Mark Cooper praised his ‘magnificent’ players as Yeovil bounced back from defeat at Maidstone last weekend to beat Tonbridge Angels 4-2 this afternoon.
The gaffer said the performance was ‘brilliant’ for the first 20 minutes and that the fitness of his side told towards the end. Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall he said: “We we’re brilliant for 20 minutes. 2-0 up, everything we worked on, the way that we kept the ball, and they were a really aggressive pressing team, but we took that out of their game. The only problem was we gave them a really poor goal which gave them some encouragement and became difficult for us. It’s an error that gives them all the encouragement and momentum, I think, to get to half time 2-0 it’s a difficult one for them.
“These things happen. We have to keep going and just make sure we get the three points and the boys kept going and you saw the power at the end and the fitness, we had five players sprinting to get on the end of that ball, but Worthy decided to take it himself.”
Jake Wannell scored two from corners and Cooper revealed the assistant Chris Todd had spent some time working on set pieces in training.
“We’ve not scored for a few weeks. Toddy did a lot of work yesterday with that delivery, like your little stand up onto the six yard box for Wans to attack and it worked a treat today. Wans has been struggling with a stiff neck, but it didn’t stop heading the ball today, that’s for sure.”
Michael Smith returned to the starting line up after missing two matches through injury but with Charlie Cooper missing, Alex Whittle only lasting a half due to illness and now Olly Thomas out for month, Cooper said he would continue to adapt rather than add to his squad.
“You can’t keep signing players. I hear some managers moan. Injuries we can moan about; we’ve lost Coops, Hydey, Murphy, Michael Smith, Whittle. You can moan, but that’s what you build your squad for. We’ve got Olly Thomas, now injured for a month. Nothing to do with us. He got injured playing for Bristol City Under 21s on Monday night at Sunderland. We brought him in to replace Murph and Hyde, so that one’s gone, but as a coach you have to adapt. You can’t have everything, you know. And I don’t want to keep going to the chairman, he’s been fantastic, and asking him for more money.”
“I’ll be happy if I get that team on the pitch next Saturday. We’re happy. We could probably go and sign another player or two, but I don’t wanna upset the group. They are a magnificent group and I just wanna keep them together and give the boys that we’ve got opportunities,” he said.