March 2023 (Page 4)

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Manager Mark Cooper said his side were ‘against the world’ during Yeovil Town’s 1-1 draw with FC Halifax Town.

A late goal from substitute Malachi Linton cancelled out Matty Warburton’s opener in a match that saw three players leave the pitch injured, Matt Worthington booked and facing a two-match suspension and the denial of a “blatant penalty”.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins the manager praised the entire club: “I thought the effort today, with people absolutely out on their feet at the end, it’s criminal that we’re asking them to keep playing, but they were fantastic – the whole club today: players, staff, supporters. You saw what it meant at the end and we deserved that so much as a club. We were against the world today, I have to be careful what I say, but we were against the world.

“I don’t want to mention the referee, or speak about him, it doesn’t warrant me wasting any breath. It was a blatant penalty. I’d like to watch [the game] back, I thought we got an awful lot of decisions against us today and an horrendous tackle on Edwin Agbaje.”

Lawson D’Ath is lifted to his feet after suffering a hamstring strain.

Agbaje was stretchered off after a tackle in 71st minute and looks set for a long spell on the sidelines. As does Lawson D’Ath who left the pitch in the first half with a hamstring injury. Cooper said D’Ath could be out for three weeks at a minimum. He also said Alex Fisher had hurt his hamstring too. To compound it all, Matt Worthington picked up his tenth booking of the season which will see him miss the next two matches at home against Bromley next weekend and Southend United seven days later.

The boss praised his side’s first half performance though: “Our first performance was brilliant. I thought we totally controlled the game. We need to be in front. My only gripe with the players is that the first half performance needs to be that were winning the game by one or two goals. Because you know that Halifax are going to react. The situation we find ourselves in is a lack of confidence in and around the opposition penalty area. And, I said to the players ‘what’s the worst thing that can happen? You can miss a chance, so what?’ But we need to sort that bit out. If we play like we did today for 70 minutes and the last five minutes when we worked so hard, we’ll be fine.”

With injuries piling up and just four players on the bench – on loan Doncaster Rovers striker Reo Griffiths missed training yesterday and wasn’t named on the bench, although there is no suggestion of an injury – Cooper was hopeful of bringing in the right players before the deadline for registering players on Thursday.

“We need to think about what we’re going to do, because what we don’t want to do is sign loads of players and burden ourselves with loads of debt. We need to make sure that if we bring anyone in they’re going to improve us and they’re ready to go. Hopefully we can come up with a name or two and try and get them into help the boys.”

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Venue: The Shay
Saturday, 18th March, 3pm kick-off

Pitch: Fantastic if you are after a beach holiday
Conditions: On and off drizzle 
Attendance: 1623 (103 away supporters)

Scorers: Matt Warburton 60 (0-1), Malachi Linton 88 (1-1)

Bookings: 

Yeovil Town: Owen Bevan 25, Charlie Cooper 51, Malachi Linton 57, Matt Worthington
FC Halifax Town: Jamie Stott 40

Referee: Jamie O’Connor

Yeovil Town (4-3-3)


Substitutes: Malachi Linton (for Lawson D’Ath, 25), Chiori Johnson (for Edwin Agbaje, 71), Jamie Reckord (for Alex Fisher, 90+4), Will Buse (not used).


Match Report

A Malachi Linton goal two minutes from the end earned Yeovil Town a smash-and-grab point at FC Halifax Town on Saturday.

After a game which was typically lacking in attacking intent from the visitors, the substitute bundled home an effort from Andrew Oluwabori to cancel out an opener from ex-Glovers’ loanee Matt Warburton.

However, there were serious looking injuries to midfielder Lawson D’Ath and on loan Ipswich Town defender Edwin Agbaje, who was stretchered off in the second half, and Matt Worthington picked up a yellow card which will see him get another suspension.

Here was Dave’s view from the away end at The Shay….

 

First half

It took five minutes for ex-Yeovil Town man Matt Warburton to have his first opportunity. It was one gift wrapped for him by Grant Smith whose desire to play it out from the back gifted an opportunity to Milli Alli to play a ball in and Warburton inexplicably put it wide with the goal at his mercy.

The opening ten minutes was a contest of which side lacked quality the most, but one moment for the visitors came on 12 minutes. A good run forward by Andrew Oluwabori fed Jordan Maguire-Drew whose ball went towards Worthington who appeared to be being impeded.

Two minutes later, Maguire-Drew was involved again as his ball in almost found Fisher in the box. Moments later, the ball broke Ryan Law who was pulled down inside the box. Probably not a penalty.

On 21 minutes, a corner was played out to Law who attempted to harness his inner Johan Cruyff (without success) and gifted possession to Halifax. Lawson D’Ath sprinted to the halfway line and pulled up holding his hamstring. He was replaced by Malachi Linton with Worthington dropping deeper.

Lawson D’Ath is lifted to his feet after suffering a hamstring strain.

A mistake by Owen Bevan, now on a booking after a foul on Warburton, allowed Diuserwuve down the right, he fed Alli who in turn found Warburton. Luckily Grant Smith was able to fall on the ball.

The tactic of playing out from the back caused Yeovil all kind of self-inflicted wounds during the first half. For a goalkeeper so adept with his hands, Smith appeared determined to show his quality with his feet – more of a shot-stopper than a footballer.

With five minutes of the half remaining, a ball in from Maguire-Drew went towards Linton who looked to be fouled. More of a shout than the Law’s, but still not more than ‘you’ve seen them given’ territory.

As the game ticked in to injury time, Warburton fizzed one just over the bar just before a forward surge by Oluwabori was flicked towards goal by Fisher. Not enough to force a meaningful stop out of the keeper.

Half time: FC Halifax Town 0 Yeovil Town 0

 

Second half

Five minutes in to the second half Charlie Cooper’s run forward forced a simple save from the keeper.

On 53 minutes, Warburton’s ball found Alli at the back stick, but his header flew over Smith’s goal. Three minutes later, a ball in from Fisher was

But, on the hour mark, the home side found a breakthrough. A good break forward saw Alli find WARBURTON who put a composed finish past Smith.

To add injury to insult, a collision between Edwin Agbaje and had to be stretchered off after 68 minutes. He was replaced by Chiori Johnson, but it did not look good for the on loan Ipswich Town man.

With their goal advantage and their opponents down to the barest of bare bones, Halifax looked to press their advantage. At the other end, there was a distinct lack of quality/confidence/energy (any of the three would be a correct answer). The cries of “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!” from the away support were met with little at the other end.

Five minutes to go, the thing Ben warned about on last week’s podcast happened – a stupid foul from Worthington. Another yellow card and a suspension to help our personnel issues.

Then, from absolute nothing, we were level with two minutes remaining. Yet again it was Oluwabori whose run and hopeful shot was bundled home at the back post by….well, the club’s Twitter account gave it to LINTON but honestly I have no idea.

The assistant raised his flag as if to claim a foul/offside/handball (who honestly knows) and then quickly lowered it and ran to thr halfway line. Halifax keeper Sam Johnstone was shown a yellow card for his protests, but the goal stood.

How’s your heart doing? How about six minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game to really test it? Two minutes in to them,  Josh Staunton personified putting his body on the line with an outstanding block to deny Alli and the visitors hung on for a point.

Manager Mark Cooper leads the applause for the away supporters at the end of the game.

Full time: FC Halifax Town 1 Yeovil Town 1

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Top scorer Alex Fisher returns to the starting XI for today’s visit to FC Halifax Town (3pm kick-off).

The frontman, who has five goals this season, starts as a loan striker with Jordan Maguire-Drew, Andrew Oluwabori and Matt Worthington behind him in midfield.

There is no place for Jordan Young, who has a hamstring injury, and on loan Doncaster Rovers striker Reo Griffiths is the sixth loanee who misses out of the squad.

 

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National League general manager Mark Ives has hailed safeguards in place to prevent its member clubs being “destroyed” by unscrupulous owners.

Speaking to the Price of Football podcast, he was asked about the different operating models employed at different clubs in the division, with the model employed by the big spenders of Wrexham, Notts County and Chesterfield quite different to those on smaller budgets at the other end of the division.

He also revealed that the first payment of money from the National League TV streaming service would be received by clubs this month and gave his views on the way the league distributed of £10m of taxpayers’ money to clubs during the COVID-19 pandemic

On the subject of ownership, Ives revealed the league checks that clubs are “operating the appropriate way” on a monthly basis with regular contact being made with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), aka “the taxman“.

He was talking specifically about clubs being taken over by big-spending owners – presumably referring to the Hollywood boys at Wrexham – but the comments will be of interest at Yeovil Town with owners-in-waiting SU Glovers being led by Matt Uggla, the son of multi-millionaire business, Lance.

Ives said: “As long as clubs can show they are operating within their means and not causing risk to their clubs from an owner potentially loaning money and later on drawing it all out and destroying the club, then they should be able to operate providing they are operating in an affordable way.

“The one good record of the National League is they introduced their own financial reporting mechanism and checking clubs are operating the appropriate way and since that date a true National League club that been in the league for a while has never gone in to insolvency. We have inherited a few but never from our own ranks.

“As part of those checks, we check on a monthly basis money owed to HMRC and, prior to COVID, we didn’t have a single club owing money to HMRC. COVID caused a lot of problems and we are now moving back in the right direction, so our checks come very early and we try to deal with that as we see there is a problem arising.

Asked specifically about Southend, Ives immediately pointed out that Southend had come down from the EFL before adding: “I don’t think it would be appropriate to talk about an individual club on air. That would not be right and that would not be fair to the club.”

The general manager was also asked about what podcast presenter Kevin Day described as “the fuss” around the distribution of £10m of taxpayers’ money to help clubs in the National League survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This system was the subject of a documentary, ‘Gate Money: Inside Non-League Football’s Funding Fiasco’, which looked in to the decisions made by the League.

Commenting ahead of the documentary’s airing last October, Yeovil Town chairman Scott Priestnall said he opposed the way the money was distributed despite the club receiving “the highest level of distribution” of funding. You can read what he said at the time – here.

He added: “I was one director who voted against and regularly opposed the formula and the way the process was dealt with.”

However, Ives disagrees, he told the podcast: “You try to distribute £10m worth of money and you are going to have some opposition from those people who think it should have been sliced in a different way, so I am satisfied there was nothing untoward and nothing done incorrectly.

“The intention of the board was to make sure football could continue whilst in COVID in a safe environment and I can’t criticise the intentions or what they did with that.”

On the method for distribution, Ives said: “I think the confusion (around the distribution) came from the suggestion came from the suggestion that it would be dealt with purely on attendances. I would not agree with something being distributed solely (based) on attendances, it is not a consistent approach.

“If (the National League board) had time, maybe a cleaner way was to look at the sustainability and the financial records of the club. But it has to be remembered that the money was secured at a time when (the National League) had to get the money distributed fairly quickly across the club where some had not had money for several months, so it was backs against the wall and a question of can we get the games kicking off an help the clubs. If they had more time, maybe they would have come out with a different way of distributing the money.”

 

On streaming, Ives described National League TV as “a really, really big success” and said the first payment from the proceeds of the service would be received by member clubs this month.

The service which launched at the end of last year was “well ahead” of the amount of money it had expected to be bringing in and said the distribution model would benefit all of its 72 member clubs .

That model means that providing you declare the fact you are a Yeovil Town supporter when registering on the National League website then 60% of your fee will go in to the Huish Park coffers. A further 25% goes in to a pot which is distributed among the other teams in the National League pyramid – yes, that means W*ymouth do get a bit of your money. The other 15% goes in to another pot which the League says will be “retained by the league for reinvestment”, Mr Ives did not give any information on where that money was going.

Ives said: “One concern of some clubs was will streaming cause an impact on fans coming through the gates, that doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment. The latest figures show 79% of our clubs have shown increases in attendances compared to the previous year.”

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On loan striker Reo Griffiths has been sent to Yeovil Town to get game time, according to Doncaster Rovers manager Danny Schofield.

The boss, who had a spell as a player at Huish Park in 2008-09, said the former Tottenham Hotspur youngster had struggled to get minutes either on the training pitch or during matches.

Griffiths made his first appearance for the Glovers as a 64th minute substitute in the midweek defeat at Barnet, his first appearance since a 17-minute cameo at the end of Donny’s Boxing Day defeat at Tranmere Rovers.

Speaking of the striker to the Doncaster Free Press, Schofield said: “He’s suffered lots of injuries and little setbacks since I have been in the building and he’s not been able to get a run of training sessions, never mind games.

“In order for him to develop that physical aspect of his game we felt he was more likely to get more minutes elsewhere.

“Yeovil showed an interest and I think it’s a good opportunity for Reo to go and play games and help them in their season.”

Griffiths arrived in South Yorkshire in January 2022 having spent the previous four years playing for the reserve side of French giants Lyon after starting his career in the Tottenham Hotspur academy, where he was prolific.

He has appeared five times for Donny, starting just twice, and is yet to score. He scored twice in 16 appearances last season.

On Griffiths’ future, the boss added: “It will be reassessed in the summer. He’s still under contract, so he will be back in the summer.

“As the season comes to an end we will reassess all players.”

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Ian and Ben talk through Barnet and Dave speaks to Halifax supporter Luke ahead of this weekends crunch clash! 

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Yeovil Town are continuing to monitor the fitness of striker Jordan Young as they prepare for a trip to FC Halifax Town at the weekend.

The former Chippenham Town striker missed the midweek defeat at Barnet with a hamstring injury and manager Mark Cooper is hoping to have him back in time for the trip to West Yorkshire.

The Shaymen sit five points above the Glovers in the National League table and are buoyed by a FA Trophy quarter final win last weekend and a blank midweek after their home match was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

Speaking ahead of the game, Cooper reiterated that he did not think there was much opportunity to bring in any new players ahead of the weekend with the deadline to register players closing next Thursday.

He said: “We are that late in the day now that to get anything of the quality that can help us is difficult. The one thing I know about the boys we have got is that they will have a right go at it, I think from where we were we are in a decent position, we are (four) points clear (of the relegation zone)  with good games to play. We are calm and we know what to do.”

Midfielder Jordan Stevens was due to have a scan on a hamstring injury on Thursday night, but the manager said he expected to be missing the recent signing for up to four weeks after he limped off in the first half at Barnet.

He also revealed defender Morgan Williams, who suffered a knee injury in the 1-0 home win over Eastleigh, was likely to be missing for “between four and six weeks” with defender Max Hunt back doing some “light jogging“.

Midfielder Scott Pollock, who has not featured since signing ten days ago, had “just started training on grass” and Charlie Wakefield was still missing with “a sore back.”

Hunt is doing some light jogging, it’ll be a while before he gets back on the grass. Charlie Wakefield still has a sore back, Scott Pollock just started training on the grass. Morgan Williams’ scan was not great so he is going to be 4-6 weeks.

 

Cooper said he was looking forward to back-to-back blank midweeks following the trip to Halifax with two home fixtures coming up against tenth-placed Bromley and then ninth-placed Southend United on March 25th and April 1st respectively.

Following that they face a run of four crucial games against sides around them at the wrong end of the National League table which starts with a trip to Gateshead, who presently occupy 21st place, the first spot below the dotted line, on Tuesday 4th April. They then travel to Aldershot Town (presently in 17th place) on Good Friday, and then host Dorking Wanderers who sit a place below them on Easter Monday.

Cooper said: “We know what we have to do, we have ten games and we have to cobble together enough fit players to try and keep putting a competitive team out.

“The ones we are playing are fighting for their lives so it could equally be tougher. It is important that we take each game on its merit, the hardest thing is to win a game of football, there’s another 11 players trying to stop your 11 players. You have to respect the opposition.

“I am looking forward to the rest of the season, there’s ten games, we have our destiny in our own hands. We have four points (between us and the relegation zone) plus our goal difference, if you had said that to me when I came in I would have taken it.

“We have some really good characters in the changing room that have been here a while who understand what it means and is about, and I mean.”

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Paul Fairclough, England C manager, has named his final 16 for the England C game against their Welsh counterparts next Tuesday and unfortunately, Matt Worthington hasn’t made the cut.

Initially named in the squad last week, Worthy was hoping to make his International debut next week at Altrincham, but with the squad now trimmed to just 11 starting players and the five subs, he will instead have a well earned rest next midweek.

Sorry, Worthy, we still think you’re our Ginger Pirlo…

Full Squad Below
Pic: Non League Paper

 

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Yeovil Town ’chief steward’ Matt Uggla has said he believes the club’s current squad is capable of surviving in the National League.
The director of SU Glovers, the company which is in the final stages of completing a takeover of the club from chairman Scott Priestnall, took to Twitter after being contacted by a number of supporters following last night’s 2-1 defeat at Barnet.
He and Paul Sackey, the former England rugby union player who is involved in the group, were in the away end at The Hive last night.

In a post on Wednesday, Uggla said: “Tough one last night. Been getting a lot of messages to go out and overhaul the squad and sign this guy and that guy. 

“We are all for improving the squad which we do believe is more than capable of staying up as they proved against Eastleigh and Chesterfield. 
“We have to keep calm and bring in the right players and also on the right terms. 
“There are people we are looking at and if we can get it done then that’s great as it will be part of our long term project for next year. This squad is more than capable. Rome wasn’t built in three weeks.”