Frank Nouble scored the winning goal at Braintree, and he praised the travelling supporters, saying they deserved the victory.
‘The Governor’ was on post-match media duties with BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins and the goalscorer said: “They [the fans] deserve it. Every time we don’t win for them – especially away games – it’s difficult to look at them in the eye and, you know, give him a clap for the effort they’ve done. But also, it’s football, we can’t win every game, so it’s nice to give them something today. The sun is out so they can enjoy a little beverage after the game and hopefully get home safe. It’s all about the supporters. I think when you win games for your club it means everything.”
After a four without a win, Nouble said the victory felt amazing: “I can’t remember the last time we won. Which is weird saying that this season. But you know, we’ve had some indifferent results of late. So it just felt good to get that win today. And yeah, it was enjoyable, good battle. And I thought they’re a good team, obviously doing well for a reason and showed it out there. But, I think some parts of the game, we reminded ourselves that we are level above, we just gotta go out there and re-prove that to everyone else.”
It was a set-piece that won it, and Nouble said Chris Todd has been showing the Glovers some inspiration from the Gunners. “Toddy will tell you that we’ve worked on that all week. We changed it up a little bit. Watching some of the Arsenal set pieces so I don’t know if I should be saying that, but we did watch some, you know, ways of scoring some set pieces because we are a big side in terms of height, but that means nothing if you don’t go out and attack the ball. So, you know, lucky enough I got on the end of one today.”
The Glovers are thin on the ground at the back, with Alex Whittle out for the remainder of the season and no indication of when Michael Smith could be back. Nouble admitted they’re big misses in the team, but that the squad is really close and peeled the curtain back a bit.
“I think everyone’s got a role to play, You know, It’s just like the school days, you know, in a school classroom, everyone has different characters, and we all try to fit in together. There’s a class clown, there’s people who are too busy and want to do everything by the book, there’s naughty boys, stuff like that. And there’s a governor, I’m the governor of the group, so I’ve gotta make sure everyone is on it and I think we’ve done a good job.
“Everyone played their role brilliantly. Regardless, if you’re playing or not you see the boys don’t play, they’re doing their runs after the game and that means a lot to everyone. We don’t want to see anyone down if they’re not playing, not involved – they’re so important. So we’re really lucky that the group has been quite tight knit and it’s all down to the manager if I’m being honest.”
Yeovil head into a big Easter weekend needing three victories to clinch promotion, and Nouble said the players won’t need much motivation ahead of the visit of Torquay: “There should be no motivational speeches before that game. Just go out there and play. Be yourself and that should be good enough.”