Lowe seeks to end Brackley promotion frustration

Matt Lowe began his career in the youth set-ups at Coventry City and Cambridge United

Midfielder Matt Lowe has set his sights on helping Brackley Town finally secure a place in the top flight of non-league football after returning to the club following two years in the professional game.

The Saints reached the National League North play-offs in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024 without being able to take the final step.

Lowe shared in the disappointment on the first four occasions before jumping three tiers to join Accrington Stanley, then a League One club.

"It's instilled in all of us now, because we've been in and around it year on year, it just makes you want it even more," Lowe told BBC Radio Northampton's Non-League Scene.

"Although it's great to come back every season and be there or thereabouts, unfortunately at the minute we still haven't got what the aim has been from the get-go, which is to get promoted."

Having reached the play-off final in the past two seasons and losing to Kidderminster Harriers and Boston United in the process, Brackley are going well again - in third place in the table, only three points behind leaders Chester with a game in hand.

"It couldn't be a much better written story if this is the season where I come back and we manage to get promoted, that would be massive," said Lowe, who has scored eight goals so far this season.

A qualified teacher, he has found returning to semi-professional status after leaving Accrington last summer a far easier adjustment than going full-time.

"I always said it was going to take a special opportunity to make me leave teaching and being at Brackley, but sometimes you have to take a little bit of a risk. When the opportunity came to join a League One side, I definitely would have regretted not taking that decision (to move)," he said.

"Going to the polar opposite of full-time football, I found it difficult at the start transitioning with what to do in my free time - I was constantly trying to fill it by doing extras on the training pitch, or going to the gym and doing extra sessions, just because working hard was in my DNA.

"Sometimes the art of being a full-time footballer is knowing when your body needs to recover and (knowing that) sometimes you need to do nothing. I actually struggled with that at the start.

"Now I've got a job to focus on and other things going on besides football and it allows me just to get there on the Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and go and enjoy it."

Brackley are away to fifth-placed Chorley on Tuesday evening, followed by a trip to bottom of the table Marine on Saturday.

"We've won our past two games so we're full of confidence. We know every game we play is going to be a tough one," Lowe added.