Mark Cooper has said that he felt that his side, whilst not winners by a large margin, were comfortable throughout the 1-0 win over Taunton.
Speaking to Sheridan Robins after the game, he said that his team might not have been at 100% but the game was always within the Glovers’ grasp.
“I thought we were really comfortable, I thought we controlled the game really well without sparking, we got into some really good positions with our play in the wide areas, but it was just one of those nights where our real talismen didn’t really produce until Frank scores a great goal, but that’s fine, that can happen.
We kept another clean sheet and we move on.”
The all important winning goal coming in the second half, it was a patient waiting game for the travelling fans… and team alike.
“I said to the players, ‘no one is going to give you anything, no one is going to make it easy for us’, they’re going to put bodies behind the ball, like they did and make it difficult, we had a couple of really good chances early on, which then changes their outlook, but we didn’t take them, then they get a bit of encouragement because we haven’t scored before half time, but for us there was no panic, it was keep playing, keep moving the ball, and an opening would happen and it did.”
Picture courtesy of Dan Finill.
Striker Rhys Murphy started the game on the bench, but was brought on at half time, he didn’t see the game out, however, he was replaced by Jake Hyde shortly before the end of the game after feeling a slight twinge in his hamstring, Cooper said he simply wanted to take no risk with the Bagsman;
“[Murphy] is alright, he tweaked his hamstring, just felt a little tweak in his hamstring, that bottom corner of the pitch was really soft and he just felt his hamstring tighten a little bit, so just precautionary, we had to take him off”
“if there’s ever a time to have a break it’s when you’re caught up on your games and you’ve got a 13 point advantage”
With Aveley’s continued participation in the FA Trophy, this coming weekend is a blank one for the Glovers giving the team a chance to rest and recharge ahead of the home clash against Hemel Hempstead on the 20th.
“Of course you want to keep playing, but if there’s ever a time to have a break it’s when you’re caught up on your games and you’ve got a 13 point advantage, so the players will get a little bit of time now to recover, they’ve been brilliant haven’t they?
There was never any doubt with us, we kept playing and the boys deserve a little bit of a break and then we’ll attack the Hemel game, as we do every week.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Sheridan and Mark, below