Substitute and goalscorer Ryan Jones paid tribute to the strength of Yeovil Town’s squad after contributing to a 3-2 home win over Tamworth at Huish Park on Bank Holiday Monday.
The winger came off the bench in the 54th minute of the game and put his side 3-1 ahead just 12 minutes later before they had to endure a nerve-jangling ending with the visitors having a late ‘goal’ ruled out for offside.
Manager Billy Rowley made seven changes to his starting XI as the Glovers started their second game in under three days having made a 600-mile round journey to Barrow on Friday night.
Speaking to BBC Somerset reporter Mark Stillman after the game, Jones said: “In a squad that wants to achieve something having competition for places is one of the most important things. You can’t become complacent in your position and think that you’re going to play every minute of every game, because that’s just not the case.
“Obviously, we had a lot of travelling to do at the beginning of this weekend, so I think it was expected there would be some changes to rest a few bodies. All the lads that started, they came into the team and they all did brilliantly.
“The togetherness of the group is really good. So even if we’re not starting, we’re getting round the lads, supporting them, making sure that they’re ready to go.“
Jones said he was given the instruction to “come on and be positive” when he replaced James Daly nine minutes in to the second half. He did exactly that soon after his arrival when he pressed down the right side and hit a shot which took a deflection off a Tamworth player on its way in to the net.
He said: “I think the ball came out to me on the right and I just kind of took on a couple of players, ended up in the box. I think it was deflected anyway, but I think it was on target, so I think it would go down as mine anyway. It was really good to score, get my first one of the season, so hopefully I can kick on now.“
The visitors Kieren Donnelly reduced the advantage just three minutes after Jones had made it 3-1 and there was a heart-in-mouth moment late on when it appeared Tamworth had equalised. Yeovil keeper Jos Barker came to claim a ball in to the box and was beaten by a header from Morgan Roberts allowing Hayden Hollis to head in to an unguarded net. It looked to everyone inside Huish Park that the scores were level before referee Matthew Scholes ruled the goal out for offside with Hollis having been behind the keeper when he scored.
Jones admitted he was a little unsure about what happened, saying: “I could kind of see it, but I was not really sure, I don’t really know what the rules is – there’s so many changes! It looked offside because of where Jos had come out but I’m not sure. I’ll have to watch it back.“