Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley said his side would learn from the experience of losing their unbeaten start to the new season after surrendering a two-goal lead to go down to a 3-2 defeat at Southend United.
The Glovers were leading 2-0 at Root’s Hall with an hour on the clock courtesy of a first-half strike from Archie Davies and then a quick break which led to captain Luke McCormick grabbing his sixth of the season.
But, when hosts’ midfielder Darren Oldaker fired home a stunning free-kick to reduce the deficit, Southend turned the screw and late goals from Leon Chambers-Parillon and substitute Promise Omochere sealed Yeovil’s fate.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman after the game, Rowley said: “It is heart-breaking, we did the same to Barrow the other week and this is the league we are in. All these teams have some top players, you only have to look at the free-kick (from Oldaker), not many players in this league are scoring that and their winner (comes from a player who has joined from) the Football League.
“If we zoom out on this game, we were hopeful today of getting a good result and that would’ve looked like us scraping a win maybe, or getting a good draw. In the context of the game you’re 2-0 up and you always expect to get at least a point at that moment – but it wasn’t our day today.
“I just have said to the boys inside, we’re off the back of a really good start to the season, the group’s been really good and I think it’s important that we all stick together in the changing room. We understand one loss isn’t the end of the world. It’s a good chance for us to learn, to review, to improve, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
“We’ve got a very young group, some of the boys are not used to playing in this type of environment, even small things like trying to get information onto players to press certain players is really difficult, so you’ve got to rely on some of the senior lads, who are absolutely knackered. So there is loads to learn, loads to improve on, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
The boss admitted his side were fortunate to find themselves 2-0 ahead with an hour gone, but admitted that his side could have done better defensively against a Southend side playing with their tails up after Oldaker pulled a goal back with 24 minutes remaining.
Rowley said: “The first goal was a bit of a rash tackle from Jordan (Norville-Williams), who I thought was excellent today. I’ll have to watch back the foul, but maybe he doesn’t need to make it. Oldaker has got a tremendous right foot, one of the best in the league. He’ll do that multiple times this season.
“I think the second goal (from Chambers-Parillon) was poor from us. We managed to regain the ball up high and we just didn’t keep it. We tried to dribble into pressure, turned it over and then they went down the other end and scored.
“For the third goal, we jump out on the press and (defender Joe Gubbins is) left one-on-one in the box. Again, I’ll have to watch that one back, but the lad that scored is an incredible athlete and he’s taken his goal well.
“We probably didn’t deserve to win the game today and a draw would have been fortunate for us. Southend were the better team today for me. They probably deserved to win the game.”
The game was the Glovers’ third in eight days having played two games in three days over the Bank Holiday weekend and on loan defender Ben Radcliffe was missing with a hamstring injury. Rowley admitted he had to take influential midfielders McCormick and Brett McGavin off in the second half at Southend and the changes cost them.
He said: “We had bad news this morning when we woke up at the hotel, (Radcliffe) ruled himself out. He’s had a bit of a niggle all week and didn’t want to risk anything, so he had to drop out of the squad.
“Brett McGavin was actually throwing up during the warm-up and just before he came out to warm up. He’s just told me inside that he’s thrown up five times since we took him off, so he’s obviously got food poisoning. Brett was really good with the ball, but I could tell he lacked energy because of that.
“Then we had to make changes because of bringing Brett off and (McCormick’s) calf has blown up as well, he said he was getting cramp. So all the changes were enforced really.”
The defeat means Yeovil have 11 points from their opening six matches and now have a week to recover before AFC Fylde are the visitors to Huish Park next weekend.
Rowley concluded: “I think two months ago in pre-season, if you’d told me this and shown me the start we’ve had I probably would’ve taken it. Naturally, as probably every single supporter who’s travelled today and anyone associated with the club will be, you’re still disappointed to lose. I hate losing. But what it does is make me hungry to not lose as often, and that’s the message to the boys. We’re going to have to turn up (to training on) Monday, review, recover and keep getting better.“