Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley called on his players to show “passion” after a 1-0 defeat at Woking pushed them just four points from the National League Premier Division relegation zone.
The Glovers’ boss described his side’s performance as “terrible” in the first half in Surrey and they went in to the break fortunate to only be 1-0 down to Harry Beautyman’s strike on 30 minutes, but there were signs of improvement after the break.
Two of the teams below them in the division picked up points with Gateshead continuing their renaissance with a 1-0 win over Wealdstone and Brackley Town, who sit below Yeovil in the table, picking up a point at home to Solihull Moors. The result performance and league position all make Saturday’s home match with Morecambe a crucial one.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the match, an obviously angry Rowley said: “We can’t seem to play two good halves in one week. We deserved to be losing at half-time, probably deserved a draw for our performance in the second half. The words at half-time were ‘show some passion’, we are very privileged to be in professional sport and some of these lads have been working hard since they were five years old to be playing for a club like Yeovil, and I can’t wrap my head around any professional athlete not turning up and giving their all. If you do that, you will have half a chance, so our words were to run around a little bit more and fight a little bit more.”
Having gone in behind at the break, Yeovil showed the type of desire and intent which was lacking in the first half from the start of the second half. Midfielder Brett McGavin’s free-kick eight minutes from time was kept out by a fantastic stop from Woking keeper Will Jaaskelainen as the visitors drew a blank in front of goal.
Rowley concluded: “We should have scored a couple of goals tonight, no doubt, we should have a two or a three next to our name on that scoreboard, not a zero. But that is the story of our season, isn’t it? We have not scored enough goals, we start games slow or start fast and then come out for the second half slow, so it is a recurring theme which we have to address because it is the same thing every week and it has probably been the same thing all season.
“It is down to mentality, psychology in sport is huge, confidence, tapping in to what motivates you and understanding what it means to be a professional athlete, fight hard and run for every ball. If you don’t do that, you lose games, and that is the minimum requirement to play for a club like this. You have to run and fight hard every minute of the game and, if you do that, you will have half-a-chance and if you don’t, you lose.”
The defeat, the Glovers third in a row following the home loss to Scunthorpe United and last weekend’s defeat at Boston United, means that the visit of a Morecambe side who remain in the relegation zone – but are undefeated in their last three matches.
Rowley admits the Huish Park fixture is “another massive game” for the club and vowed that his players would “give everything for the badge” to claw the side away from the bottom four.
Speaking ahead of the game at Woking the boss was asked if he felt his side had enough to get out of trouble and insisted they did. Asked again after the game, he replied: “If we play like we did in the second half, yes. If we play like we did in the first half, we may as well throw the towel in now – so it is up to the lads what we do now. We are playing for a brilliant football club with fans that have travelled all this way to watch us. We rolled our sleeves up and put in a decent second half and showed that we can be the better team against a team which probably should be in the play-offs in Woking. I just need to understand why we can’t do that from the first minute, it’s a mentality thing which we need to understand and tap in to.
“There is definitely pressure on all of us, everybody associated with the club, I just want the kick-off on Saturday now. Let’s just go there and try and win the three points.”