LEE Hooper feels Malvern Town have ‘turned the tide’ after conceding in injury time to draw 1-1 with league leaders Yate Town.
The Hillsiders almost secured a fine victory after Alex Bell put the home side ahead only for Lucas Tomlinson to equalise for Yate five minutes into injury time at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
Malvern are now unbeaten in their last four league matches and co-manager Hooper believes the Hillsiders can take confidence from their recent performances ahead of a tough trip to high-flying Helston Athletic this weekend.
Hooper said: “It’s four unbeaten now, we’ll take that, it doesn’t get any easier, that’s where we’ve got to be at and the level we have to be at.
“It’s devastating to concede at that time in the game, the lads worked so hard and they were superb.
“We set out a gameplan and they pulled it off to a tee until the 95th minute and it wasn’t the gameplan that let us down.
“There was a bit of pressure, the ball has dropped to them on the edge of the box and their player has put one in the top corner from 20-odd yards.
“If that’s what it has taken for them to get an equaliser against us then all you can say is the gameplan worked, I’m just gutted for everyone we didn’t get the three points.
“Everybody played their part, it’s just that goal at the end has taken the wind out of me, it almost feels like a loss which is great if top of the league have come to our place and we’re down in the changing room because we’ve conceded a last-minute goal.
“That shows where we’ve come from a few weeks ago, we’re chuffed, we’ve turned the tide, we’ve got a bit of confidence, we always knew the changing room was good enough.”
Malvern broke the deadlock on 29 minutes when Bell whipped a superb shot into the bottom right corner from the left-hand edge of the penalty area.
However, league leaders Yate eventually drew level with virtually the last kick of the game as Tomlinson curled a first-time shot into the net from 20-yards out.
That came after the Hillsiders beat struggling Shaftesbury 2-0 at home courtesy of a brace from Bell last weekend.
Malvern are next in action against Helston on Saturday, October 26 with kick-off at 3pm at Kellaway Park.
