6th October 2019

Yeovil’s winning streak came to an end at the hands of Hartlepool United at Victoria Park on Saturday.

After Rhys Murphy had cancelled out Gime Toure’s strike in stoppage time, Jason Kennedy netted just one minute later to secure three points for the Pools.

Following a disappointing afternoon in the North-East, Sarll told YTTV“I thought we lacked real purpose in everything we did. There was no real intent.”

“I thought we got into lots and lots of positions in both boxes, where we had maybe one more stage or phase of the play to go, such as going past someone, getting around someone, finding one more pass or something like that to finish.”

“We had lots of three-v-threes, four-v-fours and those types of moments. We never ever did enough, nowhere near enough in the conviction of those scenarios and incidents.”

“I thought it was the same at the other end. There were too many last gasp moments for us defensively, and too many moments where Luke Wilkinson probably made a brilliant block, or Lee Collins timed a really good interception, or Charlie Lee or whoever.”

“Then on the flip side of that, Murphy probably should have had a penalty, Luke Wilkinson at the back post headed it over, rather than down and in like he’s been doing for countless weeks. Gold Omotayo heads it in from six yards in the first half.”

“There were so many of those ifs, buts and maybes, where sometimes you look at it and you think if we played until next October would we still score playing this way?” 

Defeat means the Glovers hot streak of seven wins comes to an end, but Sarll had been warning green and white fans that a performance like this was inevitable.

“I think there was always going to be an afternoon where our standards weren’t good enough, and the opposition standards were a lot higher – and that would see us lose.”

“It was still a very very close game; let’s be honest. It’s not been a whitewash in any shape or form.”

“Whilst their performance levels were probably higher than they’ve been this year, our performance was lower than what we’ve come to expect.”

“I think when you get the two variables one is that low and one is that high – that is obviously when you lose games.”

 “I thought at 1-1, we’d applied enough pressure in the second half to at least have a go at it. We then got to that 1-1, but then it was absolutely scandalous to let that second goal go in, with minutes left.”