Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley said he was disappointed with last night’s 2-1 defeat at Southend United, but did not believe his players had disgraced themselves.
It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Glovers when they fell behind to Gus Scott-Moriss’ opener after just four minutes and found themselves second best for the entire first half against their hosts buoyed by reaching the FA Trophy final and still firmly in the play-off picture.
But, a second half revival saw the visitors level through a wonder strike from captain Jake Wannell before a hotly disputed winner from Keenan Appiah-Forson sunk them six minutes from time.
Speaking to BBC Somerset reporter Josh Perkins after the game, Rowley said: “Whenever you lose a game, you don’t walk away happy, so that’s my overall feeling. If I try and compartmentalise the halves, obviously first half we were really bad. It reminded me a little bit of Woking away a couple of weeks ago, but emotionally this place does something different to you than Woking. You’re playing in front of nearly 8,000 people—fantastic support, really, really good team—and I felt like the occasion probably got to us a little bit.
“(At half-time) we just reminded the lads about how clear we wanted to press and get the ball back. Obviously, goals change games and Southend score, and you come out second half and you’ve got nothing to lose then. We started to find a bit more bravery and composure to get on the ball and work on what we work on every day and we looked good. We then score a great goal through Jake—I thought it was a top finish —and then the game state then changes again. They’re back to being on the front foot, high line, more pressure on the ball. They make four changes; all four players are top level, a lot more energy into their press.
“We were just on the tilt at that point. We couldn’t really get out of our half, and you have two choices when you’re under the cosh like that: you can go ultra-brave and try to keep playing, or you can just try to get the ball over the opposition a little bit more and try to get in their half. We kind of did neither. Sometimes we went long, but we weren’t great at getting up the pitch, and then sometimes we tried to play but didn’t drop off quite enough to actually get clear of pressure and stuff.
“We found ourselves in an arena which was, you know, difficult on the night. Good team, good management team, and I thought over the course of 90 minutes they probably deserved the win, but I thought second half we were probably the better team.”
The winner from Appiah-Forson’s back post header sparked fury among Yeovil who argued the ball had not fully crossed the line before it was grabbed by goalkeeper Jed Ward. The decision that it had was given by the assistant rather than referee Abigail Byrne, an truthfully without goal-line technology it was impossible to call.
Rowley said: “I’ve got a friend who was actually behind the goal as a Southend supporter and I just caught up with him and he just said it probably wasn’t a goal either. I haven’t seen it and the angle we’re seeing it from, it was not great, so I can’t really comment on that. This is what almost 8,000 fans do to referees and officials—they influence them. I’m not saying that it wasn’t over the line or it was, I haven’t seen it, but I think as a referee when you’re in front of 8,000 people, it’s probably easier to side with the home team at times.”
The defeat in Essex was the game in hand Yeovil had over many of the teams below them in the National League Premier Division and means they go in to the Easter double header still nine points clear of the relegation zone. They host bottom club Truro City on Good Friday before travelling to another side battling at the wrong end of the table in Eastleigh on Bank Holiday Monday.
Rowley said he is hopeful on loan Cardiff City midfielder Dakari Mafico, who has been missing through injury in recent weeks, would return soon.
He said: “We’ve got another three days to recover, the aren’t slowing up anytime soon. We’ve got tired legs out there, but we’re going to have to go again. I felt like the boys did that tonight, and one thing I can massively praise them all on is their effort and endeavour and aggression. I’m not standing here devastated by the performance; we’ve just lost to a team that should probably be in League Two, if we’re honest. It’s no disgrace to lose here, but we are disappointed to lose.
“Dax will probably be back in another week or so, Troy (Perrett) will be suspended until Monday. We’re going to be pretty light against Truro, but yeah, the boys that are on the pitch look good, they still look hungry. Their tanks are running on empty at the minute, but they’re still finding ways to compete against good teams.
“We’ve been really good at Huish Park; I think I saw a record the other day, we’ve got a good win percentage at home at the moment. The fans have been brilliant there, so hopefully it’s a nice day, we can turn up, we can play our style, we can imprint on what we want to do to the game and get three points.”