Striker Frank Nouble said he does not believe Yeovil Town need to improve much to start picking up points in the National League Premier.
The Glovers went down 1-0 to a second half goal from Hartlepool United midfielder Jack Hunter on the opening day of the new season at Huish Park, extending a run of failing to win on the opening day to the past eight seasons.
Nouble told BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah: “There was a different level of class in the opposition (compared with last season in National League South). We know we are going to have the ball for the majority of the season and that is a compliment to ourselves, but we need to find ways to win football games. Unfortunately today that has not happened, but we have lost the first game of the season before, we need to move on.
“As a team, if we play 5% better with our decision-making, quality, touches, we would have created more chances and probably won the game. But football is not like that, you have got to live with it.
“They scored a goal which would have been worth of winning any game in any league, so fair play to the lad but we have to move on quickly to the next one.”
Yeovil matched their opponents, managed by former Glovers’ boss Darren Sarll, for much of the first half without either side carving out many clear-cut chances, but Hunter’s excellent strike from the edge of the box came on 65 minutes with Hartlepool dominating.
Nouble said: “We set out a plan of how we were going to play and I think we tried to do that as much as we could. We might have needed a bit more quality in certain areas in the first half when we were in positions, that quality was not quite there, but we are facing a team which came with a game plan.
“They were aggressive, but we had seen that in the videos of them we watched. But it’s a man’s league, we have to take our licks and our wounds and go again next week.”
Manager Mark Cooper introduced a number of substitutes from the bench, extended to seven players this season with five able to appear, including forwards Harvey Greenslade and Sam Pearson. It was Greenslade who had the best chance to find an equaliser, but he lifted a golden chance over an empty net with the final action of the game.
Nouble added: “In the last few minutes we had a couple of chances where we would have hoped to have done better, but that is football. Sometimes you have to wait until the last minute and then score the goal, unfortunately today that did not happen, so we will go again. I trust the boys and I trust the Gaffer and the staff will put a game plan out there for us.”
Frank told our man Ian Perkins: “It was tough, but everyone has different strengths and you have to play to those strengths. Their two centre backs (Luke Waterfall and Tom Parkes) were very experienced, but one came off with an injury and the other got an early booking, so we caused them problems.
“We maybe did not feed the areas enough with the quality we have. We are going to face better, more experienced players, but I don’t think anyone was fazed. If we do the same things next week and in the weeks after we will win more than we lose.
“Hopefully we can play a bit faster at times with a bit more quality, but it is nothing to worry about in terms of how we feel. We all want to win and we are all disappointed, but they won with a great goal. I thought our defence held them out quite well, but we need to be a bit better all around the pitch and hopefully we can do that next week.”
Next up is a Braintree Town side, who came up from National League South via the play-offs, which went down 3-0 at Oldham Athletic on the opening day.
The Iron have added a number of new players in the summer, including experienced strikers John Akinde and Inih Effiong, since they face Yeovil back in March, a game settled by a Nouble goal.
The Glovers’ striker said: “We now want to improve and work on what we could have done better, but we are facing a different team, going away from home, so it is a different challenge. When I was younger I found it quite hard to move on from defeats but now this game will leave me in the next hour and we will be ready to work again on Monday.
“It will be another difficult game, they have signed a lot of new players so it will be a different game to the one we played there last year. But we are going to go out there to try and win the game, that is the case with every game, we will try and play our football and that is what we will be judged on come the end of the season.
“I trust the quality in there and hopefully we will come good.”
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