TAUNTON Town boss Rob Dray hailed the performance of his strikers after a change of system in the 3-2 win over Gosport Borough on Saturday.

Dan Sullivan came in for captain Matt Wright to partner top scorer Andrew Neal up front and, though neither player netted in the win, Dray was delighted with their overall impact.

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"Wrighty was fit but we chose to go that way," Dray said.

"We've had those three forwards all season but, for whatever reason, all three have rarely been available at the same time.

"Sully and Rocky have been really knocking on the door to play as a two so that's how we went today.

"We knew they would expect Wrighty, and sometimes it's unfair on Matt as we rely too much on him at times, but we went with those two today and it worked.

"They were an absolute pain for their defenders and I thought they were both superb.

"We need to find other ways. We've got good technical players and we sometimes need to make more use of that, certainly against sides who will come here and sit deep."

READ MORE: As it happened - Taunton Town 3-2 Gosport

Dray went on to praise the overall performance of his side, who went behind to a second-minute Samuel Lanahan header before Lewis Hall equalised 10 minutes later.

Two superb goals either side of half-time, a Ryan Brett free-kick and an Ollie Chamberlain volley, put Taunton 3-1 up and Ryan Pennery's injury-time penalty came too late to set nerves fraying.

Dray said: "It's another win ticked off. I thought we were very good value for that today.

"We played very well, showed great enthusiasm and intensity. The rest has done us the world of good.

"All over the pitch we were very good today and I'm slightly disappointed that it's 3-2 - that was never a 3-2, it was a four or five-one on another day. It was never a penalty at the end.

"Defensively we were a lot better in the second half but we controlled the game.

"We're not controlling the game against a small side from the South & West Division, we are controlling the game against Gosport - that says a lot about where we are and how far we've come."

The match also saw Lloyd Irish and Shane White return to action, having been absent through holiday and injury respectively.

Irish replaced 18-year-old Chandler Hallett at half-time, the youngster seeing the final match of his loan spell from Colchester United cut short by injury.

Dray said: "He probably could have played on but I didn't want to send him back to his club injured - it wouldn't be fair on them and they've been very good to us.

"I wanted to give Lloyd 10 days to get over his jetlag and get his fitness up, so the idea was for him to come back in next week, but he came back in and did his job.

"It's great to see Shane back.

"He has been like a collie with a stick and he just wants to play football. It was a great cameo appearance to get us over the line.

"The club have ordered a mask for him, which comes on Tuesday, so he will wear that for the next few weeks."