BBC Somerset reporter Sheridan Robins spoke to one of Yeovil Town’s goal scorers from the 4-3 loss to Havant and Waterlooville.
Rhys Murphy, who came off the bench to score what looked like a 90th minute equaliser, was honest in his assessment when chatting post match admitting there’s no hiding place, and that the team can, and will, learn from the defeat.
“I’m not going to stand here and point fingers as a team we were not good enough, we were not at the standards that this club demands and that we demand of ourselves.
“It’s all a bit raw at the moment, it’s quite as simple as that to be honest, too many of us, if not all of us, did not perform to the levels that are required and the result then is what happens.”
The Glovers were shocked when finding themselves 2-0 down inside 15 minutes, but fought back to 2-2 just before the break only to concede deep in injury time in both halves, something Murphy called “naive“.
He admitted: “It’s certainly naive, it’s unacceptable, to go 2-0 down, get it back before half time and then give away a penalty and then in the second half to pull it back and concede again, it’s just ridiculous.
“Look, we’ll assess straight after this, but it’s obvious for everyone to see that too many mistakes were made – it just simply wasn’t good enough – all of us, it wasn’t one of us, or two, it was the whole team, it’s bitterly disappointing.”
We should be walking out of here with a point.
In a game full of back and forths, it was a dissapointing end to an overall positive first month of the campaign, but Murphy feels it should have been better.
“It was like a basketball match at times, when we were behind, they were obviously making it difficult, but we kept pressing, kept trying to ask questions, we get the goal back and then we throw it away – I think I’m going over things and just repeating myself, but yeah, just not good enough.
All game it felt like they were there for the taking – it was that kind of match, but at 2-2 and at 3-3 you see the half out as a minimum, if you can nick it, great, but as a minimum you do not concede again, you’re tight, you’re hard to beat and we weren’t that, we were the opposite.”
The focus moved onto the chance to put Monday’s result to bed and the Glovers welcome an unbeaten side that Rhys knows all too well next Saturday – Chelmsford City. Murphy wants his side to dust themselves down and learn from the game.
“Naïve, on our part, all of us, not good enough, that’s not pointing fingers at anybody, that’s us as a collective, and it’s something we need to learn from, it’s a big lesson today.
“The manager has made his thoughts very clear, everything he said was spot on, after that point there’s not much more that needs to be said, it’s a case of looking within. I don’t think any good comes from finger pointing right now, the whole group goes home and takes a right look at themselves and how we performed.”
“The fans have turned up in their numbers again, they don’t expect to see performances like that, the fans were brilliant with us again and we’ve let everyone down today.
We have a chance to put things right in a few days, we’ve got a long season to go, you know, it’s just a really, really, really(!) disappointing result, after a good run of results, at home, we had the chance to push on again today and we’ve let that opportunity slip.
Let’s learn, let’s grow as a team and let’s push on again.”
You can hear the full audio of the chat between Sheridan and Rhys, below.