Yeovil Town captain Jake Wannell revealed the team were given a half-time “rocket” by manager Billy Rowley to spark a second half revival at Southend United last night.
The Glovers were second best in every department during the opening 45 minutes in Essex, but rallied after the break and pulled level when Wannell stroked home a Goal of the Season contender just after the hour.
It proved to be in vain as a winner from the hosts’ Keenan Appiah-Forson saw the visitors return to Somerset empty handed,
Wannell told BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins: “They came out the traps and their fans got onside, it’s a tough place to come, but I don’t think enough of us stood up tonight. I feel like half the team did and half the team didn’t and you can’t come to Roots’ Hall and not have everyone pulling in the right direction. Billy gave us a rocket at half-time and we got hold of the ball and I thought we dealt with it quite well.”
The central defender drew the game level on 64 minutes when he bent a superb strike in to the Southend net, but the captain was not keen to revel in the glory after a defeat.
Asked about it, he said: “Yeah, it was a great finish, but it means nothing, though, does it? We’re home with no points. I would have rather swapped the goal for a point or three.”
Wannell picked up a booking for protesting against that the game’s 84th minute winner from Keenan Appiah-Forson did not cross the line, but admitted no-one could be completely sure.
He added: “From my angle, it didn’t look like it was in. Jed (Ward, the Yeovil keeper) said it wasn’t in, but we’re obviously going to say that. I would need to watch it back because everything happens so fast, so we will dissect it, and try to address it for Friday.
“You probably need a little bit of luck as well and unfortunately that wasn’t on our side tonight. I feel like we need to deal with those moments better, especially in the first half. You could see that they were flying and I don’t feel like we dealt with it very well.”