Ian Perkins (Page 4)

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It was another three points for the Glovers and another unconvincing performance, but who cares? Ian was at Huish Park for the 1-0 win against Truro City and here are his Five Conclusions…

We looked exhausted in the first half. It was the main point Billy Rowley made in his post-match interview, but from kick off we looked dead on our feet. Terrell Works, normally buzzing around pressing, wasn’t. Delano McCoy-Splatt and Brett McGavin weren’t able to control the midfield – I thought the first half passed them by in truth – and we ended up lumping it to the Truro defence for them to rebuild over and over. The wingers were on the ball sparingly and Truro could have gone in 2-0 up at half time was it not for poor finishing and Jed Ward in the middle of our goal.

Terrell Works puts the pressure on | Photo by Gary Brown

We improved in the second half. I’m not so sure if the players got a rocket at half time or not, but you didn’t need a body language expert to understand how the manager was feeling in the first half. Rowley praised Darren Simpson for the positional tweaks which improved the Glovers and I think it was evident early on in the higher press and the early chances. Until…

We started dropping like flies. Our threadbare, (small squad of quality™) patched up team started to fall victim to their gruelling schedule. Since Morecambe, Yeovil have travelled more than 1300 miles in round trips. Away trips to Wealdstone, Gateshead, Southend in seven days will have killed any sort of meaningful preparation. Aaron Jarvis and Jake Wannell both exited through injury, Joy Mukena was on one leg and we found out pre-match the Josh Sims is out for the season too. Fitness has been an issue all season and the importance of getting it right in pre-season is even more evident given our current situation.

Will Merry still had some fuel in the tank. The youngster was full of running throughout the match and was Yeovil’s brightest spark. When a bit of space opened up in front of him in stoppage time he only had one thing on his mind and as he glided past the Truro defence and put the ball past Aidan Stone the roof came off Huish Park. It was, once again, pure relief as we found a way to grab all three points.

Will Merry slots home | Photo by Gary Brown

We need this season to finish. In my five conclusions following Sutton I said “each game will be it’s own cup final with varying levels of severity as we muddle through until May.” I think that’s generally how it’s gone. We’ve not seen much of a playing style come through for various reasons but with us now (all but mathematically) safe and sat in 13th we can relax. As I said on Friday’s podcast, I think we can go into the summer with calm off the pitch, but there is pressure on the Jamie ‘the HR guy’ Hedges, and the brain trust behind the recruitment plan to get it right to make us competitive. I hope we’ve spent all this time working on a strategy so as soon the final whistle goes after Solihull we know exactly what we’re going after in summer and we get our business done early.

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Credit Gary Brown for the photos

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Ryan Jones was on post-match interview duties and he spoke to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman. Here’s every word of the winger’s interview.

Mark Stillman: Ryan, tough afternoon here in Gateshead. Your thoughts on today’s game, please?

Ryan Jones: Yeah, you know, they’re a well organised team, sort of especially in possession, they’ve got good rotations. I think we dealt with it quite well for the majority of the game, maybe just two moments where they sort of broke through a line and created a few problems for us which obviously led to a goal. The ref’s given a penalty which I think is a little bit soft, but they’re the decisions that get made on the day. [we] Can’t change them now. Yeah, I thought on the whole it was fairly even as a 90 minutes goes.

Mark Stillman: In the first half Gateshead started quite well. Yeovil really got back into it. So what sort of messages did Billy give you at the break?

Ryan Jones: We changed shape at halftime just to try to deal with their rotations a little bit better. I think that worked, and it allowed us to sort of counter-attack on them a little bit quicker and get higher up the pitch. And then once we got into the final third, if initially there’s no pass or there’s nothing on, it’s about coming back out, recycling it, and creating another attack from another angle.

Mark Stillman: You played in both of these games, played on Wednesday with 10 men, so it was hard at the closing stages. What was it like then coming all the way up here sort of tiredness point of view for you and the team?

Ryan Jones: Yeah, you know, it’s obviously going to be tiring for us for what, 35 minutes or so with 10 men on Wednesday, which the boys were excellent then. And then traveling up here, it’s a long journey, but that’s football, that’s the league, you’ve got to deal with it and recover as best you can to go again when the next game is.

Mark Stillman: You played regularly sort of last few weeks, this time shifted over to the right with Alex Whittle coming back in. What did you make of playing sort of obviously not on your natural side?

Ryan Jones: Yeah, it’s something obviously I need to get used to. I can do a job, it’s just something that with more repetitions, where you need to be, knowing what you need to do, it can only get better. So yeah, it’s just one of those things. You know, Whits is a good player that side as well. So if I can do a job and help the team in any position then that’s what I need to do really.

Mark Stillman: And finally, a couple of days’ resting up before you’ve another long old journey on Tuesday night of course to Southend United.

Ryan Jones: Yeah, all the boys need to recover right which I’m sure everyone will do. We’ve got a good group. It’s not going to be an easy game, as everyone knows Southend are a big club, good team, they’re pushing for playoffs, so it’s not going to be easy but we’ll go there and give everything.

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Yeovil boss Billy Rowley spoke to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman following the Glovers 2-1 defeat at Gateshead. Here’s every word of the manager’s post-match thoughts.

Mark Stillman: Billy, your thoughts on this afternoon’s game please?

Billy Rowley: Initially, disappointing and a bit frustrating. There’s two sides of me here. I want to sort of, lose my temper a little bit, but also the other side of me understands we’ve had a really tough run and we’ve had some good results and wins in the last two games in particular. Leading into this game, we looked into Gateshead since Rob’s come back, he’s done a great job. They obviously beat York here the game before, I think their last previous game to that, they beat Wealdstone here. This is a tough ground to come [to]. They are definitely in a false league position really. It could have been worse today. I think we probably would have taken a draw before the game. We’ve given away a bit of a silly penalty really which has sort of changed the game. But yeah look, disappointed by the result. You never, want to lose games of football but we’ll take it on the chin and we’ll move on to Tuesday.

Mark Stillman: It always felt tough like we said before that Gateshead had the extra day’s rest that play a little bit of a part, you know you had a really good win on Wednesday at Wealdstone but they had an extra day’s recovery.

Billy Rowley: Yeah, [it] definitely does play a part. I’ll keep beating the drum that we’ve got a very, very small squad. Another red card today which is unbelievably frustrating which leaves us another body light. I’m not one to really talk about the referees but I felt like he didn’t really have great control of it for a long period which then led to a lot of players from our team, and Gateshead, blood boiling and just diving into silly tackles and doing some stupid and reckless things, but sometimes these things can be eradicated if the ref’s a little bit firmer and a little bit more consistent really from an early period which he wasn’t. It is what it is.

Mark Stillman: First half, obviously gave Miller Matthews Lewis his first start then he came off midway through the first half was that tactical?

Billy Rowley: He obviously come in Miller through not playing football since January. We haven’t trained loads because of our schedule. So just yeah lacking match fitness, we needed to try to change our press a little bit and get more pressure on the ball. So yeah, feel for him but it was, it was a tactical decision really.

Mark Stillman: I thought Will Merry did well when he came on.

Billy Rowley: Yeah, very good exciting talent. He’s only met the lads yesterday at the hotel. So he’s not trained with us, not really familiar with how we want to play or or anything. So in terms of his individual talent and ability I think it’s there for everyone to see. So I think he’s going to prove to be a decent signing for us,

Mark Stillman Now, suddenly you’re back on the road again doing a thousand or so miles in the last couple of days off to Southend on Tuesday.

Billy Rowley: Yeah back tonight probably one in the morning or so. Rest tomorrow, prepare Monday and then we’ll be at Southend away Tuesday which we’ll be just looking to to go there with you know, decent spirits after the last week or two and and try and get at least a point out of that game.

Mark Stillman: Amazing support I think over a hundred I think Yeovil fans and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of them in Essex on Tuesday night.

Billy Rowley: Yeah, I thought they were excellent today and it goes without saying how much we value their support. We could hear them having a bit of back and forth with with the Gateshead supporters. I want to thank them massively. It’s obviously always devastating and frustrating when you when you come this far and you see traveling supporters and you can’t get at least a point for them. We thank them for their support and hopefully see them Tuesday.