Yeovil got the first National League points on the board this afternoon at Braintree Town, thanks to a Morgan Williams goal in a 1-0 win. Mark Cooper spoke to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins following the game and praised his side’s second half performance.
“Didn’t enjoy the first half. It was a difficult afternoon for football, with the pitch and the weather. We had a few words at half time and just wanted a bit of enthusiasm. I wasn’t asking for anything too scientific, just wanted a bit of enthusiasm. I thought we started the second-half really well and did really well in the second-half,” he said.
Cooper was pleased with his sides battling display at the back against a very physical Braintree team, saying: “The back four, back five, you know, were heading every ball that came in the box. You know, you’ve got Akinde and Inih Effiong, two of the probably the biggest footballers I’ve ever seen, and they seem to have every player over 7 foot at the end and the ball was coming in the box. Wanns, Whitts, Raph came on and headed some balls away, Smudge all of them. All of them Jarvs, Frank we had to defend our box really well and we did that.”
Josh Sims made an exciting debut from the bench, showing his quality and Cooper praised both he and Raphael Araoye who made his debut. “He’s [Araoye] gonna be a big player for us, I think and for Bristol City as well. And I think with Josh Sims, you saw cameo there, real quality didn’t you when he came on? Brilliant from the Chairman to enable us to get a player of that quality and hopefully he can do well.”
Asked if he’s looking at doing anymore business Cooper said he is ‘always looking’ and added that he is expecting another tough match on Tuesday with the visit of Ebbsfleet to Huish Park: “Tough, tough game expected. At this level, every game is tough. You see that today, they’re a physical outfit and you know they do it really well and you have to deal with that physical side in every game you play at this level.”