Reflecting on his side’s Isthmian North Division play-off final defeat – Brentwood Town boss Keith Rowland (second from left) (Image: Nicky Hayes)
Brentwood Town manager Keith Rowland admits how tough it is to take a 3-2 penalty shootout defeat to Bowers & Pitsea in the Isthmian North Division play-off final.
Bowers broke the deadlock through Chris Millar with 16 minutes on the clock before the Blues equalised on 34 minutes with Matt Cripps’ strike. Following a 1-1 draw in normal time, the game headed into extra-time and Olly Sotoyinbo netted the winning penalty to send Bowers back to step three at the first time of asking.
Rowland offers his reflection on how he felt his side performed.
“Firstly, I would like to congratulate Bowers on the win,” he said.
“They defended very well and got men behind the ball and I felt when we were heading towards extra-time, they were happy to see it through to penalties which is obviously a strength.
“From 60 minutes onwards, I felt we were the side in control of it and we got the ball down a bit better albeit we didn’t create a lot of chances because they defended for their lives.
“We fell a little bit short towards the end.”
He also praised the hosts for being tough to break down.
“Bowers have been hard to break down all season – they are hard to beat, determined and rugged which we didn’t do,” he thought.
“We were the better team in terms of ball possession and trying to open the game up but it doesn’t matter as we have lost on penalties.”
Having arrived at the Brentwood Centre Arena in October after replacing Craig Shipman, the ex-West Ham United defender helped guide the Blues up the Isthmian North Division table and eventually finish in a play-off place.
The 52-year-old highlights the importance of now building for next season.
“I looked at the last few seasons this week at teams that have made play-off finals and I am pretty sure Brentwood two seasons ago made the final against Canvey Island last season and finished tenth,” he explained.
“Heybridge Swifts (last season’s play-off finalists) finished in eighth so you need to bounce back quickly and it will hurt us for the next few days.
“We have put so much hard work into the club since we got here and felt we had found ourselves slightly short of Lowestoft Town when we thought we could catch them.
“There is a new pitch going down, our away record has been outstanding and I think we have played 17 away games and won 15 of them.
“If our home form was anything like that, we would have won this league.
“I was at Aveley for a few years and it took them a little while to get going and as soon as they got one promotion, they got another one.
“I have always said momentum is key and we need to get a good pre-season in and take it from there.”
