Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said his patched up side are running on empty despite picking up a last gasp winner against Truro.
Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset’s Jack Killah after the game, he said;
“I guess the game was another game of two halves for us and look, credit to Truro, they came here and and were decent in the first half, really aggressive. They’ve obviously had a week off to prepare and rest. We played in Southend away on Tuesday, got in at 2 a.m. and look, when you stand here as a manager and you reel off reasons or excuses, you know, you obviously open up the firing line to get hammered but I’ve got nothing but praise for our lads.
We played poorly, we know that, but the boys are completely on empty at the minute. We’ve been travelling round the country for the past few weeks, like some other teams have, but we’ve got a really, really thin squad at the minute.
We had two boys today that were even ill in the starting lineup. They’re shattered, they’re fatigued and it was not a beautiful game today. I thought second half we were we were decent enough, credit to Daz (Simpson), like, sorted out some of the out-of-possession stuff and made the game a little bit easier for the boys to get the ball back. And we obviously smoothed out the game a little bit in the second half, we looked a little bit better with it, and credit to Will Merry who’s sent the fans home really happy. But it was a poor game, it was a poor performance, but it was a great result and something that I really want to praise the boys on in their last few weeks of work.
Goal scorer Will Merry has impressed in his time on loan from Southampton, he was the sponsors Man of the Match and grabbed the winner.
“He’s a bit of a beast, Will. He’s only just turned 20, I think. He glides with the ball, doesn’t he? He’s really exciting to watch. He takes the ball in tight spaces. I think he’s trained with us once since he’s come in. He’s another one we haven’t really had a chance to actually practice what we do and why we do it. He’s just been thrown out there and said like, “Good luck mate,” and he’s delivered in in the games that he’s played. And what a goal to announce his first game at Huish!
I heard on the announcer gave him man-of-the-match in the 80th minute and 10 minutes later he dribbles round two and and slots it home. So it was well-deserved.”
Both Jake Wannell and Aaron Jarvis limped off during the game, leaving the side threadbare for Monday’s trip to Eastleigh.
”I think Jake pulled up injured after about 10 minutes, so credit for him for trying to do his best he could to stay on. Jarvis went to to close down a defender and and felt a pull in his calf and gave it as good as he could for 10 minutes and had to come off.
I want to sort of double down on what I’ve said with the boys: they are absolutely shattered. There is no room to change and rotate and rest players at all. They’re just having to go week in week out, or every few days they’re having to play 90 minutes. I’ve been one of these people before, you sit on your sofa at home and you say, “Oh well, you know, they’re footballers, they get paid to do it.” I, you know, I’d urge anyone to go and try and play 90 minutes and cover 13, 12K every three days. It is really hard. Really hard. And full credit to the boys for getting through it.
We’ll have to catch up with with Joe and the medical staff tomorrow, see how they’re feeling. I’m hoping Wannell might be slightly better than Jarvis from first take, but yeah, we’ll have to see in the next 24 hours.”
The win took the Glovers to 50 points, 12 points above the drop zone (and only seven off the top 10) with four games to go.
“I think we’re 13th. I know it’s really tight in this league, but we’re sitting in 13th position and I think it’s an enormous credit to the boys to deliver that. You know, we put a lot of pressure on them in the last few weeks to do that. We obviously play for a big club, [the] support is unbelievable. The crowd today was so good. I was a little bit, not frustrated, but I was disappointed that we couldn’t deliver a better performance for the supporters today because it was a nice day, the pitch was good, the crowd was great, singing the whole time and, we probably played not great, but again, I cannot praise the boys enough for their efforts and what they’ve put into the game.”