January 2022 (Page 10)

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News

Yeovil Town have announced that kids can go to our highly anticipated FA Trophy 4th Round match against Needham Market for free.

The Glovers have opted for the same ticket offering as with the previous FA Trophy match against Woking with an adult ticket costing £10, concessions £5 and under-16s for nothing.

Who knows, Needham Market Ultra June ‘Dot Cotton’ Brown could be there too.

And remember, the quadruple is still on!

Tickets can be purchased here.

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News

Bournemouth are on the verge of sealing the £1m+ signing of Fleetwood’s James Hill according to reports.

It’s just the reminder of the gulf between us and our MSP Capital Derby FA Cup opponents on Saturday.

Hill is an England U20 international, but is unlikely to play in our 3rd Round tie due to injury.

Update: Bournemouth confirmed the signing of Hill yesterday evening.

By:
On:
In: Glovers Past, Latest Yeovil Town News, Podcasts

Shaun MacDonald has said joining Yeovil Town on loan was the best thing that ever happened in his career.

The Wales international midfielder had no fewer than five spells in green-and-white (which we think is a record) made his first move to Huish Park in January 2009 after a call from Darren Way who had played alongside MacDonald at Swansea City.

Shaun MacDonald in action for Yeovil Town.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

In fact, the call came whilst Way was in hospital recovering from a car accident and what an inspired move it proved with the loanee scoring on his debut.

Speaking to the Gloverscast for the latest instalment of our GloversPast series talking to former players, he said: “Looking back now, it was the best thing that ever happened to me signing for Yeovil because I played every game when I was fit.

“I had such a good bond with the club and the fans and looking back we had some good players and we always did the club proud.

“I felt like a Yeovil player. I felt comfortable at Yeovil Town, I felt we could achieve something, we wanted to avoid relegation every year and I liked the fact the club was an underdog every year in League One.

“I enjoyed that challenge and most importantly I got on really well with everyone at the club, so there was never any reason not to go back.”

You can now hear our chat with with Shaun including what Adam Virgo said to him when he wrestled a penalty off the big centre half to complete a hat-trick at Leyton Orient – and his prediction for this weekend’s FA Cup tie between Yeovil and another of his former clubs, AFC Bournemouth.

Listen to the GloversPast below or download it on Apple, Android, Spotify – wherever you normally listen to us.

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News

If you haven’t already seen it on the club’s social media or YouTube channel, the highlights of the 2-1 defeat against Torquay United on Sunday are now available.

We’d recommend watching from 1 minute 30 seconds in to catch an absolute screamer from Jordan Barnett – but then quickly switching off.

 

 

 

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News
Dion Pereira in action against Notts County.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Luton Town midfielder and former Yeovil loanee Dion Pereira has joined League Two side Bradford City on loan.

The ex-Watford man was at Huish Park towards the start of this season, playing 90 minutes in a 2-0 loss to Notts County in October.

Following that single performance he was not seen in a match day squad again, with Luton boss Nathan Jones citing a slight injury the cause for his return whilst Glovers’ manager Darren Sarll said the player was “massively fatigued” following his appearance.

On October 22, Sarll confirmed the player would not be returning to Yeovil.

 

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog

Yeovil Town captain Josh Staunton.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Josh Staunton is the most important player to the future of Yeovil Town Football Club since Terry Skiverton.

That’s a statement isn’t it? I’ve said it, heck I’ve written it down for you the humble reader of the Gloverscast.

You’ve read the headline, you’ve taken the click bait and now you’re waiting to see what I have to say for myself.

Well, I stand by it.

Skivo hung up his playing boots in 2010.

Since then, the Glovers have been okay, been very good and been utterly rubbish sometimes all at the same time.

We hung around in League One, got out of League One, fell back through League One before treading water in League Two and eventually well, here we are a non-League club again.

During that time, there are maybe only a couple of standout moments and teams, the main one of course being winning promotion to the Championship.

I’d argue that, of course, the 2013 team was full of these incredible players, but for me, it felt like a team who had won the Lottery. Marek Stech in goal, Ed Upson, Paddy Madden, Luke Ayling, Joe Edwards, Sam Foley, Jamie McAllister and so on and so forth.

How many of those players, honestly, at that point in time had their next five years planned out at Huish Park? Arguably, none.

We’d have wanted them all to stay but they were snaffled up, pushed out, on too much money, sold for big bucks, given opportunities at clubs they could only dream of playing for just a few months before that group got together.

Josh Staunton rises highest to a header. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

My argument here is that if you said to me, Josh Staunton has signed a deal at Huish Park until the summer of 2026, I’d not only believe you and I’d know we’d be able to build maybe more than group around him. The last player we could honestly say that with… Terry Skiverton.

Skivo marshalled our 2003 side out of non-League, he led the rampage through League Two, and even that incredible 2007 side to the League One play-off final against all odds..

The Yeovil sides that dropped out of League One with a whimper or sleep-walked out of League Two had a couple of good players and maybe if I’d have written this at the moment of relegation in 2019, this blog would have had a similar feel to it about Carl Dickinson – but he wasn’t exactly reaching his peak years.

Then there’s that first non-League side.

I’m still staggered Darren Sarll found the group he did in less than a month after being appointed, but knowing that group as we now do, I’m not surprised he galvanised them to a play off spot.

It wasn’t to be for Stuart Nelson, Luke Wilkinson, Dicko, Lee Collins, Charlie Lee, Rhys Murphy and Co., and, of course, only one of those names still plays for us.

Yeovil Town defender Luke Wilkinson.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Wilkinson isn’t exactly old at 31, he’s got a few more seasons left in him at this level, he could probably give the EFL another crack if the chance came along.

But, here again, Josh Staunton is just 26.

His best five or six years are just starting now.

He’s a leader, a midfielder, a central defender, he’s fronted up to the media after losses, and is right now the first name on the team sheet as something of standard setter.

Gloverscast CEO Ian spoke of how his arrival off the bench in the FA Trophy game against Woking from the bench– to protect the already booked Luke Wilkinson – helped change the game. We noticeably missed him in the only 45 minutes he wasn’t on the pitch.

His comeback story from being given a “20% chance of playing again” last season is, quite frankly ridiculous – even our Hollywood friends in North Wales wouldn’t write that script.

The idea of loyalty in football to the level Skivo has shown Yeovil is all but gone, it would be bonkers to think any player from this generation would be with this club until 2042 in some way, shape or form.

But in the following scenarios at the end of this season, with the next four or five campaigns in mind, does this current Josh Staunton not make every single one of them better?

  • We don’t go up, we fall short by 15 points finish 12th and have to rebuild with most of the squad leaving this summer.
  • We don’t go up, we lose the play-off final on penalties, we have to pick up this dejected young squad who would have never felt football anguish like it before.
  • We do go up, (yay!), but our best players are snapped up by rich non-League clubs and those more geographically suitable to their families.
  • We do go up (yay, again!) and we keep the bulk of this squad together.

In each of those four scenarios, Josh Staunton provides the on or off the pitch leadership we haven’t really seen since… you guessed it, Skivo.

So, yeah, sure we’ve all made fun about how much I think of Josh this season and how much we clearly missed him last season.

But if we turn the year with a new owner, or start to plan for 2022-23 counting every penny in just the same way we have this campaign, the first signature we should aim for is that of our number 32.

Not just short-term either, let’s set our stall out early as he is likely to be the mainstay of this side well beyond Wilkinson, Reuben Reid and Mark Little – the three elder statesmen of the group.

Staunton has (at time of writing) played just 24 league games for us, he’s about half way to playing more games for us than any other side in his career.

He can lead this side for 100 more games easily, maybe into the Football League and certainly through rocky patches ahead.

There will not be many 26-year-olds at this level with 150 games already behind them and playing at the level where 150 more are perfectly feasible.

Sign him on. He’s the present and future of our team, we cannot throw this chance away.

It has always taken a certain type of player to play for Yeovil. We’ve heard the stories of Staunton joining the other injured players last season in playing a key role in getting the side through the end of the campaign and we’ve seen him don the captain’s armband on a few occasions this term too.

Qualities are not always easy to define, but you know what I mean. We’ve had loanees that ‘get it’ and some that don’t, we’ve had plenty of permanent signings come and go without so much as a shrug of the shoulders, we’ve had short term flashes of brilliance… we haven’t had all those positive attributes wrapped up into one person, one leader who can shape what this football club looks like for the next generation… since, you know who.

I cannot stress this enough, Josh Staunton is the most important player to the future of Yeovil Town Football Club since Terry Skiverton.

Editor’s note.

I have gone back and forth with writing and publishing this, I’m fully expecting a level of ridicule and outrage, but the reason I’ve gone with it, is that, I want to start the chat about getting contracts sorted beyond this season and quite how our squad looks in the medium to long term and I believe Josh Staunton has every attribute Skivo had and we should everything in our power to harness that.

If Staunton isn’t the most important player to YTFC, why? Who else has affected us (or will affect us) on the pitch in that same time frame?

Let us know! 

By:
On:
In: Five Conclusions, Gloversblog, Latest Yeovil Town News

It wasn’t the best afternoon at Huish Park yesterday, but there were positives sprinkled amongst the defeat. Here’s Ian’s Five Conclusions…

Darren Sarll has some decisions to make up front. Adi Yussuf started yesterday, and it was one of those games where nothing lands right for him. He never really got hold of the ball, didn’t win many headers and was out muscled on most occasions. Joe Quigley returned from the bench after his injury and caused issues for Torquay and was an instant upgrade. The arrival of Reuben Reid was also promising, he got the ball under control and held off Torquay defenders well too. For the first time this season, Sarll has three out-and-out striking options and decisions to make.

Morgan Williams is becoming Mr Dependable. When we signed Williams in the summer after two decent loan spells, I though we were getting a good centre back option. A young player who would improve with us and either progress with us or move on for a nice fee. Not only is he all of those things, but he’s also becoming a trusted, versatile member of the squad who’s filling in at both left and right back. I think there is a question to ask about Alex Bradley’s absence, and what he gives us going forward compared to Williams. But, defensively Williams is proving that he’s dependable across the back four.

I think that’s enough of Dale Gorman’s speculative shots from distance. When Gorman lined up a freekick from forty yards yesterday, I thought he it was just a decoy run up. I anticipated a delicate lob or a disguised pass to a sneaky full back on the run. Instead, Gorman opted to attempt the unlikely spectacular and belted the ball into a two man wall allowed Torquay to break and force the corner from which they equalised. Now, we should have dealt with the corner, but we shouldn’t have gone from that position with an attacking free kick, to an exposed defensive situation in under a minute. He had another attempt later in the match, where he was tackled cleanly and tried to claim a foul as Torquay broke and but for a shirt pull, could have scored again on the counter. Gorman is great at breaking up play and keeping our possession ticking over, but the frequent attempts at worldies are letting him down.

I felt we lost our width. It may have been (and probably was) a tactical plan to get narrow, but as we chased the game we didn’t seem to get players in the wide areas to make a difference. We didn’t see Charlie Wakefield didn’t get to areas where we’ve seen him cause teams problems, Knowles didn’t get wide to cut back inside. With Quigley and Reid on the pitch, we could have got more crosses in the box and caused Torquay more problems.

We don’t need to panic. Two losses on the bounce isn’t great, but it’s not the end of the world. The late withdrawal of Luke Wilkinson meant we had to shuffle the pack even more than we thought we’d have to with Dan Moss and Grant Smith suspended. A back five that might have just had a couple of changes had four. This group has plenty of credit in the bank and this is part of the journey.

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News, Podcasts

We’ve broken rule 2 to bring you a Monday pod!

Ian, Dave and Ben (it’s his birthday today, make sure you wish him a happy birthday!) talk about the loss against Torquay and all the various machinations coming out of it.

Thanks for listening!

Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news from Huish Park.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, enjoy some retro content on Instagram. Leave us a review and share the pod with a pal.

WANT TO ADVERTISE ON THE GLOVERSCAST? Send us an email for our rate card.

If you want to take part in the quiz, have an idea for the website or just want to send us a message, email ian@gloverscast.co.uk

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News

Joe Quigley has said he is hoping to be able to fight his way back in to the Yeovil Town starting line-up after making his return from more than a month out with injury.

Joe Quigley celebrates his last goal against Altrincham in October.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The striker, who has six goals already this season, came on as a 57th minute replacement for Adi Yussuf in the 2-1 defeat at home to Torquay United, his first appearance since the end of November.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins, Quigley said: “We had a good full week of training, the game being cancelled (against W*ymouth on Wednesday) gave me a chance to train the full week with the team.

“I felt sharp and I just have to keep building with that. It’s time to kick on both individually and as a team, we have got to improve.”

Manager Darren Sarll praised the impact the frontman had when he came on against Torquay, but said they did not use him well enough.

He said: “(Joe) looked very determined, we didn’t use him well enough. We are still trying to come to terms with Dillon (Barnes, the on-loan goalkeeper) distribution, so we didn’t use Joe as well as we could have done.

“Joe stood up the whole first half and I hate it when subs stand up in the dug-out, and you could tell he was desperate to get on the pitch.“

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News, Uncategorized

Darren Sarll said Yeovil Town may have to change their system to accommodate a players who are feeling the strain of playing so many matches.

The Glovers’ boss said he would assess the situation following the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Gary Johnson’s Torquay United at Huish Park on Sunday.

Yeovil Town manager Darren Sarll.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

He told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “We are maybe going in to another period where we have to change. We definitely have a group of players that are putting so much effort in and maybe they are at their ceiling, they might need a bit of a break.

“We might need to change that system to get that freshness with the players that can come in, but we have to make sure we are hard to beat.”

The boss said the loss was a poor last 15 minutes when goals from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans direct from a corner and a late winner from substitute Dan Holman saw the visitors complete the double over Yeovil.

Sarll described defending for the second goal as “absolute crap” and pointed to errors from midfielder Dale Gorman and debutant on-loan goalkeeper Dillon Barnes for the first goal.

He pointed to having to shuffle his defensive unit to accommodate for suspended goalkeeper Grant Smith and right-back Dan Moss and the late loss of captain Luke Wilkinson, who was missing having a COVID-19 test.

Morgan Williams moved from left-back to right back and on-loan Middlesbrough defender Jack Robinson returned for his first game in two months on the left side with Josh Staunton dropping in to the centre of defence alongside Max Hunt, the only constant from the 3-0 defeat at Torquay on Boxing Day.

The manager said: “We go back to where we were last season, making four changes in the five defensive positions, even if it is Williams to right back and Robinson at left back.

“There are players out there who looked tired because they are having to play a lot of games for the first time in their careers for some of them – (Charlie) Wakefield, (Tom) Knowles, players like that.

“Then there were a little band of players who, having come back from injury, they suffered with fatigue.

“But the last 15 minutes was poor and we are going to have to address that, the last half-an-hour last Sunday and we blamed poor old Sonny (Blu Lo-Everton, who was sent off on Boxing Day), but today all we can do is blame ourselves.”