October 2022 (Page 4)

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Venue: Huish Park
Tuesday 25th October, 7:45pm kick-off

Conditions: Cool, clear night
Pitch: Looking good

Attendance: 2396 (219 away)

Scorers: Phillips (0-1 ’85), Willard (0-2 ’90+)

Bookings:

Yeovil Town: Reckord ’75, Dawes ‘ 79, Johnson ’89
Aldershot Town: Harfield ’79, Davies ’90

Referee: James Durkin

 

Yeovil Town : (4-3-3…maybe)

Grant Smith

   Owen Bevan – Josh Staunton – Ben Richards-Everton – Jamie Reckord

Callum Rowe (Will Dawes ’66) – Matt Worthington – Sam Perry

Ollie Hulbert – Alex Fisher(Gime Toure ’60) – Ewan Clark (Chiori Johnson ’73)

Substitutes (not used): Max Hunt, Malachi Linton

 

Match Report

Yeovil Town dropped into the National League relegation zone following a 2-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Aldershot Town, in a game where the Glovers passed 430 minutes without scoring a goal, two late goals from the visitors confined the green and whites to a second consecutive 2-0 defeat.

Ian Perkins was there, here’s how he saw it.

First half

With changes across the team, including a debut for Ewan Clarke, the Glovers lined up in a 4-3-3 – praise the Lord.

The opening ten was pretty cagey, with both sides exchanging spells of possession with no chances at goal.

In the 13th minute Grant Smith was called into action, diving to his left to put Tommy Willard’s goal-bound effort wide for a corner.

The Glovers had a half chance moments later with Clarke meeting Jamie Reckord’s deep looping cross with a tame header towards goal.

As the lone striker, Alex Fisher was doing a lot of running and in the 22nd minute he glanced a header wide of the post after a good cross from Reckord on the left.

Some neat play moment later opened some spaces for efforts that were closed down but it fell to Clarke who’s left footed effort was easy for Taylor Ashby-Hammond.

Former W*ymouth man Tyler Cordner’s eyes lit up as he galloped forward and with space to line up a strike he smashed the ball wide of Smith’s goal.

As half time approached discontent grew amongst supporters with boos for misplaced crosses and even when the players had audacity to retain possession – odd.

Aldershot’s movement was causing Chris Hargreaves’ side a few issues as they adjusted to the new shape, but a fairly dull affair saw the scores level at the break.

Half time: Yeovil Town 0 Aldershot 0

Second half

The first effort of the second half fell to Aldershot, as Amaluzor had his left footed shot deflected wide for a corner.

Attacking the Thatchers, which seemed to have gained a few idiots from the surrounding villages, Alex Fisher dragged an effort wide shortly after.

Aldershot had their best chance of the game in the 58th minute. After a mix up in defence, Frank Vincent snuck in to strike at goal but his shot went wide.

Chris Hargreaves changes personnel Midway through the half, replacing Fisher and Rowe with Gime Toure and Will Dawes.

Shortly after the former Stratford man’s arrival, a defensive clearance rebounded horribly off of Amaluzor just over the bar as Smith scrambled back towards goal.

Buoyed by his effort in the first half, Cordner had another go in the 70th minute that flew just wide of Smith’s left hand post.

Toure mazed his way through the box and went down appealing for a penalty, although the referee saw no contact and waved the appeals away.

Aldershot opened the scoring five minutes from time with Giles PHILLIPS heading home a corner. 0-1.

The Glovers couldn’t lift themselves after conceding and Tommy WILLARD piled on the misery in stoppage time. 0-2.

Chants of “We Want Hargreaves out” and “f*ck off back to BT” and boos at full time really piled the pressure on Chris Hargreaves as the GloverS fell into the bottom four.

Full time: Yeovil Town 0 Aldershot 2

 

At the full time whistle, there were some ugly scenes as the Glovers fans made their voices heard.

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Teenage midfielder Ewan Clark has joined Yeovil Town on loan from Bristol City – as his team-mate Sam Pearson makes a temporary return to Ashton Gate suffering with “fatigue”.

The 19-year-old, who joined the Championship side from National League South outfit Oxford City in the summer, arrives in time for tonight’s crucial league match with Aldershot Town.

Speaking of the new arrival, Glovers’ boss Chris Hargreaves said: “Ewan is a young player who arrives with experience at a good level within the non-league ranks.

“He is an exciting attacking player who we believe is ready to hit the ground running.We would like to thank Bristol City for their cooperation on the deal.”

The statement announcing the arrival included confirmation that Pearson had returned to City having been a regular started in recent games.

It added: “On the departures front, Sam Pearson has returned to Bristol City on a temporary basis to recover from fatigue.”

 

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Yes, you did read that headline correctly! Yeovil Town’s age group teams picked up four wins against their counterparts from Juventus Devon in the Junior Premier League at the weekend.

The Under-11s, Under-12s, Under-13s and Under-14s teams, who all play under the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust, against the teams from Newton Abbot, Devon.

The Under-16s picked up a draw against Chivenor Soccer School in their match whilst the Under-15s match against Juventus Devon was postponed.

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Ben Barrett was in the press box for the Glovers’ 2-0, defeat to Oldham.

It was a tough, stressful and genuinely quite emotional experience.

Here’s his five conclusions.

It’s probably worth bearing in mind I haven’t seen this Yeovil Team since mid August.

Back go back games against Barnet and Altrincham were both either reasonable performances or a reasonable result, since then I had been told tales of some of the good, the bad and downright ugly side of YTFC.

Regardless of what had gone before it, we had to come out strong, we had to be the first to draw blood and to kick ourselves out of our slumber.

To go down 1-0 early was an almighty hammer blow.

Obvious as it may seem, that sixth minute goal, the scrappy defending and the unlucky deflection set the tone for a torrid afternoon for the Glovers.

A ball that could have been prevented from coming into the box, fell into an area from which it could/should have been cleared. I felt the ‘hear we go again’ from the 144 in the away end.

Shall we wrap up the positives in one go next?

Owen Bevan. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Owen Bevan and Ollie Hulbert did alright and Grant Smith is the best keeper in the league. 

Bevan had an important role as the central figure in a Staunton-less defence and I think he shone the most of the back line. In the second half, Ollie Hulbert sensed a chance to make an impression on debut, and in difficult circumstances, I thought he did alright.

He’s quick, direct, showed some nice little link ups. I reckon he’s got every chance of getting more minutes over the coming weeks.

And Grant Smith is the best shot stopper outside the EFL. He just is.

Chiori Johnson. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Positives taken care of, who wants some more negatives? Jolly good.

I don’t like wing backs, you don’t like wing backs, we get it.

But if you have to have wing backs, you’d probably want them to be Chiori Johnson and Jamie Reckord.

So… why on earth did we start Sam Pearson at wing back and Johnson in the middle?

I’ve said this 100 times before but why we can’t start playing our best players in their best positions I simply do not know.

Chris Hargreaves thinks this formation has worked OK so far. It hasn’t Chris, it just hasn’t.

I’m not a qualified football coach, but I have eyes. There are some simple, tactical tweaks which I’m convinced would make a difference;

The front two need to be closer together, there was no chance of catching a flick on, or getting a little combo of passes together in the final third, nobody close enough to get busy and pick up the pieces of a broken down attack and it was infruariating.

Set pieces need a complete overhaul because we are shocking at defending them and trying to score from them and please, play people in their best positions.

Josh Staunton was on a one man mission to play in all 10 outfield positions, as admirable as that is, it stopped him being good at what he’s good at. I felt for him, he’s clearly feeling everybit of the disappointment we all are.

Confidence is rock bottom.

So many times, players were showing obvious signs of the sheer lack of confidence we as a unit are struggling with right now.

Maybe it’s a fear of making a mistake, of losing possession. Maybe it’s a desire to get off the ball as quickly as possible. A panicked clearance, a slashed ball forwards, a overhit pass, a sideways or negative move when a braver option was on elsewhere.

There’s no magic wand to make confidence just appear out of nowhere, it’s down to working hard (to levels where socks indeed come off), positive reinforcement and some excellent man management and leadership.

Finally, then.

I’ve not said it on the podcast before now, I’ve kept my mind open, my thoughts to myself until I can see with my own eyes what’s going on.

In the current state of the country, it feels odd and to be honest, fairly horrible, to talk about someone else being in or out of employment.

But purely from a football point of view, I have no choice to confirm that I am absolutely Hargreaves Out.

I’m sorry, Chris, I am.

But this formation doesn’t work, there’s no plan B, our side looks a dishevelled shell of what I think it can be. Results haven’t been nearly good enough.

I feel like when you appeared on the pod, we were all backing you. We forgave some early season wobbles, we saw glimpses of what this side could be, but it’s time now to call it a day. An experiment that didn’t work.

I feel like I could chat football with you over a beer all day long, but right now our football team is hurting, things have to change.

 

 

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Toby Stephens (Right) in action for Plymouth Parkway
? Harrow Borough

Yeovil Town’s two loan stars Toby Stephens and Ollie Haste both saw their sides win on Saturday, but only one made it onto the pitch.

Toby Stephens was a rock in the centre of midfield for Plymouth Parkway as they thrashed Hendon 6-0 in the Southern League Premier Division South at Bolitho Park. Former Glovers’ loanee Ben Seymour scored four goals in the hammering.

Haste returned to Southern League Premier Division leaders Truro City during the week and was an unused substitute as they came from 2-0 down to win 4-3 at Hayes & Yeading.

The 19-year-old had a successful spell at Bolitho Park – also the home ground of the White Tigers – at the start of the season before making a brief return to Huish Park.

He was an unused substitute in the 1-1 draw at Dorking Wanderers and in the goalless opening match against Taunton Town in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round.

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Chris Hargreaves said he still believes he is the man to lead Yeovil Town away from the National League relegation zone despite them dropping to a point clear of the bottom three.

The Glovers dropped to 20th place with a 2-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on Saturday, their fifth defeat of the campaign with 14 matches played with the boss subject to shouts from the 144 travelling supporters at Boundary Park at the final whistle.

Chris Hargreaves. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Asked by BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins whether he doubted he was the right man for the job, he immediately declared: “I believe I am the man for this job otherwise I would not have taken it. We are in a situation where we have to show some serious amounts of resilience, I get that and there are players in (the dressing room) who have not been in that situation before.

“I get that fans are frustrated and there is unrest and myself, the players and the staff thank them for coming. It was a long journey which cost them money. Second half I don’t think the players gave up, they kept trying and they will always do that, but there was just a lack of final third quality.

“In the league we had lost one in six before this game, but we haven’t won enough games. The performances we have had in those draws have been good but we haven’t been able to win the games.

“But there’s a lot of games, a lot of points still to be won and there’s a lot of fight still in there and the fight is still the same with me from the day I walked in.”

Having persisted with playing a five-man defence with Jamie Reckord and Sam Pearson in wing-back positions, the manager was asked whether he remained confident the formation was working.

He replied: “It has done in previous games. It is a case of having quality to be able to deliver no matter what shape you play and that’s not going to change at any club up and down the country. It’s about having players who make the right decisions at the right times, no matter what shape you play.”

There were four changes made from the FA Cup exit at Taunton Town on Tuesday night including the return of Malachi Linton up front in place of Alex Fisher, and Ollie Hulbert came off the bench in place of Gime Toure at half-time and put in a lively second half performance.

Hargreaves said afterwards that he was still looking to bring more players in having said to before the trip to Greater Manchester that the club was trying to register two players currently training with them.

That push will continue as the Glovers prepare to host Aldershot Town, who leap-frogged them with a 2-1 home win over York City at the weekend, on Tuesday night. The Shots sacked manager Mark Molesley following their exit from the FA Cup at the hands of lower league Chelmsford City and placed veteran Terry Brown in temporary charge.

He said: “We need some recruits and we know that and we’ve been working hard to do that, but you can’t just go and sign players on vast amounts of money who will give you that immediate result or immediate performance.

“It is a case of still looking which we will still be on Monday leading up to the Tuesday game and that will not stop.”

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Venue: Boundary Park
Saturday October 22nd, 3pm kick-off

Conditions: Dry and bright
Pitch: Held up well

Attendance: 6,483 (144 away supporters)

Scorers: Oscar Threlkeld 6 (0-1), Mike Fondop 71 (0-2)

Bookings: 

Yeovil Town: Lawson D’Ath 74
Oldham Athletic: Nathan Sheron 49

Referee: Greg Rollason

 

Yeovil Town : (3-5-2)

Grant Smith

Morgan Williams   Owen Bevan  Ben Richards-Everton

Sam Pearson      Chiori Johnson (for Jake Scrimshaw, 82) Josh Staunton Lawson D’Ath   Jamie Reckord

Malachi Linton (for Alex Fisher, 58) Gime Toure (for Ollie Hulbert, 46)

Substitutes (not used): Max Hunt, Sam Perry.

 

Match Report

Yeovil Town slid to within a point of the National League relegation zone after going down with a whimper at Oldham Athletic.

Having gone behind to Oscar Threlkeld’s sixth minute deflected effort, the Glovers put in a performance lacking in effort, direction and ability for the opening 45 minutes.

Despite a second half which offered a little more in terms of attacking intent, there simply was not enough to see off an Oldham side who sealed the win with Mike Fondop’s goal after 71 minutes.

Here’s how a rather angry Dave saw it from the away end at Boundary Park…..

 

First half

After some tepid opening exchanges, it was a piece of defensive suicide which gifted Oldham a lead after just six minutes. A ball in from the left by Zaine Francis-Angol  you was ignored  by the entire defence, including an uncharacteristic mis-kick from Josh Staunton, and broke to Oscar THRELKELD whose effort was deflected past Grant Smith.

With the exception of an eighth minute foray forward where Malachi Linton had a shot which went well wide, the performance from the visitors in the 15 minutes which followed the goal was characterised by aimless balls, disinterested recipients and a team looking to someone else to make something happen.

The most frustrating thing was that this was against an Oldham side who offered very little themselves. An effort wide from John Rooney on 13 minutes, and a couple of crosses in to the box were all they offered in response.

It was not until the 40th minute that Smith was called in to action when Rooney found Ben Tollitt whose effort was turned aside by a smart stop by the keeper.

In 30 years of watching Yeovil Town – the Darren Way era of whimpering out of the Football League, even the two seasons we spent in a tier below this one in the 1990s – that was as bad a performance as I have seen from a side. Utterly devoid of effort and direction.

Half time: Oldham Athletic 1 Yeovil Town 0

 

Second half

Within two minutes of the restart, Yeovil achieved more than the first 45 minutes had offered. Ollie Hulbert, on as a substitute for Gime Toure, put a ball in from the left found Chiori Johnson on the far post but the ball was behind him and he was unable to get his header away.

There was more effort, an attempt at passing the ball, and guess what? It worked. A lukewarm spoon press against a block of butter, but more effort at least.

Alex Fisher replaced Linton after 57 minutes with Yeovil preparing  for a corner that met the head of Ben Richards-Everton who forced a save from Magnus Norman in the Oldham goal.

Moments later, Staunton’s interception set Johnson away down the right, but his effort avoided everyone in the box. For all the better forward play, there was little to threaten Norman’s goal.

On 65 minutes, a good ball forward by Lawson D’Ath found three Yeovil players queuing up despite Fisher and Pearson being in the vicinity, no-one could get a touch.

Two minutes later, Owen Bevan glanced a header just over from D’Ath’s corner.

But on 71 minutes, an Oldham side which had offered nothing all half doubled their advantage. From their own corner, Yeovil found themselves with just Morgan Williams against three attackers and it was Mike FONDOP who was there to turn it in from close range.

Six minutes from time, a ball from Pearson was met by a header from Fisher which force Norman in to a stop to turn it on to the post. That was the nearest to a goal we had got and it wasn’t near  enough.

Full time: Oldham Athletic 2 Yeovil Town 0

 

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Three changes for the Glovers in personelle as Lawson D’ath returns from injury to replace the suspended Matt Worthington.

Callum Rowe drops out altogether, whilst Max Hunt is once again on the bench with Owen Bevan returning from injury.

Yeovil Town : (3-5-2) (We think…)

Grant Smith

Morgan Williams   Owen Bevan Ben Richards-Everton

Chiori Johnson     Lawson D’Ath   Josh Staunton Jamie Reckord

Sam Pearson

Malachi Linton Gime Toure

 

Substitutes: Max Hunt, Sam Perry, Jake Scrimshaw, Alex Fisher, Ollie Hulbert.