Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley hailed the “togetherness” of his new-look squad as they came from a goal down to snatch a dramatic late 2-1 win at Barrow on Friday night.
With just 15 minutes remaining in Cumbria, the Glovers found themselves trailing, but pulled level when captain Luke McCormick netted from the penalty spot before substitute defender Joe Gubbins headed the winner deep in to second half stoppage time.
The win kept up an unbeaten start to the new National League Premier Division campaign and will send them on a long journey home in high spirits with Tamworth due at Huish Park on Bank Holiday Monday.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the game, Rowley said: “It is easy to get carried away and zoom in on these types of wins, but I think you have to at the time. It is only three points, but I am so thrilled for the lads. The togetherness of this group, even after only four games, I really feel it, so in that sense it is a really important three points.
“We work really hard as a management team, we are only a small team, but we put a lot of time and effort in to watching opposition and when you get those last minute winners, it makes it all feel worthwhile.”
Barrow came in to the game where they were marking 125 years as a club before kick-off still looking for their first win of the season after picking up one point in their opening three league games. The Bluebirds showed a high intensity style which was physical and undoubtedly had the better of the opening 45 minutes.
Rowley said: “Even though they have lost two games here, I do not see them losing too many games at home. They were a really hard opposition tonight, they had energy, they had a press, they were man for man all over the pitch and full of energy and my message for the boys at half-time was to try and find a bit of composure in those scrappy moments. Try and find three or four passes and we did it decently enough and we had one or two chances but so did they.
“That is where you defenders as so important. I felt Radders (Ben Radcliffe) was incredible, Jos in goal was again superb even if he was wearing the wrong studs from the start! Jordan Norville-Williams was incredible, Archie (Davies) has not put a foot wrong in his first four games, and in front of them, Brett (McGavin) and Zain (Westbrooke) were dogged and diligent in their defensive work. It was not a beautiful game, but it was never going to be, they are the highest pressing team in the league, they get in your face and put the ball in your box and it is really hard to play against.”
Yeovil made a triple substitution at the start of the second half with defender Joe Gubbins and wingers James Daly and Mason Obeng replacing Joy Mukena and Ryan Jones, who both picked up first half bookings, along with Barnsley winger Charlie Lennon.
Rowley added: “When you play against teams like this, you have to weather the storm probably for the first hour and hope they blow up a little bit. They obviously made five subs like we did and that leaves your team a little disjointed I think, the timing of their press was a little bit off and we found a bit more space. But naturally it comes down to energy and endurance. It was an incredibly hard game, but when you get those last minute winners it is a nice release.”
It was another substitute who played a major role in the Glovers equaliser as striker Slavi Spasov was brought down inside the box with four minutes remaining and, after a long delay, captain Luke McCormick made no mistake to level and it looked like the game was heading for a draw until Gubbins nodded the winner.
The Yeovil boss joked: “Joy (Mukena) made a good comment at the end when he said ‘what a sub that was’ bringing Gubbo on, but Joy came off because he was on a yellow card and in a game of some many duels I could not risk (him getting sent off). I learnt the hard way leaving Gubbins on after a booking (in the 1-1 draw with Carlisle where Gubbins was red carded) to give the lad the benefit of the doubt.
“Gubbo had a bit of a mishap when one of his contact lenses came out during the celebrations. I have never seen that before! He was scrambling and they almost scored when we were down to ten men, but sometimes the Gods are on your side and they were there.”
Just a minute after going ahead, the visitors were grateful to the brilliance of goalkeeper Jos Barker awho pulled off a stunning save to tip an effort from Barrow substitute Xavier Benjamin over the bar. Rowley said: “Jos is still 22 and has joined us from two leagues below and we found him another two leagues below that, so he has jumped four or five leagues in two or three years. I said it when we signed Jos, he had incredibly big shoes to will in Jed Ward and he is doing a decent job of that. I can’t speak highly enough of him, he’s been only been training full-time for eight weeks and he has taken to it like a duck to water and he is only going to get better.”
Having completed a 600-mile round journey when they returned home in the early hours of Saturday, Yeovil’s attention now turns to Tamworth who arrives at Huish Park having had their own late euphoria on Friday night. They scored twice in second half stoppage time to pick up a 3-2 home win over Worthing in a match which saw their opponents reduced to nine men.
Rowley concluded: “It is going to be a hard turnaround. I feel really sorry for all the teams who have made long journeys on a Friday night, we are probably going to get home at 5am (on Saturday) morning and then we have to play again on Monday when we do not have a massive squad. The boys finished on their backs tonight, but they are going to have to roll their sleeves up and go again on Monday and I am sure they will.“