James Rowe praises 'best' first-half of his Chesterfield tenure in win against Yeovil Town

James Rowe said Chesterfield’s first-half performance in the 2-0 win at Yeovil Town was the best of his tenure so far.
James Rowe.James Rowe.
James Rowe.

Goals from Manny Oyeleke and Kabongo Tshimanga put the Spireites in a commanding lead at the break.

Victory extends the Blues’ unbeaten run to seven matches to take them top of the National League.

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“We played two different halves of football, it was needed because Gavin Gunning had to come off at half-time and we need to manouevre players around,” Rowe said.

"Credit to the lads for keeping a clean sheet because they (Yeovil) put us under pressure with set-plays.

"I thought the first-half performance was outstanding, probably the best since I have been here in terms of how we got into the final third with variation.

"In the second-half we needed to do something else which was the dirty side, defend the 18-yard box and defend the pressure and we did that really well.

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"Despite the territory Yeovil had in the first 20 minutes of the second-half, as the half went on I felt comfortable.

"We are scoring goals and we are not letting goals in, at the moment. If that continues you don’t go far wrong do you?

"It is credit to the players, three games in seven days, three different types of opponents, we didn’t do what we wanted to do at Dover but we certainly made up for that today.”

The win takes Chesterfield top of the league but Rowe is not getting carried away.

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"I am pleased with the performance levels in terms of five clean sheets in seven,” he explained.

"We want to build on that foundation and all I am interested in is where we are after 44 games.”

Gunning was forced off at half-time with a broken nose, Danny Rowe missed out with illness and Laurence Maguire (ankle) was not risked.

On Gunning, Rowe added: "It was the first throw-in, he broke his nose.

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"I had to drag him off in the end because it was not right that he continued because he was not well at half-time at all.

"He did well to get to half-time because it was a nasty one.

"I was pulling him back from coming back on!

"He will be fine and it was the right decision to bring him off.”