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Saturday’s 3-1 victory against Barrow was long overdue and deserved, according to Torquay United head coach Gary Owers.

The Gulls secured a much-needed three points thanks to a resilient second-half performance.

Goals from Sean McGinty, George Dowling and Luke Young were enough to see United hold on and move off the foot of the table.

“Much needed and long overdue, but credit to the boys,” Owers told the local media at full time. “That was a really important game, with a really important three points attached to it. Thankfully we got the three points.

“They [Barrow] play very direct and cause a threat with long diagonal balls and set plays but we dealt with their threat. I thought the first half was very, very scrappy and there wasn’t really a flow in the game, but that may have been due to the conditions.

United went in level at half time after a stop-start opening 45 minutes, before upping the pressure on the visitors. Owers said it was a performance he could see coming.

“I knew when I walked out at half time and the lads were in the tunnel, I knew they were ready. They came out flying and done really well. We said at the start, all we can do is get three points and we got them.

“We’ve been there before and I just emphasised that we had to force the tempo and they done that. We had an excellent result last week at Macclesfield, we’ve followed that up with three points at home.

“We go to Maidenhead next week and hopefully with a bit of confidence running through the team and the belief that we can go there and get the result. We’re in there fighting and there’s hope.”

When quizzed on potential transfers, Owers reserved praise for the two of the latest additions in Elliot Romain and Brett Williams, who both impressed in Saturday’s win.

“I think in fairness to the two front lads, they’ve given us something different up there. That’s been our Achilles heel really. I’m not being disrespectful, I’m not criticising the other lads but there’s been a lack of goals and even though they didn’t score today, both have really good games.

“Mich [Efete] got forward in the second half much better, George got forward and got his goal and had a good game. As ever, Luke Young was outstanding in the middle of the park today.

There was some confusion about who scored the opening goal, but it was indeed McGinty who tapped home from close range.

“He should get more Sean [McGinty], that was another point I made, we spend a lot of time working on set plays and we should score more.

“It’s just nice to finish and win. I hope the supporters went away in a lot happier mood than they have done in previous home games. Hopefully, they’ve seen there’s fight left in his side as well.”

Story by Ryan Darby