Longlevens AFC fought hard to take a point on Saturday against Devizes Town, with manager Buster Davies said going down “kicked us into gear.”
Longlevens conceded early in the second half, as a counter attack found its way past the defence and Jamie Walters scored for Devizes.
“I think its a fair result, I thought they edged the first half and we had the second. Both teams had chances, so overall I think it’s a fair point. They are a good side probably the best we’ve played this year.”
The game saw controversy late on as a sending off for the away side inspired the come back to get back a draw for Levens who were playing as the side in control for most of the game despite conceding.
“Yeah their goal came against the run of play, but I do not think it hindered confidence.”
Davies explained the mentality after going down, “We’ve been here before, lets show some resilience show what we are about, and then the sending off obviously momentum swings even more in our favour.”
After the sending off, Longlevens managed to grab a goal late on in the 87th minute thanks to Fin Gwillim who intercepted a backwards pass to take the lead.
“Gwillim he’s clinical. On his day he’s the best scorer in the league without a doubt, as long as he’s scoring goals, we got a very good chance of winning games”.
The defence is also an integral part to Longlevens success; “Were pretty solid at the back, I think that’s nine games undefeated. We have won seven of them and drawn two with five clean sheets, and they are all against good sides. Kidlington and Roman Glass we kept clean sheets and Corsham away is not an easy place either so clean sheets there and we’ve had a couple here, so yeah we can score goals, we can keep sheets and we are going to win games.”
Davies expanded on the tactical tactical decisions “we had to make a few adjustments out of possession, but in possession it was about telling the lads to relax, trust themselves and just play their game. We needed to raise our standards in terms of our work rate and intensity and the lads responded really well to that. It was about being a bit more aggressive out of possession and taking better control of the game”.
Levens stay 11th in the league after their draw whilst Devizes move up to fifth and have a substantial amount of games in hand.
