Delighted Gowens heaps praise on his players

Manager Andy Gowens felt that one of the key factors in Saturday’s comfortable 4-0 victory over Penrith was the confidence gained from scoring an early goal. He also felt that changes to the side had proved successful. “I think it could have been a lot more, first half particularly we did really well. We played some good stuff; it was just the final ball in the first half that let us down a little bit. We could have had more. There were a couple of half chances, but all in all it was good. We changed the shape a bit and freshened it up with a few different faces in. It worked, we did really well, kept the ball well, better than what we had been doing. I couldn’t be more pleased really. A bit like in the Guisborough game last week, once we scored we looked a different side. As I said last week, I think we’ve just been lacking a bit of confidence over the last few weeks. It showed today once we scored and went on to score another one we were full of it. We went to a different shape and different personnel and they did well, Ramma (Stephen Ramsey) did really well. All the lads who came in did well and the substitutes did really well when they came on. Obviously Andrei with the two goals and Tags (Dan Taggart) had one disallowed! Altogether I’m really pleased for the lads.”
Bottom of the table Penrith have been improving in recent weeks and prolific striker Martyn Coleman has returned to boost their prospects of climbing the table so a tougher game might have been anticipated. As part of his preparations for the game Andy had been checking up on Penrith’s recent form.
“I spoke to the West Auckland manager in midweek and he said they’d been given a really good game at Penrith last Saturday. I was pleased to see their main man Martyn Coleman was missing today…but it’s all about us really and about beating what’s in front of us and I think we did really well. I thought they had a decent spell in the first half when they tried to have a little go. While it was at 2-0 they were not really threatening but were still there or thereabouts. But the third finished them off. I’m really pleased for the lads ,they’re a great group and I couldn’t ask any more from them.”
He was impressed with the attendance of 413, possibly boosted by the International break at Premier League level. “I couldn’t believe the size of the crowd, it was fantastic! It’s great to see the young kids here as well, some of the youngest of our teams Under 6’s or 7’s I think; they were fantastic before the game! It makes the day for them when we win; it’s a great weekend for them!”