Football: Cousins demands more after Yate victory (From Gazette Series)

Southern League Division One South & West: Abingdon United 1 Yate Town 2

5:07pm Wednesday 13th March 2013 in Sport By Rob Iles

MANAGER Rob Cousins has warned his Yate Town players they will need to improve to secure a play-off berth, despite strengthening their grip on fifth place with victory at Abingdon.

Scott Wilson’s 64th minute goal gave Yate their third 2-1 win in a row and moved them six points clear of sixth-placed Paulton Rovers as they capitalised on their game in hand.

However, Cousins knows his side are capable of playing better and insists there is still a lot of work to be done.

He said: “It was another below-par performance but the important thing at this time is to pick up three points.

“We’re not playing as well as we can do and we’re riding our luck a bit.

“I can’t fault the work-rate, but we’ve got to keep our focus and get back on track.

“We’ve got a great opportunity and we need to grasp that. There’s a lot of hard work still to be done.

“In our last 11 games if we can pick up 20 points we’ve got a chance, but until we’ve got to that mark we’ll take it one game at a time and try to put pressure on the teams below us.

“If we get too confident we could take our foot off the pedal and slip up.

“We’ve set ourselves such high standards and we’re dipping below that.”

Mike Bryant scored his third goal in as many games to give Yate the lead on 16 minutes, but there was a huge slice of luck in it as an attempted clearance deflected off his heel on the edge of the box and flew into the net.

Abingdon equalised through Gareth Thomas on 58 minutes, but Bryant thought he put Yate back in front with a header from a corner soon after, only for his effort to be ruled out for a foul.

However, lady luck was smiling on Yate again when the Abingdon goalkeeper missed the ball as he attempted to clear a back-pass and Wilson was on hand to put the ball into the empty net.