18th July 2016

Town manager Darren Way felt that Bristol City were a great test for his players, despite the narrow defeat to the Robins at Huish Park.

Way’s former Yeovil teammate and Huish Park favourite Lee Johnson played a strong lineup in the friendly, and City had a 2-0 lead at half-time as Aden Flint and Jonathan Kodjia both scored headers.

Yeovil improved after the break and despite only pulling one goal back through Tom Eaves’ acrobatic volley ten minutes into the second half, Way felt it was a good way to examine his team’s defensive qualities.

The Glovers boss explained “It’s always interesting when you put your wits against a championship side, so it was a good test for the players and they showed a will to fight.

“We knew they’d spend large periods without the ball, and they had to defend a large amount of corners in the first 25 minutes, but it’s something that we expected.

“Lees got them well drilled, he’s come down and tactically matched us up which was different to last season, so it was a tough but good test.

“We put them under real pressure towards the end, so overall I’m really pleased, it gives us areas to work on.”

Way explained that his only real disappointment from the game against a team two divisions above in the Football League pyramid was that his team gave the ball away too often.

“If there was a disappointment it was the turnover, the players work so hard to win the ball back, but because of fitness or other reasons the turnover was too high.

“There’s a lot to work on in training. The game was good, both teams going up against each other in the last few minutes even, so we can be proud of that display.”

One absentee was Francois Zoko, and the Town manager admitted that he is treating him lightly because of a slight injury concern.

“Francois’ a little tight in the hip flexor area,” explained Way, “So it’s important I don’t push him too much like all of the players. Saying that, he’s the only one who missing at the moment, we knew Darren Ward would be out for some time and that was expected from last year.

“With the demands of preseason, it’s not nice for him but everyone else is firing on all cylinders so everyday we improve.”