Yeovil Town extended their lead at the top of the National League South to 12 points on Monday night with a 0-0 draw against Aveley. In a tight game, that lacked many moments of real quality, Glovers boss Mark Cooper was pleased with his squad’s resilience.
Speaking to BBC Somerset and Gloverscast’s Ollie Marsh he said that it was not a result to look at negatively.
“I thought Aveley were really well organised, we just battled, it was a scrap, wasn’t it? A really difficult pitch, difficult weather, difficult wind, their home record on Monday night is exemplary, so for us to come and get a point, is not to be sniffed at.
Credit to the players, the boys that came in, we had to rest some players tonight and we’ve come away with it, with a point and we’re a point further forward.”
Cooper made four changes to the starting eleven on Saturday, a heavy pitch and over 100 minutes of football in the legs just two days prior meant that the gaffer wanted to make the best of the numbers he had available.
“What we had tonight was all we had, 17 players, that’s all we’ve got at the minute, Charlie Cooper missed out tonight because he played 100 minutes on Saturday after being out for four weeks with a hamstring [injury] and we couldn’t risk that with ten games to go, Josh Owers came in and got his opportunity, so it was important that we motivated the squad and gave those boys the opportunities to play.”
Jordan Young returned to the squad after missing two games with suspension, Cooper was glad to see him return and to see Josh Owers take his chance from the start too.
“[Jordan Young] has been a top player for us, now he’s got ten games to kick on again and try and get some more goals and assists,
It was a tough night for players out there, it was a scrap, Josh [Owers] had to scrap and battle, he acquitted himself well, got a booking quite early, it’s a tight rope then, but like I say, it was a real scrap.”
“It was a tough night for players out there, it was a scrap”
It was something of an agricultural performance from the hosts and there will be a fair few Yeovil players nursing some bumps and bruises, Will Dawes and Matt Worthington, both in the thick of it.
“[Will Dawes] has got a sore knee, we’ll asses that tomorrow and see how that is… I think [Matt Worthington] got a knee in the back of his hamstring and a couple of days rest and he should be fine.”
The gaffer admits to having one eye on Chelmsford v Worthing (2nd v 3rd) in the other game on the schedule on Monday night, but focus has already turned to this Saturday’s home game with Welling.
“Only later on, in the second half, once we saw the result [at Chelmsford] we needed to make sure we didn’t lose the game and saw it out which we did pretty comfortably… I think we just need to focus on what we do, if we do what we do, it doesn’t matter about the rest, tonight was just about making sure we got a result and got out of here with something.
We get an extra day’s preparation, the players need some time to rest now after two games in 48 hours, recover well, get back to training later on in the week and get ready for a massive game at Hush on Saturday.”