Ian Perkins (Page 41)

Mark Cooper described his side as ‘soft’ in their box following the 2-1 defeat at Maidstone.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall, Cooper said the errors at the back have ‘been creeping in’ and that he’d had a ‘nibble’ after Slough.

He said: “We didn’t compete in our box. We were really soft in our box. We’ve been defensively really good. But today, our back line, goalkeeper, defenders, we didn’t compete in our box. We didn’t head the ball, we weren’t authoritative and we let them dominate our penalty area. That was the difference between the two teams.”

“It’s been creeping in. I had a nibble on Tuesday night about it. We conceded a soft goal on Tuesday night for not defending our box. Two centre halves jumped into each other. And today was a culmination of the last couple of games, we’ve been a little bit soft In our penalty area. That might be a knock on effect from the players we are missing but the boys that were out there, we had enough.”

Cooper praised Maidstone and said they ‘probably deserved to win.’ “Full credit to Maidstone. They were physically better than us today. We can blame it on the coach breaking down. We can blame our injuries, but Maidstone, physically, today were better than us for a 20 minute spell. The second-half, you know, we have to go for it. We get back into it, could draw at the end, but they probably deserved to win.”

Yeovil were without Rhys Murphy, Jake Hyde, Michael Smith and Charlie Cooper, but still felt his side should have had enough to be competitive.

“We didn’t really stick to our identity. We’re missing key players, which I can blame, and I think you can see when you take those players out of our team we’re totally, totally different. But we still should have enough to be able to be competitive – certainly physically. It doesn’t matter about ability, if you’ve got a man in the penalty area and he gets in front of you and scores the goal, that’s just a desire and a will to do your job.”

Dylan Morgan came off the bench to score his first goal in green and white and boss thinks Morgan will be a big asset for the Glovers. “[It was a] really great finish, very difficult. It’s the edge of the boxm rolled back and he has to put it in the corner and if you had a bit more of that calmness, the chances we had in the first half and late on and we would have got something. Dylan’s got great ability and he’s getting used to how we work and we’re getting him up to speed fitness wise. He’ll be a big asset for us in the future.”

It’s only the fourth game Yeovil have lost this season in the National League South and the first since Welling on the 25th of November, but Cooper stuck the the mantra that he’s done all season and isn’t looking at the now ten point lead.

“We’re not as arrogant or as flash to think anything like that, we don’t really look at the lead. We just, and as boring as it is as a cliché, we just look at the next game and three points and today we lost an opportunity to get some points on the board.

“We’ve established up that [the lead] position by being a really good football team and dominating the possession of the ball. And the two or three actions in each half that the ball comes in our box, we’ve defended today. I think they had three entries in our box in the first half and they scored twice.”

A disappointed Matt Worthington spoke to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall following Yeovil’s 2-1 defeat at Maidstone this afternoon.

The skipper was, on the whole, disappointed with the afternoon in Kent as the Glovers conceded two first half goals and gave themselves an uphill struggle to get back into it.

Worthy said: “I thought [in the] first half we didn’t defend well enough [the] balls into the box, which we knew they were good at. They looked for the ball forward and get crosses in wide areas and ultimately we didn’t defend the the box well enough. Two goals come from crosses and I think a free kick as well, so we’re disappointed with that.

“[In the] second-half, we were in total control, I’d say. But it was a little too late. And we were sort of pushing for the second goal, and was unlucky not to get it. But like I said, we weren’t, we weren’t good enough in the first half and we gave ourselves a challenge in the second-half.”

Mark Cooper made some tactical switches this afternoon with Charlie Cooper absent through injury and Michael Smith yet to return. Jake Wannell, conceded a free kick which Maidstone scored their opener from.

“We stick by all the lads. He’s made the decision and like you said, he’s done it all season. He’s done it very well, him and Morgs. Unfortunately, that didn’t come off, we conceded. But I was saying in there that we all stick together, still 10 points clear game in hand. But we’re disappointed with today.”

The Glovers couldn’t get fully into their rhythm in the first half, and resolute defending from the hosts in the second half restricted Yeovil to one goal from substitute Dylan Morgan.

Worthington said: “I think when you’re defending a lot in the first half, which we did, it puts it out of sync in the final third. We had quite a few chances in the first half with some good play, some good link up play, but we couldn’t really finish it off, which we’re obviously disappointed with. But [in the] second-half we had more chances. We had a lot of the play. A little bit too late to get the second one, which we’re disappointed with.

“They [Maidstone] made it difficult because they sat in. But yeah, we always believe that going score goals think we said that a lot. As long as we defend well, we’re always going to score goals and have chances. So I think that us not defending well today has hurt us really because, we got the goal and we were pushing for the second.”

With Tonbridge away next weekend, Worthington said the team will be back at training this week to look at what went wrong.

“As a group we have to stay together. We have to analyse it and see what went wrong today and put it right. We have to demand standards from eachother when we have meetings, sometimes, we can not dig people out, but we sit together and we talk about what went wrong. We have to stick together now and we will be better for it.”