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With United opening 2022 up with a trip to Somerset, boss Gary Johnson reflects on his side’s opening festive encounters, before looking ahead to the forthcoming return match against Yeovil Town.

“I thought we played very well for one and a half games,” said Johnson.

“We had quite a few chances against Eastleigh in the first half. The boys looked strong and sharp still, leading on from the Yeovil game that was only two days earlier. But, it has to be said that we faded towards the end, and Eastleigh still had their legs towards the end, and unfortunately we couldn’t hold out, due to a couple of mistakes. One by the ref, because we don’t feel that was a penalty, nor does Asa, who was out there – the lad clattered into him. Obviously Shaun’s done very well over the last few weeks in games, but unfortunately let the ball hit him in the face and go through his hands.

“I think I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if a referee or a goalkeeper makes a mistake, it typically turns into a goal, so of course as happy as we were with the Yeovil result, of course we were as disappointed with the Eastleigh result. However, if we win three and lose one for the rest of the season, we’ll definitely be right up there, and that’s been our last four games.”

One member of the Torquay squad who has been in superb form recently is ever-present defender Dean Moxey, whose run of games recently saw the former Exeter City man chalk up his 600th career appearance.

“He’s a quality footballer, you always want him on the pitch, and you have to adjust things to make sure he’s on the pitch. Dan Martin has played very well at left back the last few games, and to be fair, Moxey played very well as a centre-half against Yeovil, and other games as well obviously, when we played three at the back.

“I think it suits him, because his days of bombing up-and-down as a wing-back for 90 minutes is not long-gone, but he has to refrain from doing that much up-and-down that wing. We need him on the pitch for his quality, and his leadership. He leads by example, and of course he’s got that experience, and credit to him, because that’s a lot of games to have for any footballer.”

A return to Huish Park sees Johnson return to the scene of many of his previous successes, having won no less than three promotions during his time at the helm at Yeovil. After losing out at Plainmoor, Darren Sarll’s side will once again be looking to avenge a Boxing Day defeat, as they did last term.

“It’s not anything we don’t know, and even last year we were ready for it, but didn’t cope with it. We’ll see whether we’ve learned from it, and see whether we can go from a win to a loss. At least we’ve more time to recover than we had at Eastleigh, with Eastleigh having a week off, and not playing before we played them.

“Now we go to Yeovil, and Yeovil haven’t had a game when we play them, but we definitely are more ready for this one to last for 90 minutes, because we’ve had longer to recover.”

The Gaffer also took a moment to pay tribute to the sterling efforts of the travelling Yellow Army, who showed up in the numbers in Hampshire, and are expected to do so again in Somerset on Sunday.

“Once again it was fantastic support at Eastleigh, and we appreciate them coming down to support us again for the Yeovil game.”