Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has said he will carry on making changes if it means his side keep picking up points.
The Glovers’ boss introduced substitutes Andrew Oluwabori and Lawson D’Ath at half-time following a lacklustre first half display from his side against Torquay United on New Year’s Day.
The pair helped spark a revival which led to a 2-0 victory just five days after a similar switch at the interval earned Cooper a point in the reverse fixture on Boxing Day.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the match, the boss said: “I keep having to do that and I shouldn’t have to keep doing that, but needs must.
“You have to be seen to try and give the team an impetus and a foothold in the game, I thought Lawson would go and get us playing and Andrew’s pace has really hurt them.”
Oluwabori looked to be a man with a point to prove having come on for defender Max Hunt at the break with Ben Richards-Everton, who started up front alongside Malachi Linton, reverting to a more familiar defensive position.
Asked about why he put Richards-Everton in that position, Cooper said: “We just felt that Torquay’s weakness was defensively and we wanted to ask some questions of them.
“We had a couple of opportunities, one where (Ben) got clean through and fell over, so I think we will look at it that we softened them up in the first half and made our changes at half-time.”
Oluwabori created the first goal for Matt Worthington in the 81st minute before fellow substitute Alex Fisher set up Jordan Maguire-Drew for the second four minutes in to second half injury time.
Cooper revealed that Fisher had not trained all week, saying: “Fish has been poorly, he’s not trained all week, he’s been really ill but he texted me this morning to say he was fit. I spoke to him before the game and he said he had half-an-hour in him but after three minutes he had to come off, then luckily he found a burst of energy at the end. He put a great ball across and then it was an unbelievable quality finish from Maguire-Drew.”
The result moves up to 18th in the National League table, six points above the relegation places, and without a match now until the trip to Bromley on January 14th. They had been due to play high-flying Wrexham next weekend, but the Welsh side are in FA Cup third round action.
Cooper did not give anything away about a number of players whose loan deals expire following today’s game, but he did say that he was hoping to bring more players in before his side are next in action.
He said: “We have a two-week break and hopefully we can add to the squad in those two weeks and make us even more competitive.“