Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Yeovil Town midfielder Josh Staunton fronted up to the media after the 3-0 Boxing Day defeat to Torquay United and couldn’t hide his disappointment at the result or performance.
He told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “We weren’t anywhere near our best today, but we were still competing for probably 65 minutes, and then we’re disappointed at the ending, because we’ve been finishing games so strongly, the way we’ve come to the end of the run is really disappointing.
“I think it’s important as a group, we don’t feel like it’s the end of the world, it gives us a chance to start a new run. We’ve got a chance to put it right after New Year’s Day”
When asked about the impact of Sonny Blu Lo-Everton’s red card on 64 minutes with the game still goalless, he said the team could have responded better.
He added: “I think that’s where we have to take a bit more responsibility, remain calm, I think we lost our composure and that’s something which we haven’t done the last two months even when we’ve faced a bit of adversity, we’ve stood up to it, and today we didn’t.
“We let the red card (for Lo-Everton) really affect us, not in terms of numerical advantage, but in terms of mentality on the pitch. It’s something which we can’t allow to happen again.”
Staunton was questioned on what he and the side would take away from the defeat and he was adamant that the team would be stronger for it.
“You learn from every loss and every win, and unfortunately today, we’ve learnt the hard way. It’s a good lesson for us as a group, in terms of – we went behind against Woking but managed to come back – but we just lost our composure and lost our cool and it just goes to show, at this level, you can’t afford to have those days.
“Even for 65 minutes we weren’t at our best, but still competing, and we were in the game. We didn’t agree with things on the pitch and it’s cost us today. It’s important we learn those lessons that not everything is going to go our way, but we remain as a group and stand up and face them head on.”
Attention turned to the reverse fixture with Torquay again in the Glovers’ firing line, this time at Huish Park next Sunday.
“We take every game on it’s merit, but it (playing Torquay again so quickly) adds a bit of fuel to the fire, because, just like when we played Weymouth (in the FA Cup) we’ve got a point to prove.
“It’s disappointing, we haven’t got the game on the 28th to have a quick rebound, so we have got to hang fire for a week, but it gives us chance to right some wrongs in training, work hard and get back to what we have been doing previously.
“The most important thing is that we don’t get too down after today, because over a campaign you have ups and downs and today, we’ve had one of those downs.”