Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley said it was “tough to watch” his side fail to put their mark on the game as they went down 2-0 at home to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday night.
The Glovers went down to a first half strike from visitors’ striker Temi Babalola and then goalkeeper Jed Ward scored an unfortunate own goal with an hour gone to hand three points to the visitors, who were reduced to ten men when Harvey Bunker got a second yellow card on 65 minutes.
But, despite playing 25 minutes with a one-man advantage, Yeovil never threatened to reduce the deficit and Rowley admitted their attacking play needs work.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah after the evening kick-off, he said: “It was a tough watch for a lot of it. I was obviously respectful of Forest Green coming in to the game and we focused on us trying to imprint our style on to the game, but I didn’t think we did that. I thought we were poor on the ball, I don’t think we were brave enough in certain moments.
“We value Aaron Jarvis a lot here, he’s tremendous in the air and I think at certain moments it is really important that we do use that strength, but I think at times we over-use that and there are too many bodies around him and it becomes a bit predictable and easy to defend against. Aaron gets three men against him and he battles and gives away fouls and it kills momentum, it kills the rhythm of the game. That is something we are going to have to learn so we use that at certain times. It was a tough game tonight but one I felt we should have played better in.”
The defeat ended a run of three wins for Rowley since taking over at Huish Park and he identified the lack of attacking threat carried by his side as a weakness – but insists that the answer does not lie in the transfer market.
He said: “I don’t think we can ever doubt the passion and desire of this group of players, they wear their heart on their sleeve and they give everything and you can see that. It is now Darren (Simpson, assistant manager) and my job to try and provide them with the training, ideas and clarity to help them score more goals because that is obviously something we are lacking.
“It would be obvious for people to say ‘sign a centre forward’ but I do not think that is the problem, I think we need to create better chances and use the ball better in certain moments and understand what we are trying to do. I think that is just a bit muddy at the moment, I am not sure we have a lot of clarity in the final third or the opposition’s half and that is something we are going to have to work hard on.”
The Glovers travel to bottom club Truro City on Boxing Day followed by a home match with Eastleigh four days later and then a visit from Braintree Town on 3rd January.
Rowley said he would not allow the defeat to trouble him too much over the festive period, and focus on the upcoming opportunities to pick up points.
He said: “I am not someone who gets too down when we lose or massively up when we win. I have always said ‘when you lose you end up learning a lot about people’ and about styles of play we want to work on, so it gives me a lot of fuel about what this team needs and what we need to work on in training. We will take this one on the chin, we have a busy period coming up and we need to prepare for that, so we are not going to be too down about this result. (Forest Green) are a team which are second in the league, and 20 points ahead of us in the league so it was always going to be a tough test, but I am just disappointed we did not show our qualities.“