Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley said the club deserved the vital 3-2 home win over Morecambe after a difficult few weeks which left them staring the National League relegation places in the face.
Goals from midfielders Brett McGavin, James Daly and Ryan Jones saw them pick up three points which leaves them seven points adrift of the dreaded dotted line on Saturday night with almost all of the teams around them failing to pick up wins.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the game, the manager said: “I am really supporters, really happy for the lads, everybody associated with the club in terms of staff. It’s nice to turn up today on a beautiful sunny day when the pitch is looking good and deliver a win. Everybody can enjoy this win and we can just breathe a little bit and move onto the next one.
“It’s just nice, it’s relief to get a win. I just said to the boys inside we’ve been through some tough weeks, we’ve had some really hard fixtures, playing midweek, playing weekend, non-stop, hard training, small squad, all that stuff and some of our performances, not all of them, some of them have been decent and we probably haven’t got the rewards we’ve earned.
“I feel like today we weren’t perfect, but we were good enough with the ball and we were good enough without the ball to deserve the win, so I was happy with that.”
McGavin gave the Glovers the lead after just ten minutes when his long range effort took a fortunate deflection off the post and visiting keeper Jamal Blackman on its way in to the net in front of the Thatcher’s Stand, before Gwion Edwards rifled the visitors level ten minutes before half-time.
Two stunning strikes from Daly and Jones gave a Yeovil side which has struggled in front of goal this season a two-goal advantage shortly after the hour mark before a late Jack Nolan penalty for the visitors set up a nervy finish.
Rowley was full of praise for all three goal-scorers, saying: “Brett’s was obviously a tiny bit of luck, but he’s an unbelievable striker of the ball. He might be one of the best ball strikers I’ve ever seen with both feet and when he’s lining up to shoot from there like I never really doubt it, but it’s obviously hit the post and come off the keeper’s back I think, so bit of fortune there, but we need that in these positions.
“Jonesy does what he does, he’s a little wizard. I think aiming for the near post, it’s always a risk doing that, but he’s snuck it in and his ball striking again is really good. Then JD’s like the Swiss Army Knife of Yeovil, he’s does every job, can play on the left, right, midfield, striker, at the back, like does everything, just a great athlete, top lad and I’m really happy for him. He just shows at the end what it means to him, slide tackling the goalie.”
There was also praise for young midfielder Delano McCoy-Splatt, who signed on loan from AFC Wimbledon in the week, and appeared as a substitute at the start of the second half and impressed. The 21-year-old, who has been under the guidance of former Yeovil legend Terry Skiverton at the South London club, and was instrumental in the goals for Daly and Jones.
Rowley said: “I think we’re very lucky and fortunate to get Delano. He’s had a few injuries this season that have kept him out of the Wimbledon team, but all of my friends that have worked with him (in the academy at) Fulham and all the staff at Wimbledon are convinced he should be playing for (Wimbledon) really. We’re very lucky to have received a Football League player on loan really for nine games and he makes football look easy. He’s physically so good, he can hold people off and then he’s actually got skill and tricks to like get facing forward and put people in on goal.”
The performance was a complete turnaround from the 1-0 defeat at Woking on Tuesday night when Rowley was left fuming after seeing his side fail to show up for the opening 45 minutes. He was pleased with the performance of his side in both halves against a Morecambe side which had lost just once in their previous six matches – and that was a last minute winner at home to high-flying York City.
Rowley said: “If you play one half a seven and the other half a four it doesn’t always end in your favour. Irwas really good and that was the message today, win the half,we drew it, win the second half, we won it, so we’ll keep with that message and try and strip it back and make things easier for the lads. I felt tactically we were good today, the pitch helped, I thought we made some decent enough passes and, and we had good ideas of how we were going to hurt them and we did enough to win.”
Next up Yeovil travel to Wealdstone who lost 2-0 at Forest Green Rovers on Saturday on Wednesday night, three days before their FA Trophy semi-final date with Marine next Saturday.
Asked about his next opponents, Rowley added: “I’ve seen a fair bit of them, they’ve got some really good athletes, some exceptional one-v-one players, a lot of talent in their team, like all teams at this level. They’re still doing well in the Trophy. so they’re doing well, they’ve had a change in manager, and their form’s on the up, so they have got some talent, got some ability. We’ll start reviewing them in the next 24 hours and go there and and try and get more points on the board.“