Dryden: We needed it

Richard Dryden’s time as Interim Manager finished with an important three points and a confidence-boosting 1-0 win over Woking. Luke McCormick’s stoppage time winner took the roof off Huish Park as the new boss Danny Webb watched on.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins following the match, Dryden said the whole club needed the win: “We needed it, and the fans needed it, you know? I said earlier in the week, we need the backing from the fans how we play, but we need to give them something to sing about, shout about. I think, especially second half, from the first minute, we were on the front foot and had a right go. It was cagey, the first half, the second half, I thought we had the better chances.”

After a non-event of a first half, where Woking perhaps edged it, Yeovil came out in the second half and took the game to Woking with big chances for Josh Sims, Junior Morais, Morgan Williams and Tahvon Campell before McCormick clinched it.

“The first half was very tight. I think we started the second half really, really well. It goes on and goes on and goes on. You think ‘are we going to score?’ We have some good chances. We created a lot of good chances. We’ve got people in the right areas to get shots off or make contact in the box, but it was so nice to see the ball go in  the back of the net with four minutes left, that’s for certain.”

On the goal, Dryden said: “They pressed him [McCormick] well coming out from the goal line. But he’s sort of clipped it into the top corner. [It] was great to see. And when I say four minutes left, it felt like 40 minutes, because it went on and on and on. But when you’re 1-0 up, and you know, they’re going to put big people on, get the ball forward, and we defended it pretty well.”

If it ended up 0-0, we played well. But, the 1-0 makes it 2,000,000% better. Yeah, Morgs has missed, but it’s a great contact on the ball. I haven’t got clue what he’s doing there, by the way, but he’s in there. And there’s been a couple of the little ones where we could have , you know, Sims has gone through with a bit of class. And there’s two or three others, you know, I think Tav was unlucky, because he’s through on goal. And I’m not going to knock referees or officials, but how none of the four [officials] see he’s getting tugged is a tough one.”

Aaron Jarvis and Tahvon Campbell made a big impact of the bench with Campbell causing all sorts of problems for his old club and Jarvis getting into his usual rough and tumble with the opposing defenders and Dryden said he’s had players knocking on the door this week angling for a start.

“I think it’s no secret we’ve, we’ve been training well with very few outfield people. I still get, even this week,  I’ve had a couple saying they want to play, disappointed they’re not starting. And a few of them have come on today and shoved it right up me, really, because they’ve come on and made a difference. The lads started really well and they’ve come on and finished it off.”

Dryden confirmed that Alex Whittle and Charlie Cooper had been in ‘very light training’ but gave to certainty on their returns. He added that the Glovers hope to be back to full bench soon with “maybe one or two coming in.”