Yeovil Town goal hero Rhys Murphy believes the 3-2 scoreline flattered their opponents Gateshead today as his side progressed to Round Two of the FA Cup with their eleventh successive win today.
Having gone in to a 3-0 lead, the Glovers had a penalty the striker described as “iffy” given against them and then had to endure a nervy last few minutes as visiting frontman Marcus Dinanga added a second five minutes in to seven minutes of second half injury time.
His manager Mark Cooper said referee Gary Parsons had “tried to make a game of it” with his decisions and his top scorer agreed the home side never looked in trouble.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the game, Murphy said: “We have controlled games with and without the ball and had a good mix of performances that a good team needs. I think we looked comfortable today, they may have scored two but one is an iffy penalty and the other is when they are throwing the kitchen sink at us in the last few minutes. I don’t think the scoreline reflects the game fairly, it was a solid performance and I thought we looked dangerous, so we will dust ourselves down and go in to a big game on Tuesday.
“The management team are always one step ahead and do their due diligence, so they know the strengths and weaknesses of who we are coming up against. We always have a game plan for whoever we are playing and we have come up against a few teams recently that like to dominate the ball and we have come up with a game plan where we have let their strength become their weakness.”
Murphy was replaced by Jake Hyde after 72 minutes with the top scorer on a hat-trick. Before the game, Cooper said that Murphy had been “gagging” to play having not featured in the 2-0 home win over Braintree Town seven days earlier.
The frontman said: “No player wants to not play, but you have to realise you are getting older. The manager looks like he is doing a great job managing the whole squad, not just myself. Every player wants to play every week and I am no different but luckily we are in a position where whoever is called upon is doing a job. We don’t rely on any one player from front to back, we have a really good squad and the staff are working hard.”
Now Yeovil are back in National League South action with a trip to Gary Johnson’s Torquay United on Tuesday night and Murphy is seemingly gagging to be let loose against the Gulls as well.
Asked about the match, he said: “Everyone can’t wait, straight after the game we said ‘good win, but let’s focus on Tuesday’, so it’s rest and recovery tomorrow and let’s get ready for another big one. We are in a good place, the fans have been brilliant and I am sure they will travel well. We have got some good memories down there, so hopefully we will go down and make some more.”
We think we may know the memories you are referring to there, Rhys.