Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper paid tribute to Morgan Williams as he went from villain to hero after scoring the winner in a 2-1 home win over Weston-super-Mare at Huish Park tonight.
The defender headed home an 83rd minute goal to grab a vital three points having been at fault for Weston’s first half goal in the first half on a night that second-placed Worthing slipped to a 4-1 defeat at Welling United.
That means the Glovers moved 13 points clear at the top of National League South table going in to Saturday’s trip to third-placed Chelmsford City.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall said: “You see again tonight that another team have come here with no pressure, with really good players and they can go and express themselves and I thought Weston were brilliant tonight in the way they played.
“We started great, played some brilliant football and got in front and then conceded a rubbish goal. Morgs got done, I just said to him that his character and personality has won us that game. He refuses to give in and he goes and gets the winning goal.
“Fair play to Toddy (assistant manager, Chris Todd), because he works really hard with Morgan and Jake Wannell on the set-pieces and it’s another one tonight that got us over the line. You can talk about how well you have played but it’s a winner from a set piece again and we have scored a lot of them and winning teams score from set pieces.”
The boss challenged his side to do more to put their opponents to the sword after creating a number of chances to make their win more convincing, as they had in the 1-0 win over Havant & Waterlooville last weekend.
Cooper said: “The only thing I am a little bit peeved about is the fact we create so many chances and we are not putting them away at the moment. We are having to rely on one or two goals when we should be scoring four and that gives the opposition a chance. If you look at the gilt-edged chances today through Youngy (Jordan Young) and Stevo (Jordan Stevens), they get brilliant chances and we are relying on a header from a centre half to win us the game.
“We miss a lot of chances, look at Youngy’s chance, he is in the six-yard box and he dribbles it out of play when he can just roll it under the keeper. But you have to remember what they have done, as well as what they haven’t done.
“You also have to remember that these players have to deal with the expectancy every game that they have to win and the opposition are not getting relegated or promoted and that is a really dangerous recipe to play against a team which has so many technically-gifted players on a really good pitch. So credit to our boys. I thought in the last seven or eight minutes when we went 2-1 up, we defended our box brilliantly.
“I’m so pleased for our boys, I am really proud of them because they stood up once again.”
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Yeovil named only four substitutes on the bench tonight and Cooper admitted he did not want to bring on striker Frank Nouble, who arrived with the game tied at 1-1.
He is hoping to have midfielder Charlie Cooper and left-back Alex Whittle, who were not in the squad through injury and illness respectively, back for the visit of third-placed Chelmsford City on Saturday, when they will be without the suspended Jordan Young. He is also hoping on loan Bristol City striker Olly Thomas is close to a return for action.
The manager said: “We didn’t want to lose Frank as well as Youngy, so we tried to get some rest back in to Frank’s legs tonight. The idea was not to use him and save him for Saturday, but we have had to put him on.
“He made a big impact when he came on with a great run and shot. I am hopeful Whittle and Cooper will be fit to play on Saturday which gives us a big lift and adds to those numbers and I think Olly Thomas will be back within the next ten days.
“I thought that was more like it tonight from our fans. There was an energy from them and it made for a good atmosphere and they have got as big a part to play now as us. I have been speaking about it for weeks, not in a conceited or arrogant way, but successful clubs have that real energy between players and fans and it was there tonight.“