Yeovil Town manager Darren Sarll admitted he was nervous about putting out a reconfigured defence in the 2-0 win at big-spending Wrexham on Tuesday night.
The Glovers’ boss took out club captain Luke Wilkinson due to illness and replaced him with stand-in skipper Josh Staunton and brought centre half Morgan Williams for only his second league start – at left-back!
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Speaking with BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the match in North Wales, he said the addition of Williams in place of Jordan Barnett, who played further forward, was to deal with the dangerous long throws of former Glovers midfielder Ben Tozer.
Sarll said: “I was a little worried about how it would look playing Jordan in midfield and and a centre half at left back (in Williams).
“I thought can that be explained and maybe excused if it doesn’t go right?
“I thought with the ball coming (from Tozer’s long throws) to the back post, Morgan would deal with it better than Jordan, but I thought Jordan would collect the ball far higher up the pitch
“And I didn’t want two young ones at the back, I wanted Staunton’s voice, and we got away without playing Wilkinson.
“I said to Terry (Skiverton, assistant manager) ‘we got away with that one’ and he said ‘we haven’t got away with anything, we’ve been very good’ and he was quite right.”
Of Wilkinson, the boss added: “He was a little bit poorly and under the weather last night and normally when these things happen with Luke, that is when he normally breaks and I didn’t want to do that with such an important game coming up on Saturday.
The other change saw Sonny Blu Lo-Everton come in as part of the visitors’ front three in place on Tom Knowles, who dropped out having been dazed by being slammed to the floor by Dover’s Danny Collinge in a 1-1 draw at the weekend.
The Watford loanee got the second with seven minutes to go and was praised by his manager.
He said: “(Sonny) only came out of the side because he got his injury (in the 2-0 defeat) at Grimsby and then we’ve gone on this run, so he’s had to wait which is what you have to do as a young footballer.
“He has great character, very low maintenance and he has good quality, my only criticism of him at the moment would have been his return with goals.
“But, in that moment, he’s got the slowest brain on the pitch – I don’t mean ‘thick’, I mean calmness and composure – and that is why he looks so graceful and balanced all the time.
“He took it very well, but we had two misses before that so it was good technique from Sonny.”
The win moves Yeovil up to tenth in the National League table, two points off the play-off places and 14 away from the relegation zone, and means they have taken 17 points from the last possible 21.
Sarll again praised the character of his side saying: “October was not a particularly great month for us, but (these players) are great.
“They know what we are doing with them, we know their characters and the uniqueness of the team is that they are willing to sacrifice for everyone and the management team are willing to sacrifice for them.
“When you get that nice dynamic, it can be a powerful tool to use, but we are what we are and we’ve got what we’ve got (in terms of players) and they are all performing at their optimum and they should be very proud of themselves.
“There’s no quality better than being a trier and they are certainly doing that.”