Yeovil Town manager Gary Johnson was a disappointed man following yesterday's 2-0 reversal at the hands of Leyton Orient. Johnson cited the low number of chances that the Glovers created as being primarily responsible for the visitors' demise.
Johnson explained: "We normally create a lot more opportunities with our work rate and with our quality and we didn't do that today. We let a team shut us down quickly without rising above it. Normally we create a lot more chances but today we created just two or three and didn't take any of them. I can't remember the last time we didn't score a goal, so that's disappointing as well."
"We had a couple of moments before they scored but generally on the day Leyton Orient deserved their result," he added. "They competed well and my boys didn't reach the potential that they have been reaching. At this level, what we do know is that if you don't reach the dizzy heights that you know you can, then you'll lose your chance and you'll get beaten. That's what happened today."
"I just felt we had to create more openings and opportunities and that is what we didn't do on the day," said Johnson. "You make all kinds of decisions in your head for bringing on players, and I decided that I wanted more runners from the midfield. I needed to keep Jacko on, who could have come off for Adam Stansfield, because I needed another big one out there as I didn't want to go three goals down because of a set piece. So I decided to get Paul Terry on and get him and Darren moving further forward, which they did and then Gavin got more into the game, but it was too little too late."
"On the day, Leyton Orient seemed to want it that little bit more, but I can understand that," Gary explained. "They couldn't afford to have us going on to nine points whilst they were still on one point. I'd still say that the league is going to be close. I don't think there's going to be a lot of difference between the top and the bottom, and sometimes it's that little bit of luck in getting the early goal. They got the early goal when it should have been us."
Not everyone in the team was considered to be below Gary's standards and he said of his goalkeeper: "Chris Weale made a couple of great saves and looked very solid. We had one or two we could rely on today, but we have been having ten or eleven we could rely on. Today we only had one or two and Chris Weale was one of those who came out with flying colours."
Johnson admitted that the team passing was not up to it's usual standard explaining: "It wasn't crisp and I just said to the boys that I didn't think we played our game in the first half and in fact we didn't really play our game until late on in the second half when it was a bit too late."
Yeovil take on Northampton Town at Huish Park tomorrow and Johnson said: "We've got to pick ourselves up very quickly, which we will do. We're not used to losing and we don't want to get used to it, so it's all a matter of how we bounce back. We've got six points and Leyton Orient have got four, and so they are still two points behind us. We've got to get three points against Northampton back on our home patch. I don't want to talk about wake-up calls, because I don't think that had anything to do with it. I just think that on the day Leyton Orient were better than us in all departments. But I'd say 'on the day' as the operative phrase."
Gary may have to do without Roy O'Brien tomorrow, after the defender received an elbow in the face during the early part of the game, and Gary was asked if Roy would play in the game: "We don't know yet until he has an x-ray, but he obviously got a whack on the nose. I wouldn't have thought so, but we'll wait and see. He's in discomfort and he's got a headache as well now. I thought Hugo came in and did well."
Finally Gary said that his main ofcus was to get the team fired up for Monday: "We've said a few harsh words in there. Even our captain Terry Skiverton, who wasn't on the field of play, said some home truths along with Steve Thompson and myself. We've hit them straight between the eyes and they've got to come out fighting on Monday."
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24 August 2003 : 
