability-wise, and also psychologically. You have to set a precedent and we didn’t do that last week, but today I felt we started really well.”

Cowan also felt his team provided an answer to those who felt they were ‘pretty boys’, ill-suited to a battle:

“When you’re a bit of a footballing team you can get branded with that. Kettering had made it quite clear that they wanted to get the game on, and credit to them. They’ve set their stall out to win points and that’s their way of going about it. You have to play at what you’re good at, they play to their strengths and we’ve had to combat that, which I thought we did brilliantly; I’m really proud of the players in what have been horrendous conditions. The lads have really pulled through and shown that we can mix it.”