Yeovil Town captain Luke McCormick has urged the Glovers to keep their composure after an unbeaten start to the season ended in dramatic fashion with a 3-2 defeat at Southend United on Saturday.
Yeovil appeared to be in control after McCormick scored shortly before the hour mark to make it 2-0. But Southend struck three times in 19 second-half minutes to complete a comeback and leave the visitors empty-handed.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman after the match, McCormick acknowledged the disappointment but said the team would review what went wrong rather than allow the result to define its early campaign.
“Obviously we’re devastated with the result, being 2-0 up here and then ending up losing the game. I think the goals are avoidable, but how we deal with it, we’ll review it. We won’t get too high or too low, and we’ll go again.”
How Southend turned the game around
Yeovil’s second goal came after a swift counter-attack in the 58th minute. Eight minutes later, Southend were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the area, with midfielder Darren Oldaker producing what McCormick described as a stunning finish.
The home side then drew level 13 minutes later through forward Leon Chambers-Parillon. With five minutes remaining, substitute Promise Omochere, a striker on loan from Bristol Rovers, shrugged off a challenge before firing in the winning goal.
McCormick said Southend’s response was helped by the atmosphere at Roots Hall after the home team had been booed off at half-time.
“The free-kick was the free-kick and then their fans get right behind them. They got booed off at half-time and then, when they flip the switch and start getting behind the boys, obviously it’s a really tough environment to play in and you saw it at 3-2.”
Captain sees positives despite defeat
The Yeovil captain felt his side had deserved to lead at the interval, pointing to its chances and presence in the penalty area. He also believed the match showed the Glovers are capable of competing near the top of the division, while warning against getting carried away.
“This is probably one of the toughest places to come in the division and I thought we deserved to be 1-0 up at half-time in terms of the chances and the box entries that we had. Then we’ve obviously gone 2-0 up and whilst I think the free-kick is a brilliant finish, the other two goals were avoidable.”
McCormick said the defeat felt particularly painful because Yeovil had held a two-goal advantage. However, he added that football can turn on small moments and that the players would return to their preparation without blaming one another.
“Obviously, being 2-0 up makes it feel a lot worse, but it’s three points. I think if we were to play them again, on another day we could’ve come away with three points. It’s all about moments in football and they had more moments than we did, so we go back to the drawing board and we go again.”