Gavin Cowan proud of AFC Telford players in defeat to Shrewsbury

The Bucks carried on their preparations for the National League North campaign with a solid showing against the League One side.

Amari Morgan-Smith put them ahead inside a couple of minutes in front of a 1,069-strong crowd at the New Bucks Head, but Town won 2-1 in the end.

"We applied ourselves admirably. I thought we were very good for large spells," said Cowan, who used to play for Salop.

"We forced Shrewsbury to change formation - they were concerned about us and the way we were playing as we had quite a lot of joy early on.

"You come out of it and you feel like you've put in a good shift, the lads have got a good load on. It's been good."

It was the penultimate pre-season friendly for Telford - the final one being at Aberystwyth Town on Friday night (kick-off 8pm).

Morgan-Smith, who has mainly been on the bench for the friendlies over the past couple of weeks, looked sharp as he volleyed home and then had a penalty shout turned away.

Cowan was glad to see him get on the scoresheet as he wants all of his strikers to be in healthy competition with each other.

"It's what they're there to do and it's the hardest thing to do on a football pitch," he added.

"I won't praise them too much as that's what they're in the team to do, and what they're paid to do.

"I expect it of them. It doesn't surprise me, if Daniel (Udoh) scores, Andre (Brown) scores, Amari scores or Jason (Cowley) scores it doesn't surprise me.

"That's what they do, what they live for.

"It was nice to see, to see Amari get the goal and I thought we should have had a penalty.

"It was quite tough to take but we come out of it with a lot of positives."

Meanwhile, first team coach Martin Prentice is no longer with the club.

The former Stafford Rangers coach took on the role a couple of months ago but could not keep up with the travel requirements.