November 2022 (Page 2)

Yeovil Town name an unchanged line-up from last weekend’s goalless draw at Notts County as they take on FC Halifax Town at Huish Park today.

However, we expect the Glovers to play a more offensive formation after a defensive masterclass saw them grind out a point seven days ago with on loan Peterborough United man Andrew Oluwabori expected to play in a more advanced position.

Even the substitutes’ bench is the same with goalkeeper Will Buse and strikers Louis Britton and Malachi Linton looking for an opportunity to impress.

Former Glovers’ loanee midfielder Matt Warburton is named on the bench for the visitors who are looking to make it five National League games unbeaten.

Yeovil Town (5-3-2):

Substitutes: Will Buse, Lawson D’Ath, Louis Britton, Anthony Georgiou, Malachi Linton.

FC Halifax Town: Johnson, Arthur, Stott, Senior, Golden, Cappello, Summerfield, Gilmour, Cooke, Spence, Harker. Substitues: Warburton, Minihan, Scott, Dieseruvwe, Keane.

Striker Charlie Bateson made it seven goals in nine matches to secure an impressive win for Yeovil Town Under-18s over their Torquay United counterparts on Saturday.

The frontman struck the only goal from inside the box after just three minutes of the South West Counties Youth League match at Alvington to seal victory against the reigning champions and holders of the league’s Gary Else Memorial Cup.

The victory is the young Glovers’ fifth consecutive league win and keeps them in second place behind leaders Bridgwater United.

Yeovil Town Under-18s: Rob Hollard, Mason Hunter, Max Dyer, Aidan Skiverton, Sam Hodges, Jake Graziano, Charlie Bateson, Mason Alden, Josh Haskett, Ethan O’ Sullivan. Substitutes: Dan Young, Jack Clark, Josh Sutton, Benjani Junior.


The club’s Under-11s and Under-15s teams also picked up victories over Paulton Rovers and the North Somerset Regional Talent Centre respectively on Saturday.

But, the Under-13s, Under-14s and Under-16s lost to their counterparts from North Somerset RTC in the Junior Premier League.

The Under-12s take on South Somerset Regional Talent centre in the JPL on Monday. The teams from Under-11s through to Under-16s all play as part of the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust.

A planning application has been submitted by Yeovil Town for the “relocation and reduction in size” of the marquee at Huish Park.

The club has applied to (its landlord) South Somerset District Council for permission to relocate and reduce in size its “refreshment marquee from the existing external location to within the stadium secure compound footprint.

The application was submitted to the authority on at the end of September, although it appears the application was only validated by the council last week, and therefore seems likely to be dealt with within an undetermined timescale.

The marquee in its current location at Huish Park.

However, it ties up with comments made by club director Stuart Robins a couple of months ago when he spoke about using the marquee to create “a fan zone behind the Thatcher’s Stand” at Huish Park.

Speaking to Three Valleys Radio’s ‘In Conversation With…..’ programme, he said: “In the short term we are trying to take part of the marquee and create a fan zone behind the Thatcher’s Stand.

We still have to apply for a licence and then we can move part of the marquee to behind the Thatcher’s to create a better environment.

It’s a semi-permanent structure, but it will be better than what we have at the moment. Our goal is to have some form of fan zone.

One assumes that a planning application is a step towards that goal of a semi-permanent structure.

Yeovil Town striker Ollie Hulbert has joined Plymouth Parkway on a one-month loan deal, the club has confirmed.

The 19-year-old follows Glovers’ midfielder Toby Stephens who has been a regular starter with the Southern League Premier Division South since the middle of October.

The Devon side face the Metropolitan Police at Bolitho Park this weekend with Hulbert likely to be available for selection. They sit two places above the relegation zone having played 13 matches, the lowest of any team in the division

Hulbert has made three appearances off the bench this season after joining following his release by Bristol Rovers in the summer with his last appearance coming off the bench after 72 minutes in the 1-1 draw at Maidstone United.

He was an unused substitute in the last four matches up to and including the goalless draw at Notts County last weekend.

Yeovil Town Under-18s will take on South West Counties League champions Torquay United at Alvington on Saturday (10.30am kick-off).

The Gulls, who were managed by first-team assistant manager Chris Todd before he arrived at Huish Park in the summer, won the division’s league and Gary Else Memorial Cup last season.

Yeovil go in to the game on the back of four league wins, including a 3-0 win at Mangotsfield United last weekend, which took them in to second place in the league table ahead of Torquay, albeit the visitors have played three fewer games.

In the Junior Premier League, the club’s Under-13s, Under-14s, Under-15s and Under-16s will all play against their counterparts from the North Somerset Regional Talent Centre on Saturday.

The Under-11s face Paulton Rovers whilst the Under-12s take on the South Somerset Regional Talent Centre in a fixture on Monday.

The Under-11s-Under-16s sides all play as part of the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust.

Yeovil Town full-back Jamie Reckord said new manager Mark Cooper has got the side playing more football than they did under previous boss Chris Hargreaves.

The 30-year-old, who was brought to the club by Hargreaves in the summer, had a spell under Cooper when he was on loan at Swindon Town in 2014

Speaking ahead of the weekend’s match with FC Halifax Town, Reckord said: “I knew what to expect, but training has changed a bit. He wants us to play a bit more than Chris did and that’s just the way he played and it feels like it’s suited us well and we’ve had a few good results lately.

Him coming in has changed a few people’s mindsets with people not being in the squad and a few new people have come in which has changed the team.

I feel like we have been unlucky and on Saturday (at Notts County) we were able to grind out a results, whereas before something always seemed to happen and there’s probably a bit more belief in the team now.

The full-back, who was top scorer with three goals up until striker Alex Fisher’s double against Gateshead a fortnight ago, was part of a well-organised defensive display which earned a point with a goalless draw at Notts County last weekend.

He picked up a booking in that match, his seventh of the season, but he said the game plan given to the team by Cooper was perfect for the job against the National League leaders.

Reckord added: “We knew we had to stick to our job, don’t get lazy and don’t switch off, and just defend and enjoy defending. Everyone played a massive part in that.

We had to be realistic, they are top of the table for a reason, and we’re not going to go there and pass them off the park, so we knew what we needed to do.

The Gaffer gave us a game plan and we stuck to it perfectly and we got a point and at the end of the season I think we’ll look back and that will be a massive one for us.

Yeovil Town’s defence of the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup will begin on Tuesday 6th December after the rearrangement of the second round tie with Taunton Town.

The game had been due to be played on 15th November but was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch at Huish Park.

Tickets sold for the original date remain valid for the rearranged fixture and are available at £5 for adults and £1 for concessions.

Only the Main Stand at Huish Park will be open for the fixture.

Yeovil Town are talking with kit suppliers Hummel about how to get replica kits to supporters before Christmas following the collapse of its distributor.

Elite Sports Group, which distributed the Hummel range of kit, went in to administration on Thursday leaving a number of clubs throughout the football pyramid struggling to get hold of sportswear.

In a statement, Yeovil Town said they were “extremely disappointed” to hear that the company had gone in to administration.

It added: “As many supporters are aware, we have been waiting for the delivery of stock from the supplier for several weeks. It is now clear that we are unlikely to receive the balance of our orders through Elite Sports.

We are therefore currently exploring all options that will enable us to fulfil all outstanding orders as soon as possible and we are in direct contact with Hummel in Denmark to assist us in this regard.

We fully appreciate that we are rapidly approaching the festive season and we will do everything we can to avoid any disappointment. We would like to place on record our thanks to our supporters for their patience as we await delivery.

The announcement around Elite Sports Group comes a day after it announced it was suing Scottish giants Rangers for £9.5m, claiming the club breached a contract with allowed the firm to provide the Glasgow side with sportswear.

Mark Cooper has stamped out any talk of Yeovil Town pushing for a place in the National League play-offs after they went three games unbeaten.

A hard-fought point at leaders Notts County at the weekend meant the Glovers have picked up five points from their last three matches ahead of the visit from FC Halifax Town to Somerset this weekend.

The visitors are in decent form having won three of their last five matches and reports in West Yorkshire suggest they are looking towards challenging for the promotion places again. After a poor start, they sit 14th in the table with Yeovil five places and six points behind them having played a game more.

Asked by Three Valleys Radio reporter Adi Hopper if he believed his side’s form could have them looking in a similar direction, Cooper said: “No. The next game (is what we’re focused on). I won’t entertain any talk (about play-offs) we are miles away from it, you have to win four or five games on the trot (to be considered in contention).

We just have to win the next game on Saturday and concentrate fully on Halifax.

He added: “In the position we’re in it’s about making sure we come out of the game with something. I don’t want us to play really well and pretty and not get anything.

Whatever we do, we have to make sure we get something out of the game. We have a duty to entertain our fans, but it’s important we get a result.

We have to perform really well to get anything off Halifax because they are really durable. Chris Millington has stepped up to manager (from assistant manager to Pete Wild last season) and taken to it like a duck to water and done a great job on limited resources.

I have watched their last three or four games and they are a tough team to beat.


Defender Ben Richards-Everton will be available for selection against the Shaymen having missed the last three games through injury.

Cooper also confirmed skipper Josh Staunton, who was a doubt ahead of last weekend’s stalemate at Notts County, had also trained on Thursday despite having a tough 90 minutes against the league leaders.

Ben Richards-Everton. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The manager said: “There’s no secret that at the top level, you have to run, the top teams run more than most. We had to run (a lot at Notts County) to hold on for a valuable point.

All of the boys were out on their feet at the end, which is how it should be, but they’ve all had time to recover. Josh has trained today and he’s in good nick.

He confirmed that winger Charlie Wakefield was still out through injury.

Asked about new signing Louis Britton, who appeared as an 89th-minute substitute last weekend, the boss said: “He’s settled in fine. the issue he has is he’s a number nine like (Alex) Fisher, who has been outstanding.

“He has to train so well and when he gets his minutes, play so well that he has a chance to try and take Fisher’s place.

You have to have competition, if you have no competition you become lazy and complacent and you can’t have that.”


The manager was asked about the form of centre-half Max Hunt who was part of a defensive masterclass seven days ago having been out of favour under previous manager Chris Hargreaves.

Central defender Max Hunt. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Speaking after the draw at Notts County, Hunt said he was not looking back on a fr*st*ating period at the start of the season when he found himself out of the side.

Asked about the player’s renaissance, Cooper said: “He’s 6’4″, he’s decent on the ball, he’s great in the air and whilst I have been here he’s been a good defender.

I can only take as I find and along with some others they have defended really well. Defenders defend as a unit and they have done really well.

It’s a lesson for younger players, I have had a discussion with one or two of them, if they are not in the team, they have to be ready because you have to train and prepare that you are going to play.

Chiori Johnson was out of the team, then we get an illness or injury (in Ben Richards-Everton) and he plays and stays in the team because he’s done well.

“Hunty has been out of the team, a new manager has come in and put him in the team and he’s done well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEJ_lgL8DJQ