22nd September 2019

The green and whites picked up maximum points on the road at Solihull despite finishing with 10-men and match winner Luke Wilkinson in goal after Liam O’Brien suffered an injury.

Battling to protect their one-goal lead, the Glovers did just that to secure a fifth straight win for the first time since February 2013.

After seeing off a resolute Moors outfit, Sarll was full of praise for his side. Speaking to YTTV he said:

“They (Solihull) really try for Tim (Flowers) and Gary (Whild), they want to tackle, and they’re committed. You can see in the exchanges, physical and verbal, it’s clear how much they wanted to win.

“If I’m talking about a club in transition, the foundation of that organisation is the quality of people we have. There are some really good lads in that changing room, and this is the first time in my career that I know win or lose, they’re going to try.

“They’ve done fabulously well in recent weeks and to go five wins on the bounce is really strong stuff.”

The victory looked in jeopardy when O’Brien limped off with no replacement goalkeeper available, forcing Wilkinson to play the 10 minutes of stoppage time between the sticks. 

However, having done it before, Sarll was not surprised to see his defender don the gloves.

“Charlie (Lee) and Luke (Wilkinson) have a fight over this goalkeeping role, as everyone knows we’ve been a little bit unfortunate with goalkeepers in terms of their availability.

“I thought Liam O’Brien played really well today despite being poorly. It was touch and go to whether he’d play in the first place.

“Luke and Charlie actually like going in goal, I had the same problem at Stevenage and they actually enjoy and relish the hurrah around it.

“I’ve known Wilkinson for a few years now, from when he was 26 years old to now, he’s a completely different beast.

“I think every player has a club, and with him being a Somerset boy, I think Yeovil is his club and he’s playing fantastically well for it.”