First summer signing of 2019, Jason Cowley came to Boro’ with a pretty decent record of finding the back of the net in non-league football. Signed from Bromsgrove Sporting, the striker helped the club up to the Southern League Premier Division Central before setting sights on a new challenge with us. In a March 2019 win over Corby Town, the lad went viral with a top effort that’d given Ilias Chair a run for his money.
We wouldn’t say no to more of that if he wanted to repeat the feat a few times if leading the line here. First, however, he had to get past Danny Newton and Kurtis Guthrie; wise hands when it comes to scoring in the League. And it seems as if it was too tall an order for Cowley; failing to make the impact we hoped he would. As our poor 2019-20 campaign rolled on, the forward found himself out on loan in the National League.
With the season curtailed by the global coronavirus pandemic, Cowley was unable to make a case for himself. As gaffer Alex Revell came to decide on the players to keep and those to let go, Cowley was among the 22 shown the exit door. Maybe it was a hasty decision. But time wasn’t on our side when counting the financial cost of the shutdown. And perhaps the forward was a chance we couldn’t afford to take when looking to the future.
Jason Cowley: Before Boro’
2019 was the third promotion in as many years for the Rousiers; them and Cowley proving a match made in heaven, it’d seem. In all, the striker banged in 74 goals in 89 appearances in that time. Oddly, it was also a time in which he (briefly) ended up at AFC Telford United in summer 2018 – only to go back to Bromsgrove on dual-registration terms the same summer.
We don’t know either. But we do know his scoring powers are clear at that level.