Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley paid tribute to his players after a smash-and-grab win at Altrincham this afternoon.
The Glovers survived a first penalty awarded to the hosts which was saved by goalkeeper Jed Ward before grabbing the three points courtesy of a late winner from Fulham loanee Terrell Works.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the match, Rowley said: “Credit to Altrincham, they made the game very difficult for us. We planned for them to be slightly different to what they were today, and credit to our lads for obviously thinking on their feet. We tried to fix a couple of things at half-time, but sometimes football isn’t played on a white board, it is played on the pitch with people rolling up their sleeves and playing for the badge and playing for their mate, and the lads did that today.
”It wasn’t beautiful, but I think tactically the game wasn’t really made for beautiful football today. They were obviously man-for-man all over the pitch; the only free player was (goalkeeper) Jed (Ward) in the build-up. So, we decided to obviously play a bit longer today and play into the space, and we had to be good at running onto that, we had to be good at fighting for second balls. On another day you lose that and obviously people will say ‘Oh, all we’re doing is going long’ but we win today and you look good. I don’t think we were amazing today, I don’t think we were our best, but I think it’s a really positive thing when you can not play your best and you can come to a place like this and win.“
Yeovil were once again indebted to the brilliance of on loan Bristol Rovers keeper Ward who saved Alty striker Jimmy Knowles’ penalty just before the half-hour mark. The spot kick was given after a foul from Glovers’ defender Joy Mukena on Alty’s Kahrel Reddin.
Rowley said: “It is a brilliant save from Jed to save another penalty. He’s been incredible for us this season—not only penalties, obviously everything he does as a goalkeeper. He’s the ultimate professional as well, so massive credit to Jed. It starts with that really; if we go 1-0 down, this was, like I said, a very tough game. I thought their fans were great, I thought ours were brilliant travelling support, but I think going 1-0 down to that penalty would have given us a mountain to climb and I’m not sure we would have climbed it all the way to the top.“
The Glovers’ boss made a double substitution at half-time bringing on midfielders Luke McCormick and Ryan Jones in place of Josh Tobin and Harvey Greenslade at the break. It was McCormnick who broke away late to have the effort which was pushed out to Works who fired the winner.
The boss revealed McCormick, who has been missing through injury in recent weeks, was not pleased at not being in the starting line-up.
He added: “I said to the boys pre-game that it is the hardest thing to do when every player in the squad wants to start and play 90 minutes. It’s the hardest thing to leave people out. But obviously, he’s been nursing a groin problem for the last few weeks; we’re trying to look after him.
“We’ve obviously got a very busy run-in and I said to the lads pre-game when we’re bringing on players like Jonesy, like Macca, like Terrell, like—it’s going to become a very hard afternoon for Altrincham as well, and it proved to be.“
It was a first goal in green-and-white for Works since joining on loan from Fulham last month, albeit it was his fifth National League goal of the season having scored four times in a previous loan spell at Braintree Town.
Rowley said: “The coaches at Fulham who I know well can not speak highly enough about his ability as a footballer and I’m just so happy for him to score today. He hasn’t played loads of football since he’s been here because he’s been cup-tied for the FA Trophy (win at AFC Telford United last week) and we’ve had a few games off (due to postponements), so he’s not played loads of minutes.
“He’s an unbelievable footballer in tight spaces. I think we’re going to see some really good bits from him, but that goal was just about timing and sniffing it out in the box, which he did really well. And he’s probably the quietest lad in the dressing room, so I’m really happy for him and I promised him I’m going to get him some Call of Duty points, which he seems to be world-class at.“
The win puts six points between Yeovil and the National League Premier Division relegation zone with games in hands over eight of the ten teams below them.
Rowley added: “I’m really mindful to not try and beat the drum of ‘every game’s a cup final’ and ‘we’re down the bottom of the league and we need to do that.’ It’s obvious that we are and we need to get some good results on the table, but I’m also really passionate about us being better with the ball and playing with more courage and personality. I think if you keep banging that drum too hard, players will seize up and you won’t perform your best, so I think it’s a balancing act.
“We’ve still got, like I said, 18 games; we still want to play some good football and get some good results. Hopefully we don’t need to necessarily be talking about that as much as we have done recently. I know we’ve got a few games in hand on other teams in the league, so I’ve not seen the results today—hopefully it’s worked in our favour and we can keep pushing on.”
Next up, Yeovil travel to face sixth-placed Boreham Wood on Wednesday night. They were without a match at the weekend after their visit to Woking was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
After that, league leaders Rochdale, who picked up a 1-0 home win courtesy of a goal from ex-Glovers’ loanee Dan Moss against fellow promotion hopefuls Carlisle United, visit Huish Park next Saturday.
Rowley said: “From what I hear from the lads last time they played against them, they found Boreham Wood to be one of the better teams in the league. I know Luke (Garrard, the Boreham Wood manager) has done an amazing job there. We will be excited to play against them away from home. It’ll be equally as tough as this, but we’ll be going there to win the game.“
The boss also confirmed that midfielder Jonathon Page missed the match at Altrincham with an ankle injury picked up in the 2-1 defeat at Brackley Town last month. He said: “It is not that serious; he’s been running in training this week. He will probably be back on the balls maybe late this week or early next.“
He also revealed full-back Alex Whittle missed out after picking up an ankle injury in training on Friday and said striker Aaron Jarvis was also still suffering with concussion.