December 2022 (Page 4)

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Charlie Wakefield is hoping the attack the second half of Yeovil Town’s National League season after a return to fitness.

The 24-year-old started the season playing in an unfamiliar wing-back position under former boss Chris Hargreaves despite having thrived in a more advanced position last season.

Speaking ahead of the weekend’s FA Trophy third round tie with Dorking Wanderers, he said: “At the start of the season, I probably would have wanted to be out high and wide like I did last season, but t’s not all about me.

“Chris Hargreaves wanted to play wing backs and we had a chat at the time and I said, from my perspective, as long as I was playing, getting that experience in a new role then whatever.

“I want to be as high and wide as possible and be more of an attacking player. I want to be an exciting player going forward, so I will keep my head down, keep working hard and hopefully I can get the form back from last season.”

The unfamiliar role has been coupled with a back injury which he recently had a scan on and is now hoping to be back to full fitness.

Having played the full 90 minutes of the 2-1 win over Taunton Town in the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup, he was back playing at wing-back whilst also feeling under the weather for last weekend’s stalemate against Scunthorpe United.

Wakefield admits getting game time – regardless of the competition – has helped his recovery having been missing since the 1-1 draw at Maidstone United at the end of October.

He added: “I am really enjoying it, I am back playing now which is good. Everything is never plain sailing, I wanted to come back and kick on again, but injuries have given me a set back.

“I managed to get a scan on my back and now I just want to kick on. We are halfway through the season and I just want to have the best half a season I can, it’s great to be back to from injury and I’m in the right mindset.”

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Manager Mark Cooper is hoping to bring in “a real quality addition” to his Yeovil Town squad ahead of this weekend’s FA Trophy match against Dorking Wanderers.

The Glovers’ boss also confirmed defender Jamie Reckord and Ben Richards-Everton, who both missed last Saturday’s goalless draw with Scunthorpe United through illness and injury, both trained on Thursday.

He added: “We are hoping there will be one in before the weekend which will give us a real lift going in to that game.”

Asked how he would sell the game to supporters, he added: “It’s a chance for us to get to Wembley, but I can’t really sell (the fans) too much right now because we’re not scoring loads of goals but what I can promise them we are going to try really hard.

“Hopefully we can have a real quality addition in the building by Saturday which will make them really want to come to the game.”

Cooper could only name three substitutes, including on loan goalkeeper Will Buse, last weekend and said he was pleased that players who did play against Scunthorpe despite illness were now feeling better.

He added: “We have got some of the others like Ewan Clark and Charlie Wakefield, who were both really under the weather against Scunthorpe, managed to shake it off, so we have more or less a full complement this week.”

Midfielder Matt Worthington will also be available against Dorking after missing the draw with Scunthorpe through suspension.

The team has been training at Alvington all week despite the freezing conditions, but training took place on the 3G surface at Huish Park on Thursday.

The frost covers have been on at the stadium in recent days and with temperatures forecast to drop to minus five degrees in Somerset overnight on Friday, they will be needed.

He confirmed that striker Jake Scrimshaw had been missing with “some personal issues” which had seen him missing from the Glovers’ squad in recent weeks.

The 22-year-old, who signed from Premier League AFC Bournemouth in the summer, has not featured under Cooper and his last outing was as a second half substitute in the 2-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic in October.

Asked about his absence, Cooper said: “He’s had some personal issues that he’s had to deal with and as a club we are supporting him in them and trying to make sure he gets the best of help.”

Scrimshaw in action for Bournemouth U21s ?AFCB U21 Twitter

With Tuesday night’s trip to Barnet postponed due to the wintry weather, the squad has continued to an alarming lack of goals which means the Glovers remain the National League’s lowest scorers.

Cooper said the training had not just focused on getting the club’s strikers finding the net – although hopefully there was a bit of that – and said the rest of the team needed to look at ways to contribute to the goals scored tally.

He said: “We want to keep being defensively really sound, as a unit from the goalkeeper all the way through we have been defensively outstanding. The desire to keep the ball out of the net has been brilliant.

“But we have to try and unlock the forward bit and we are trying to do some work to make us a bit better in the final third.

“It’s not always just the forward players because wide players need good service for them to provide the forward players with good service, and the midfield has a role.

“So it’s an ongoing thing and we just have to try and improve the quality. Sometimes that is through repetition in training or bringing better players in.

“If you look at how many balls we had out of our own goalmouth, compared to the opposition goalmouth it would be a stark contrast.

“When it’s our own corner, we need to come in with the same aggression we do when we are defending and if we do that we will score hundreds of goals from set pieces.”

Alex Fisher is Yeovil’s top scorer this season with four goals. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

 

Cooper also confirmed that his side had practised penalties in training with the third round tie settled by a shoot-out if scores are level at full time.

Last season, the Glovers went out in a shoot-out against Southern League side Needham Market in the fourth round.

Asked about it, Cooper added: “I’m a firm believer you can’t replicate the pressure of taking a penalty, you can take 100 penalties in training but when you have the pressure of hundreds of people screaming and shouting at you it is different.

“Of course we will practice penalties, but I am still not sure that guarantees you scoring on the day. It’s about picking five people who are confident and really want to take them.”

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Back in August the Glovers confirmed the signing of Bournemouth striker Jake Scrimshaw. The 21-year-old signed for Yeovil from the Cherries on a two-year-deal and there was a fair amount of excitement around the signing.

He scored four goals in 19 appearances for Scunthorpe last season and had fleeting spells at Newport County and Walsall in the previous season. He had a prolific record for Bournemouth’s academy sides and came with a promising pedigree.

At the announcement of his signing, Chris Hargreaves said: “I’m really pleased to welcome Jake to the club. He’s a versatile forward who can offer us flexibility in the way we play and utilise him.

“Jake is the sort of player who will work his socks off for the team. He’s desperate to be a success here at Yeovil Town.

Scrimshaw in action for Bournemouth U21s ?AFCB U21 Twitter

Since his signing, Scrimshaw has made five appearances in the National League for Yeovil from the bench spending just over 13 minutes on the pitch on average. His last appearance was 8 minutes against Oldham Athletic in Chris Hargreaves’ penultimate match in charge.

Towards the end of September, Hargreaves did give an insight into ‘Scrimmy’s’ first months at the club: “It has been a tough position for him coming from Bournemouth to us, the National League has different elements to under-21s at Bournemouth. He’s fighting for his spot and there’s competition for places with Gime Toure who has scored and Malachi Linton, but Scrimmy certainly working hard to get that start.”

That start never came and since Mark Cooper took over from Hargreaves at the end of October Scrimshaw hasn’t been in a match day squad, although he was seen with the players at Woking.

It seems a safe assumption that all is not well there. Scrimshaw has largely been overlooked by two managers since his signing and in a side that has struggled to stick the ball in the net, he’s never been seen as the answer to the Glovers’ goal scoring woes. In truth, we don’t really have any idea what sort of player he is. When he joined Scunthorpe last season, then manager Neil Cox said: “He’s a centre forward who wants to play on the shoulder and run in behind, and wants to be in the penalty box to score goals. We’ll be patient with him and encourage him but I’m sure he’ll be an excellent signing for us.”

Cooper quickly recruited Anthony Georgiou, Andrew ‘the right winger’ Oluwabori and Louis Britton and gave Alex Fisher a clearly defined role in order to make Yeovil more productive in the final third. He has since let Hargreaves’ signings Ollie Hulbert and Will Dawes go out on loan.

The departure of Georgiou back to Leyton Orient to ‘balance the books’ raised eyebrows in the aftermath of Saturday’s 0-0 with Scunthorpe and if the scales still aren’t right, surely Scrimshaw will be high on the list of potential outgoings. The question is, with a two-year deal and just 67 minutes on the pitch this season, how on earth are Yeovil going to move Scrimshaw along if that’s the desire?

This isn’t the first (and won’t be the last) curious case at Yeovil Town, earlier this year we wrote about Alex Bradley…

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Yeovil Town have been officially charged by the Football Association after the York City match in September was marred by an alleged incident of racism.

In the monthly list of FA charges for November, the Glovers have been hit with the following charge which dates back to the September 3rd fixture.

“INCIDENT OF MISCONDUCT – CROWD CONTROL
Yeovil Town FC, National League

Yeovil Town FC v York City FC
National League
3 September 2022

Breach of FA Rule E21.4 – It is alleged that during the fixture Yeovil Town FC failed to ensure that its spectators, and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers, conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and failed to ensure those persons did not use words or otherwise behave in an improper and/or abusive and/or insulting manner with either express or implied reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race.

Yeovil Town FC have denied the charge and request a personal hearing.”

You probably don’t need reminding that an allegation of racism was aimed towards the York City penalty taker Lenell John-Lewis in the build up to his spot kick.

The penalty was scored and was the only goal of the game, with Yeovil losing 1-0.

A police and internal investigation was launched, a number of people were spoken to in the local vicinity of the incident, but no culprit was found and the matter was considered finished.

Both Avon and Somerset Police and Yeovil Town have told the Gloverscast that anyone with any information can contact them, saying at the time that anyone who knows anything about the individual responsible for this disgusting act to contact them calling 101 and giving crime reference number 5222215076. Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 55511

Whilst there is a dedicated Match Day Hotline for Yeovil fans to use if they hear anything untoward in the future, saying in a statement: “If you hear any form of discrimination inside or around Huish Park, we urge all supporters to report it on the day to our stewards or report anonymously on our designated matchday hotline – 07724 152 534.”

According to the Football Association’s own guidelines on sanctions, if found guilty, Yeovil Town could be asked to form an ‘Action Plan’ and/or suffer a fine, with other sanctions such as partial/whole stadium closure coming into play for multiple incidents of this nature.

The FA states:

“A Regulatory Commission will have due regard to the circumstances and seriousness of the incident when determining the appropriate sanction (to include the level of any financial penalty that may be imposed).

In so doing, the Regulatory Commission will consider a range of factors, to include the following:
1. The number of supporters involved;
2. The nature of the behaviour of those involved;
3. The duration of the incident(s);
4. Whether the Club (and/or its officers):
a. took all reasonable steps in its preparation and planning for the fixture in which the Relevant Breach occurred;
b. took all reasonable steps in dealing effectively with the incident, when it arose;
c. took all reasonable steps in identifying the supporter(s) involved;
d. took sufficient action against those supporters responsible where those individuals were identified;
5. Whether the Club cooperated in full with The FA;
6. The previous disciplinary record of the Club or its Participants in relation to Aggravated Breaches or Relevant Breaches;
7. In cases where an Action Plan has previously been imposed on a Club, whether the Club has complied in full with that Action Plan.”

No date has been disclosed for the hearing.

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Yeovil Town’s trip to Barnet in the National League has been postponed with temperatures forecast to remain below freezing in London.

The Bees held a pitch inspection at The Hive on Monday afternoon and the referee decided to postpone the match with forecast predicting more freezing weather over the next 24 hours.

All tickets purchased for the fixture will be valid for the rearranged fixture which is yet to be scheduled, or anyone unable to attend the alternative date can claim a refund. For details, click – here.

With Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper only able to name two substitutes for Saturday’s goalless draw with bottom club Scunthorpe United, the postponement is probably a blessing in disguise against the in-form Bees who have won four out of their last four league matches.

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Purefoy (right) with Gary Johnson in 2013
? James Purefoy Fan Facebook

Hollywood actor and Glovers’ fan James Purefoy has told an American movie podcast he has been asked about a potential takeover of Yeovil Town.

Speaking to ‘Beyond the Mic’ with Sean Dillon to promote his film ‘Fisherman’s Friend 2’ he was asked (slightly tongue in cheek) if he could… would he buy Yeovil Town to challenge Wrexham… his response was not all that positive.

The Taunton-born actor said: “Don’t scare the hell out of me, people have been asking me to put a consortium together to buy Yeovil Town.”

It was pointed out that Hollywood loves “soccer” now… but Purefoy was still hesitant.

“The idea of it, do I have time in my life, for Yeovil Town? Not in that way”.

Well James, if you ever change your mind… or just want to come on the pod and tackle the Fans Five questions… you’re more than welcome to.

Ryan Reynolds, you’re safe… for now!

 

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Well, streaming is here in the National League, and Gloverscast Ben has been exploring.

Ryan Reynolds and that other bloke who owns Wrexham, threw enough toys out of their pram and now, anyone in the world can dial in to watch their beloved National League side.

For the cost of a Motorway Services Meal Deal, I can, from the comfort of my own sofa, log into a site and watch the Glovers in action, and that’s exactly what I did on Saturday as Yeovil hosted Scunthorpe United.

I’ve long been a sceptic of streaming at this level, but I accept there are pros and cons to this, so I thought I’d jot a few down.

As ever, let us know what you think and how you think it’ll change (if at all) how you consume Yeovil Town matches.

The Pros

1) First of all, the entire process of signing up, pledging my allegiance to Yeovil and parting with my £4.75 via PayPal was all very easy.

2) The quality of image, audio and graphics were pretty good.

That’s a good start, we saw during the lockdown days that not every side has great coverage.

We at Yeovil had a ball tracking camera at one point which focused in on a bald lino’s noggin once or twice, but that isn’t the case here.

The camera operator might need a spirit level as it looked a little wonky at times, but there’s was some nice graphics, even a replay or two and at half time we were treated to an ‘as it stands’ table.

There’s clearly some sort of work going on externally, quite possibly a director and someone working on the games, which, is a pretty good effort from the National League.

3) I bought a ticket! That means that 60% of my £4.75 (£2.85) has gone into the club coffers. I wonder what they’ll spend it on?

In all seriousness, I wouldn’t have given the club a penny to consume that game before hand. All three Gloverscasters bought a stream. This will prove to be an extra revenue stream. (Hold that thought, we’ll come back to it later)

4) It got me thinking about who else might have purchased who may not have otherwise done so.

Friend of the pod, Elliot Watts said his grandad was set up with a stream, he wouldn’t have otherwise made the game and now he’s given the club £2.75.

How many grandads wouldn’t have fancied the cold today? How many are poorly and find mobility difficult? How many people miss out because of Somerset’s horrendous public transport systems in and around the towns and villages? How many exiles would have dialled in? How many people are working and finish too late to get to HP?

Those numbers might be difficult to quantify straight away, but I know those people listed above all exist and probably in not insignificant hoards.

Those people now need to be targeted, advertised to, helped, guided, shown how easy it is to access. For every Watts’ grandad, you need an Elliot to set things up. #BeMoreElliot

5) I was fearful of the audio. I didn’t know what we might get. Would it be something generic or just stadium ambience? It was actually really good to have BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins on commentary and ex-Glovers’ keeper Chris Weale summarising.

The audio was in sync too which was good.

I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the BBC Somerset team and both Ian and I know how much effort goes in to providing those without eyes on Huish Park good enough coverage on match days (and beyond).

It’s vital that a club like Yeovil has good local coverage from media outlets, we should protect it, support it and ensure we don’t let it become a secondary aspect of how we consume YTFC as a whole.

The Cons

1) I’m reliably informed it was really cold today. England were on the telly in the evening. Christmas shopping needs to be done. There was a chance the game might not be on. Fuel costs a fortune too.

That’s a lot of reasons to think…. nah, I’ll skip the game, watch online and go about other errands.

So if “Joe Bloggs” from just outside Yeovil likes to go to the game occasionally, but didn’t today… Yeovil Town have gone from getting 100% of an £18 ticket, plus maybe a sold programme, or a pie or a pint… old Bloggsy (as his mates call him) has now given the Glovers £2.75 rather than £27.50 ish… that’s quite a drop, multiply that equation by however many and that’s a massive shortfall.

It’ll take ten additional streams to make up for one Joe Bloggs…

That’s a massive challenge for every club at this level – what are you going to do to make a trip to Huish Park special?

Without trying to answer my own question (Hi CleaveO), the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust got 300+ kids at the game today, the England game was being shown in the Alec Stock lounge… there was a sense of ‘Match Day Experience’.

This has NEVER been more vital.

We can go deep into ticket prices, offers, loyalty schemes, quality of football, but, the crux of it is, should people stop physically going, this whole thing will be the end of football at this level.

I could ramble on here about people being physically present leads to a better atmosphere, a sense of belonging, helping your side earn a point, suck in the winner in the last minute, none of those things are tangible, but they matter.

What about getting volunteers? Who will volunteer to sell the programmes, or man the tea bars, or sell the golden gambles, or donate to the excellent Food Bank initiative if no one actually attends?

Physical presence matters. Big time.

2) Scunthorpe fans gave Yeovil Town next to nothing today.

The away crowds are an underestimated part of all this.

I’d bet that more Scunthorpe fans saw the game than would have done normally, ok, that’s cool. But how much easier do the excuses come for an away fan to not make the journey?

Scunthorpe is a long way from Yeovil. That’s a lot of fuel, a lot of time, a lot of effort… to watch a 0-0.

If even one Scunthorpe fan chose stream over travel, then Yeovil Town has lost out on 100% of that potential revenue. With just a tiny portion of a Scunny stream purchase going to be split among all 72 clubs.

Scunthorpe made their £2.75 (60% of the £4.75 stream fee), but with just 25% (£1.18) set aside for the big pot to be shared. And then taking that and splitting it 70/30 for National League/NL N&S… means Yeovil got… an equal share of 82 pence, which when divided by 23 other sides in the division gives Yeovil… 3.5 pence.

(I HATE MATHS)

Scunthorpe might be a long way away, but what about Torquay? What if they don’t sell 500 tickets, they only sell 400, because 100 would rather watch the stream?

I’m not going to do any more maths, but thats a lot of people to go from spending a minimum of £18 at Huish Park to 3.5 pence.

Now, this goes both ways of course.

I’ll watch the Barnet game on Tuesday, I wouldn’t have otherwise gone.

I’ll give Yeovil Town another £2.75. I’ll give Barnet 3.5 pence.

Will there be enough Gloverscast Bens to make up for the lack of Joe Bloggs? Only time will tell.

In conclusion

You can see the challenges that will occur, the pressure is now on clubs at our level to make sure the right people attend the game in good enough numbers whilst targeting stream viewers as extra revenue.

Can the club get a stream sponsor? Can they make sure those who have advertising boards REALLY appreciate how many extra eyes will see their product and their logo – look at the screenshots in this article, you can see, Westbury Packaging, Hellier Group, Garador, Jurrasic Fibre, Thatchers and more.

It’s worth noting that the stream figures above will double the other side of Christmas, the £4.75 fee is a half price offer to start things off.

It’s going to be a fascinating ride and I’m really not sure how it’ll all play out.

I’m fearful of the next big expected away crowd, if numbers start to drop, we could be in for a turbulent time, we’ve already heard the term ‘balancing the books’ from the manager.

The way the revenue is split, there are obviously a few clubs who will benefit more than most (Prynhawn da cefnogwyr, Wrecsam), the gap between top and bottom will only grow and those sides who get into the regional divisons below will have an even mightier task to provide a service.

There’s a huge lack of fairness here, especially half way through a season – I thought that every penny this season should have all gone into one pot to be split 72 ways.

If a side has already had its “big” days out away somewhere, those additional streams of fans who haven’t travelled have been lost.

How many Yeovil fans would have dialled into the game at Notts County for example, putting their couple quid into the pot at the same time?

Is streaming a good thing?

I’ll answer hypocritically – for me, yes, absolutely.

For Yeovil Town… I’m cautiously concerned.