Yeovil Town finished the season with defeat at Boreham Wood, but Mark Cooper praised his unpaid players for battling on the final match of the season.
Speaking to BBC’s Sheridan Robins, he said: “I think they could have easily sacked it off couldn’t they? They ran, fought, scrapped, all of them who took part today, you wouldn’t have known they hadn’t been paid. Full credit to them.”
The boss praised his side’s performance but bemoaned the lack of firepower and the amount of injuries in the squad.
“I thought we passed the ball really well today. They had one chance didn’t they? We left the centre forward free in the six yard box, which is not really a good idea and he had a free header. A part from that, I thought we controlled [the game], certainly in the 2nd half.
“I want to be a team that controls large part of the game and gives the opposition limited time with the ball. Which for me that means they don’t have many chances or opportunities to attack your goal and we did that. But to do it successfully you need fire power at the top of the pitch on a regular basis, but we’ve not had that during the season.
“You just have to look at the players who are sat behind me in the stand to realise why we are where we are. There’s 10-14 players injured and a large group of that we’ve missed severely,” he said.
Prior to kick off, Cooper was forced into a late change, with Josh Staunton dropping out with illness. 18-year-old Ollie Haste played the full 90 in the heart of defence and the manager was full of praise.
“I thought he did great. I drove down to Plymouth the other night, to watch them [Truro] play in the play offs and he wasn’t in the squad, which he was really upset by. We were short of bodies, so I thought I’d call him back and give him some minutes today. And he’s not done himself any harm at all.
He’s been here a little while and he understands what the club means and he wants to do well doesn’t he? So he scrapped and fought and battled and he’s never never wanting in that department.
The manager also reserved praise for the 226 supporters who travelled for the final game: “They’ve followed us up and down the country, across the country and it’s really important that we show our appreciation. I just hope that next year when we’re going to these grounds, London, local, that we pack these stadiums out and we show what a really big club we are.”
And when asked about his future and the future of the club, Cooper was as knowledgeable as the rest of us, but excited about the prospect of leading Yeovil in National League South.
“I dont know really, just wait for the phone to ring. I want to try and speak to people to make sure the staff and the players are getting paid at some point this week. Then if we’re allowed to we need to try to put a plan together to make sure we put ourselves in with a real chance of bouncing back at the first attempt.
“I’m really excited. For me, I am not worried about the level [NLS]. It’s about working with good people. I’d sacrifice the level just to work for really good people. I think that’s so important and in football now, there’s not many jobs where you work with good people. At the minute I’m working with really good people in Stuart [Robins] and Martyn [Starnes] and all the other staff.
“I don’t think there’s anybody under any illusions that the club needs a resolution. Because it will only hamper the preparation. It’s a legal matter with lawyers and things like that, I’m not sure how long that will all take.”