Matt Taylor lauds man-of-the-match striker

Bowman showed immense composure to capitalise on several errors at the back by Notts County defenders to score his third, fourth and fifth goals of the season.

It helped Salop to overcome adversity at Meadow Lane - with 10 senior players out injured - to win on the road and take their place in the third round of the FA Cup.

Taylor said: "He has been the ultimate professional. He is vice-captain of the football club.

"He has not played as much football lately as he would have liked.

So the challenge for him was always going to be when he got the opportunity to get back into the team and get a run of games, could he put the ball in the back of the net?

"Well, you have seen the answer to that question tonight. He took his goals really well.

"He showed excellent composure in those big moments because Ryan has not started a lot of football recently. I hope that now for him this is an opportunity for him to kick on."

The Town boss was so pleased and proud of the way his players performed given what they have had to contend with in recent weeks.

He continued: "They did what they needed to do to get into the third round of the FA Cup.

"I think there might be a slight bit of underestimating how important that is tonight to get into the third round.

"I know we are coming to League Two club and I understand that and we are a League One club and we are 12th in League One at the moment.

"But I feel there is a huge momentum shift for the players because they have worked ever so hard in the last two weeks and what they have got is they have real credibility now both in results and goals.

"If I am really being picky I want us to follow clean sheets with clean sheets but tonight what we have done is we have won a game of football against probably what I believe will be a League One team next season."