Cooper: We should have scored

Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper was pleased with the response of his players despite seeing them go down to a fourth straight defeat.

The Glovers were edged out 1-0 by promotion chasing York City with an Ollie Pearce penalty early in the second half the difference at Huish Park. 

The manager told BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall that he was pleased with the reaction of his side after the 3-0 home defeat to relegation battlers Boston United in midweek.

Asked what he had said to his team after the match, he said: “I told them ‘well done’, it was a good performance against a good team, we limited them to just a few opportunities. I thought we made it difficult for them with the shape we worked on and we controlled them for large parts of the game. Of course now and again they are going to wriggle through and get half an opportunity, but I do not think we deserved to lose the game. I am more pleased with the performance because we showed a hunger, energy and physicality. 

“We should score towards the end, young McGuckin has a free header, Ryan McLean has a shot blocked on the line and then there were some great balls going across the face of goal at the end which we should score from.

“We had a lot more physicality in the team. We had Frank (Nouble) who keeps the ball for us at the top of the pitch because of his size, we had Kyle Ferguson who won most of his headers, who gave us that added bit of know-how and physicality. We are devastated we have lost, but it was a good performance. If we play with that endeavour and spirit, we will win plenty of games in our last eight games.”

The only goal of a match of few opportunities came in the 56th minute after young defender Kyle Ferguson, signed from National League Premier Division rivals Rochdale on loan for the remainder of the season during the week, brought down York’s speedy Joe Felix inside the box. Pearce, the division’s top scorer, stepped up to tap in his 22nd goal of the season.

On the goal, Cooper said: “It was poor from us out on the touchline. We let their player wriggle inside when our preparation is about always showing the player down the line because if you do that they have to cross it, but as soon as you let them inside you open the whole goal up. That was the mistake and Kyle has tried to make an attempt to stop Felix getting through and brings him down.

“We set up to be tough to beat today and play as much football as we usually do. We wanted to make it ugly and fight, run and scrap. I thought that is what happens when you are (near) the top of the league, every little half decision, although that was not why we did not win.”

In the second half, Yeovil introduced loanees Ciaran McGuckin, Ryan McLean and Kyrell Wilson, who were all dropped to the bench following the midweek defeat. McGuckin almost drew his side level with a header and McLean had a good opportunity.

Cooper said: “It helped the loan boys coming off the bench in to a positive environment rather than a toxic one. I think the fans responded to the pace we put on the pitch and I thought we took the game to them. It is not often this season you cannot say our boys do not give all they have got, they just been thrown off course with a horrendous injury list. That happens sometimes and we have had to react to that and now we have to recover, prepare for Solihull (Moors next weekend) and finish the season off properly.

“You would not think our boys were lacking confidence today, I thought they stood up and competed well against York physically. It was real dominant display by their captain Callum Howe who headed every ball out of the box and if he was not playing I think we would have scored from some of those crosses. He was a magnet to the ball and credit to him for that. If we show that spirit, we will have a good end to the season.

“If we can get our more experienced players in from the start of it, it gives us the ability to bring the pace we have off the bench. That is what having those players available to us again will do for us. None of Wannell, Williams, Jarvis, Maddox (will be back for Solihull), Michael Smith may have an outside chance.”

There was another injury worry for the Glovers when midfielder Brett McGavin had to be helped to the bench during the second half. Asked how the former Torquay United man was, Cooper said: “Sore, very sore. He has a big stud mark and swelling on his ankle. I thought it was his knee to start with but it is on his shin and his ankle.”

Nouble returned to the starting line-up and was returned to the captain’s role despite telling the club in the week that he wanted to leave to take up an offer from National League Premier Division side Gateshead.

His manager added: “I expected nothing less from Frank than for him to go to war today and put in a proper performance. He has been really good for the last month. We made it clear we did not want him to go, but his wish was to secure his family’s future and we completely understand that. For one reason or another that did not happen.”