A point away at Scunthorpe United on the opening day is nothing to be sniffed at, but there was still disappointment from the Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley following his side’s 1-1 draw.
An excellent performance, including a debut goal for Mason Obeng was cancelled out by a late equaliser from Luke Brennan.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman, Rowley said: “I think it’s a classic case of when you come to Scunthorpe away, when you eat your breakfast this morning, you probably would take a point. But, having obviously just watched and been part of this game, I feel like I think we’re a bit unfortunate not to win. Don’t get me wrong they’re really good team – Andy does a great job here, home support was excellent – but we’ve had a couple of big chances. We’ve had two offsides given which I’ve been shown on freeze frame, that aren’t offside and I think Macca [Luke McCormick] goes on to score one of those and make it 2-0, which makes the game very different. So I think there’s two sides of this. I’m happy with a point here, but after being part of the game, I’m a little bit frustrated we didn’t win it.”
A new-look side saw nine debutants make their first appearance in green and white, including an entirely new backline and Rowley was pleased with his defensive unit’s efforts despite the late equaliser.
“I think that I’d say Scunthorpe, they’re really good at what they do. They put the ball in the on your back line, and they’re great at running off you, they create little overloads out wide. So we dealt with all that really well. I’m really happy with all the lads, in particular like Jos [Barker] ,the goalie, [a] young lad who’s come from two leagues below, made a made a debut in front of 6,000 people. He’s not really put a foot wrong. I thought the goal was an unbelievable goal from them. I think we probably could have done a slightly better job of of closing off that lane and showing him outside.”
One man who is familiar to the Yeovil supporters is Brett McGavin, who replaced Hayden Muller at half time. Rowley was full of praise for the centre midfielder: “I felt like Brett is elite at this level for technical ability to dictate games. He’s able to shape people off his back, he can receive the ball in tight spaces. The idea was kind of bring on bring on Brett when the when the legs are a little bit tired and do that job for us and I think he did it really well and I think he matched defensively as well. So I was really pleased with Brett when he came on and I thought he did excellently.”
It was one of the new boys who got the Glovers ahead, with former Walton and Hersham winger Mason Obeng with a sumblime finish. Rowley was pleased with the ex-Walton crew: “Initially, I thought it [the goal] was a bit lucky, but after rewatching it, it’s just an unbelievable goal. So yeah, really pleased for Mase as well. I made a big point at the end of the end of the game with the boys inside, Jos as well, Mace and Joel, lads that have come from two leagues below to play in front of one of the biggest crowds they have done in a long time and I felt they all dealt with it superbly well and I thought the the goal from Mase, might make goal of the week this week in this league.”
There were 260 travelling fans and Rowley gave his final word to the ‘incredible’ fans: “The support was incredible. I was smiling throughout the whole warm up. Some of the staff that are new here as well, they were amazed by it. [I] can’t thank them enough. And I know all the boys absolutely loved it as well, made the warm up, made this whole day really special.”