Gavin Cowan takes blame for Telford cup exit

Bucks went down 2-1 to Stamford on Saturday and Cowan said: “The players are extremely disappointed, and it was a disappointing performance. I obviously take full responsibility for that. Credit to Stamford; they’ve been the better team today and they fully deserved the result.”

The visitors, from two divisions below the Bucks in Northern Premier League Division One, made light of the gap in status; two first-half goals from Cosmos Matwasa had Cowan’s Bucks reeling, and although Elliott Durrell cut the deficit with a second-half penalty, Stamford held on to produce a Cup upset.

Asked where he felt the faults lay in the Bucks performance, Cowan added: “It’s the FA Cup. How many times have managers been stood here a little bit baffled as to why their teams haven’t performed better and got results against lower league opposition? We tried to prepare as well as possible, but I also have to look at myself in terms of motivating the team. I always try to look at myself, and I obviously wasn’t good enough in terms of motivating them. We should beat them every day the week, but I have to look at myself and decide how we’re going to move forward.”