Slimbridge Manager Tom Speers was in a relaxed and positive mood as he looked back on his sides weekend 3-2 victory over Lymington Town, the team’s fourth win in their last five League games, which has propelled them away from any thoughts of the relegation danger zone, and into a secure mid table position.

However, in atrocious conditions, Slimbridge were made to work hard for the victory, and went in behind 2-1 at the break. Speers explained what happened in the dressing room at Half Time to provoke the second half comeback. 

‘It was very much a game of two halves – first half, I thought we were quite poor, we weren’t getting to second, or even third balls and Lymington were working harder than us – the wind was certainly a factor, but I don’t think that that can be used – we were nowhere near our best. 

I could have gone in raging and shouting at half time, but I actually was quite calm with the lads – I told them ‘This isn’t us – how disappointed are you going to be at the end of ninety minutes if you come away with noting from this game?’ 

I hate losing, but at the same time I can accept losing if you’ve played well, put your heart on your sleeves and worked hard – and we didn’t do that in the first half, we were non-existent from the team that has played the last six or seven games. 

But it was a great turnaround in the second half – Lymington hardly got out of their own half, even though they could have won it with that shot at the end that hit the post, but we completely dominated – and it’s nice that we’ve got that, at the beginning of the season, we didn’t have it. 

If we were losing at half time, we always lost. But it’s nice now that we’ve got that ability to say ‘We’re better than this, let’s show them, and so it proved yesterday.’

Sometimes you need to use the ‘Fergie Hairdryer’ treatment - yes it can work, but letting them know how disappointed they’d been and how disappointed they should be themselves also can create that confidence from within - that drive to prove people wrong – ‘You know what? We are better than this!’, and you’ve got to reserve that hairdryer treatment, if you use it all the time, it doesn’t become effective, so you have to try different ways to motivate – I just went in there quite calm, and said “I’m disappointed, are you not disappointed in yourselves?’ 

As always, there was more chat from the players than from me, and I want that chat both ways – I don’t want it just to be me…..Me and Deaks (Assistant Manager Tom Deakin) spoke as were going in, and I said ‘Is it the hairdryer treatment or the confidence one?’ and Deaks was ‘No, I think it’s more the confidence one’.

That’s why it’s so good to have a really good set of staff – we all talk, myself, Coyley (Coach Adam Coyle) and Deaks – we all talk as we are going in – how shall we approach this? Where do we want to talk about, how do we do it?

So it’s not just my decision, it’s a team coaching decision, and it worked because the boys wanted to show what they were all about, and they did that second half.’

The goal that brought the Swans back into the game with 15 minutes left on the clock was scored by Ethan Dunbar, who proved problematic for the Lymington back line all game, and was rewarded with a Man of the Match award from the watching Swans faithful at the final whistle. Dunbar is currently playing for Longlevens in the Hellenic Premier League, having come up through the ranks of the Slimbridge Under 18’s set up, and made the most of his opportunity to play Southern League football. 

‘Ethan was fortunate because they (Longlevens) didn’t have a game, and with Marley (Thomas) being injured, we got him in, we’ve been watching Ethan all season – for me, he’s a Swan – I know he went and signed with Longlevens, but at the start of the season we talked to him about going out and getting more experience, and you can see that Longlevens have given him that and it’s fantastic.  

You can see how much he’s developed by playing ninety minutes week in, week out, he’s come on in leaps and bounds. Which is exactly what we wanted him to do. Fingers crossed, next season we can have a chat with him, but that’s next season….’

The winning goal, in the fourth minute of stoppage time came from Raiyan Ahmed, another player who has risen through the ranks via the Under 18’s and Speers was effusive in his praise for Rai.

‘Rai’s attitude has been second to none – we’ve had players come in, been dropped, got moody and moved on, but he’s been on the bench and not used I think seven times in the last couple of months, and he’s not said a word – he’s celebrated every victory, every goal, and I looked at him and thought ‘You know what? He’s got a goal, he’s got ability!’ 

At training he’s so good at times, and he understands that he’s young and he’s learning and he has to be patient. And you don’t get that with kids nowadays. 

I loved the fact that he scored the winner – if there was one person on the pitch I wanted to do it, it was him, and hopefully now, that’ll push him on, and we can get more minutes into him and that confidence will grow, he’ll start to learn and develop, and that’s great for the club.’

With a GFA Senior Cup Semi Final against Cirencester Town to come on Wednesday at Thornhill Park (7.45pm), and a home league fixture on Saturday against Paulton Rovers (3.00pm), Speers explained how he was trying to manage team selection for the two games to come. 

‘I’m in a semi-final, and I’m all about winning trophies – I want to win this, of course! The squad is quite thin and bare, so we may have to jiggle around some players. It’s going to be difficult, but there’s no point in getting to a semi-final and then thinking it means nothing – I want to win! It’s all about trophies at the end of the day, and if you want to build a winning environment, then you’ve got to win trophies first to do that. 

It’ll be difficult, we know that – obviously we beat Cirencester last week, and they just got a win against Barnstaple yesterday – they are going to be well up for it. I think they’re going to come with a strong side, stronger than I would have expected if they’d have beaten us last week. Me and Broughie (Cirencester Manager John Brough) are the same – he wants to win, so we’re under no illusions.

But all these wins have put us in the position where we don’t have to chase points as much anymore. Let’s go for a cup win, and let’s go for a win on Saturday. We’re up against Paulton who, again, are one of the teams that have pulled our pants down this season. We got a kicking there, and the other two teams that have done that this season are Melksham and Ciren, and we’ve gone on and proved our worth, so again on Saturday, we’ll do that again.'

With nine League games remaining, and the Swans currently sitting in 13th position in the table, what now are the targets for the side? 'Getting to a Final, being safe, staying up, winning a final hopefully would be a fantastic back end to the season. At one point, it wasn’t going very well, so we’ve turned it around and the boys can see that, other people can see that, and hopefully we can start to move up as a club, and people will see that we’re going in the right direction.’