DANNY Cowley hailed under-strength Concord’s gutsy win at Bishop’s Stortford as one of the best-ever in the club’s history.

A calm, injury-time finish skipper Tony Stokes from a Steve Cawley cross saw the Beachboys take another giant step towards Skrill South safety.

It came shortly after Cowley and Stortford counterpart Rod Stringer had been sent from the touchline following an angry clash between the two managers.

Cowley said it was a regrettable incident between “competitive men” at the end of an “emotional game”, and stressed it should not detract from a brilliant away win.

The Beachboys boss — who, because of injury and illness had to do without both first-choice centre backs, and his preferred pair in central midfield — said: “Considering the team I had to put out, that has to be up there as one of our best-ever wins in my time as manager here.

“Stortford were at full strength and at home, and would have been expecting to roll us over.

“But I got a performance of hard work and commitment from my players and in the 94th minute the football gods were smiling on us.”

The winner came shortly after the Concord manager had angrily confronted Stringer in the home dugout.

That came when the hosts’ manager told his players to take advantage of a throw-in after Concord had put the ball out because one of their players was injured.

Cowley said: “The ref asked our goalkeeper to put the ball out because Lewis Taaffe was injured.

“To be fair Lewis had got to his feet, but our players were out of position and Rod told them to take advantage of the throw-in. And that throw put their striker Cliff Akurang in on goal with five minutes to go.

“I had already moved up the touchline because I could see what was going to happen.

“I was disappointed with what had happened and I made that clear to Rod, but I should not have gone into their technical area.

“But we are both very competitive men and it was an emotional game, and these things happen.

“I have always had a good relationship with Rod and we are both man enough to put this behind us, and we’ll move forward.”

Concord’s busy schedule continues tonight at home to Boreham Wood.

Cowley said: “They played on Monday and had a 1-1 draw with Farnborough, so they will have had an extra-day to recover, so this will be another tough game.

“But we already have three more points from our three games this week than I expected to have at this stage, so hopefully we can add to that.”