Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley was relieved to be in the next round of the FA Trophy after a 4-2 penalty shoot-out win over Maidstone United at Huish Park.
The Glovers looked to have snatched the win in normal time when substitute Josh Tobin bundled home an 89th minute goal, only for a defensive lapse to gift visiting substitute Hamzad Kargbo an equaliser two minutes in to injury time at the end of the game to take it to spot kicks.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman after the game, Rowley admitted the 90 minutes had turned out to be exactly as he had expected it to be.
He said: “It was definitely how I expected it to be and credit to George (Elokobi, the Maidstone manager) and his side for making it difficult, they were a really tough, organised side to play against. I felt like some of our build up play was decent and we were getting in to their final third quite often, but the last pass or the last choice was slightly off today. But it is our third game (as manager) and we have three wins, it is not going to be pretty every game but we are going to work hard to make sure it is next week.
“Penalties are a lottery but when you have good technicians in the team and a great goalkeeper, that adds to your chances of success a little bit. It is about the boys trusting their technique, picking their spot and not letting the whistle bring anxiety before they strike the ball and they did that, so full credit to them.”
The boss was full of praise the contribution of Tobin, signed on loan from League Two Bromley during the weekend, after he came on in the 63rd minute for fellow loanee Leo Ramirez-Espain. Rowley said: “I thought he had a good debut, he has been out for a while so he is not fully match fit either. He is brave, he will take the ball in tight spots and look to play it forward and often he will pick out the final pass, today it happened to be the goal that he has contributed. It is a shame we could not hang on to the result to highlight his goal even more, but it is a team game and we have come up trumps in the end and credit to Jed (Ward) in goal, he was massive for us.”
Goalkeeper Jed Ward saved Maidstone’s first two penalties in the shoot-out whilst Brett McGavin, Luke McCormick and Tahvon Campbell all converted from the spot before substitute Andrew Oluwabori sealed the win in front of the Thatcher’s End.
Rowley added: “We spoke to the referee before the game and he told us if it was going to go to penalties, the shoot-out would be at (the Thatcher’s) end which we were delighted about. I thought the fans were excellent today, we had two sides of the stadium empty today for security reasons, but I thought the fans were top class. I said it last week and the week before, we are going to work really hard to put on some excellent performances for them to give them something to shout about.
“We knew it was going to be tough today, we knew we would have to win duels, fight for second balls and probably go more direct at times than we wanted to but that was the game today and we were just thankful that we came out on top of it. I think it shows we can win in a couple of different ways.“