Tonbridge Angels manager Jay Saunders on the pep-talk that changed his side’s fortunes, striker Luca Botti’s goalscoring form and the departure of Trevan Robinson

Jay Saunders found the words to get Tonbridge winning again after a difficult spell.

Angels were facing a seventh game without a win as they trailed Enfield at half-time on Saturday.

Boss Saunders went for a pep-talk, rather than a rocket, and his players responded by completing a 3-1 comeback victory.

And with confidence up after their weekend success, Tonbridge made it back-to-back victories by beating Welling 2-0 at Longmead on Tuesday night.

After dropping to 13th last week, they’re back up to ninth in National League South, nine points off the top seven.

Saunders’ half-time words at Enfield might just prove to be a turning point for the rest of the season.

He said: “As we were walking off, I was looking at the players’ body language after the run we’ve been on, and things have gone against us.

“You look at Dorking, they got a 94th-minute winner that was offside, Worthing scored after a blatant handball, we’ve had red cards that probably weren’t red cards and loads of injuries.

“Part of me wanted to rip into them because of how we’d been but I read the body language and it was more of a pep-talk.

“It wasn’t that Enfield were that much better than us, I just felt we were feeling sorry for ourselves.

“I said, ‘Come on, boys, believe, it can change quickly’.

“We’ve been in the top 10 pretty much all season, we haven’t become a bad team overnight.

“I’ve been there as a player and a manager when things are constantly going against you and it makes you think is this ever going to change?

“We changed a few things around and once we scored the first goal, it was almost like the pressure lifted and we got a quick second and the third.

“We needed that first win. We just looked more confident going into the Welling game.

“Altho