He’s been eight years in senior football but yesterday’s winner for the Fleet against Hungerford Town was Bobby-Joe Taylor’s first goal with his head.
And what a goal it was, with Taylor starting on the left-wing, exchanging passes with Lee Martin and Rakish Bingham, whose back heel reversed play in turn to Martin again while Taylor carried on his driving diagonal run to meet the cross to the far post.
“I’m going to have to watch it back to be fair because that’s my first headed senior goal in however long I’ve been playing, seven/eight years. And it felt very good. I don’t know where it came from to be honest!”
And Taylor felt it was vindication having been disappointed with his intercepted header as Hungerford moved forward for their second goal in the first half.
“I was a little bit disappointed with myself,” said Taylor. “I’ve got enough experience to get rid of the ball in the first instance for them to score the goal. So I felt I had a point to prove and I wanted to give something back.
“The gaffer’s good as gold and he doesn’t come in and point you out and say it’s your fault. He lifts everyone up, he knows that we’re good enough. We believe in what he wants to do, nothing changes and it showed today. It felt bittersweet to get the winning goal. I’m more pleased we got the three points today because we’ve played some good football.”
Taylor’s goal was provided by skipper Lee Martin’s inviting cross and the former Exeter City man could be witnessed geeing up his teammates and driving them on towards the win.
“He’s a great skipper, great leadership skills, experience and a really good guy,” said Taylor. “He’s one of those you can have a bicker with him. Me and him have a little bicker and he actually does say to me I remind him of his younger self. You know, a little bit ratty, like to have a little bit of stick, a little whinge here and there. But everyone knows that, he’s very good at what he does and he’s a credit to the football club.”
And the character running through the team and the club is key to the drive and determination the Fleet showed in fighting back for the three points, said Taylor.
“The character was second to none and at half-time we said believe the next goal’s important. We got the next goal and from then on I felt there was only one winner.
“We said before the game and during the game at half-time that we didn’t want to come out where we’re standing here saying we were the better side but we didn’t pick up the three points. But credit to the boys, all the boys in there, they worked their socks off. It goes to show the full-time fitness that we have and the belief in the changing room and across everyone in the club, buying into what the gaffer has implemented here.
“Today was an experience and a learning curve for us and I think we could have managed the game better last week. I think we were too eager to try and score more goals after we took the lead away from home. But that’s a lesson learned and it was important we picked up three points today. We’ve managed to achieve that so we can enjoy that. But we have to now focus on the next week, and take it step by step. That’s the most important thing.”
