March 2023 (Page 7)

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Manager Mark Cooper hailed his Yeovil Town’s performance in a crucial 1-0 win over Eastleigh as evidence of how he wants his side to play.

A second half header from midfielder Matt Worthington earned the win in front of a bumper crowd at Huish Park which puts three points between the Glovers and the National League relegation places.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the game, he said: “I thought were exceptional today, that is the best performance (playing in) the way I like to play. We played some brilliant football, but we also pressed really high with some real athletes in the team, real pace and some of the football we played for an hour was brilliant.

“Then, when you are winning 1-0 and you haven’t won for a while, people get anxious which is human nature but we saw it our brilliantly.

“If there’s a minute to go you have a decision to make, but when there is 20 minutes to go I want to go and pass the ball, create overloads and try and win the game more comfortably.

“We made a conscious effort we were just going to go for it and right from the kick-off we worked a little routine which got us in behind and gave us a bit of impetus, so I was delighted with the first half.”

The manager had praise for forwards Jordan Young and Jordan Maguire-Drew who looked a constant threat against an Eastleigh side who had not conceded in their last three matches.

Cooper said: “(Jordan Young) had a couple of efforts which were close today. It was nice to have Jordan Maguire-Drew back and looking like the player that we know he is. I can’t wait for us to be in the position to get a good pre-season in to him because he can be a massive asset for this football club.”

He confirmed that defender Morgan Williams had sustained a hamstring injury which saw him come off after just three minutes to be replaced by Edwin Agbaje. Cooper said: “It was blow losing Morgs who is a real competitor. We know in Edwin and Chiori (Johnson) we have players to play in that position.”

With three of the division’s bottom four dropping points, the result increases the gap between the Glovers and Gateshead, who occupy the 21st place in the table, to three points – but Cooper was looking no further than the weekend’s trip to another team in the play-offs, Chesterfield.

He added: “I’m a boring manager that does not look (at other results) too much. I just concentrate on getting our team to play and if we play like that we will not have to worry too much.

“But we have some big games coming up now and we can go to a brilliant football club (in Chesterfield) on Saturday with a big atmosphere, a big crowd and go and try and put our game on top of theirs and see how we fair.

“At times we have got away from what we are good at which was that (you saw tonight) and sometimes that is what pressure does and you just have to keep going.”

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Venue: Huish Park
Tuesday 7th March, 7.45pm kick-off

Pitch: Mostly green
Conditions: Cold – very cold
Attendance: 2,961 (165 away supporters)

Scorers: Matt Worthington 64

Bookings: 

Yeovil Town: Jordan Stevens 33, Edwin Agbaje 53,
Eastleigh: Ousseynou Cisse 59, Alfie Lloyd 90+4

Referee: Gary Parsons

Yeovil Town (5-3-2)

Substitutes: Edwin Agbaje (for Morgan Williams, 3), Alex Fisher (for Jordan Maguire-Drew, 73), Lawson D’Ath (for Stevens, 88), Andrew Oluwabori (not used), Reo Griffiths (not used).

Eastleigh: McDonnell, Kelly, Martin, Langston, Cisse, Whitehall, McKiernan (for Maghoma, 75), Rutherford, Lloyd, Scrimshaw (for Atanga, 86). Substitutes (not used): 

Match Report

A second half goal from Matt Worthington earned Yeovil Town a huge win over play-off side Eastleigh in front of a bumper crowd at Huish Park on Tuesday night.

It was a performance to warm a bitterly cold night in Somerset with a unusually pulsating first half shooting towards the away end, but the winning goal came after 64 minutes when Worthington rose at the back post to head home a Jordan Stevens cross.

Eastleigh, who constantly looked a threat at the opposite end, were reduced to ten men when midfielder Ousseynou Cisse got a second booking for bringing down a non-stop Jordan Young and the Glovers held out for a deserved three points.

 

First half

 

It was a nightmare start for Yeovil as Morgan Williams stretched for a ball and looked to pull his hamstring. The result was he had to be replaced by Edwin Agbaje after just three minutes.

On the pitch, Michael Kelly (one of the ex-Glovers in the visitors’ line-up along with strikers Alfie Lloyd and Jake Scrimshaw) found Danny Whitehall whose speculative effort from long range lifted over the bar.

Morgan Williams receives treatment after going down early. Nice to see a couple of physios!

There was some good pressure from the home side in the opening ten minutes with some confident play in the middle of the park, but not a great deal going in to the box.

For Eastleigh, great forward run from Lloyd – who has certainly ‘filled out’ since he was in the youth set-up at Huish Park – made a powerful run down the right and his ball found its way to Ousseynou Cisse, who dragged his shot wide. Warning sign, that.

On 15 minutes, Yeovil gave the visitors their own warning sign as a great cross from Matt Worthington almost found Jordan Young in the middle. He couldn’t get a decent connection on the ball, echoes of his opportunity against Woking last weekend.

Five minutes later it was a bursting run forward by Jordan Stevens who unlocked the visiting defence and prodded the ball to Jordan who just could not get his shot away surrounded by a host of Eastleigh defenders. The ball broke to Worthington who went down looking for a penalty. Not for me, Matty.

But if you wanted to see what a stonewall penalty is, you only had to wait two minutes. Young rounded keeper Joe McDonnell and was unceremoniously pulled to the ground. Referee Gary Parsons neither gave the penalty or book Young for diving. Rule 1 of the Gloverscast prevents us from saying  what an absolute joke of a decision that was anything on this decision.

Yeovil did not allow this blatant piece of terrible refereeing piece of bad luck put them off and Jordan Maguire-Drew was next in the action with a bending effort from the edge of the box which McDonnell had to touch over the box.

The next chance fell to Eastleigh after 35 minutes. A low free-kick inside the box landed to the feet of Charlie Carter charging in to the box with Josh Staunton and Jamie Reckord charging back at him, and the midfielder fired wide of Grant Smith’s right-hand post.

This is some game! On 39 minutes, McDonnell was in action again as Maguire-Drew was found from a corner, did superbly to take the ball down and bent it towards the bottom corner, but the keeper did superbly to turn it wide. Don’t you just hate it when keepers have worldies against us?

Wow. If that was the first half, I can’t wait for the second.

 

Half time: Yeovil Town 0 Eastleigh 0

 

Second half

The first chance fell to Yeovil as they broke in from the right with first Law having a go, it broke to Reckord who looked certain to bundle it home before Worthington’s header was cleared off the line by George Langston. God, what do we have to do to score?

At the other end another rapid break from Eastleigh saw Danny Whitehall find half-a-yard of space and got a shot in which Smith dropped on quickly.

On the hour mark, Eastleigh broke on the counter attack and it was Whitehall again whose header was cleared off the line by Matt Worthington. For all our pressure, there’s still that threat at the other end.

From one end to the other and two minutes later, a great ball in from the right by Maguire-Drew and it was Jordan Young putting himself in where it hurt (see Mark Cooper’s comments after the game against Woking) but he could not quite turn it in to a real effort to test McDonnell.

The breakthrough that Yeovil’s performance had deserved came on 66 minutes. A superb ball in from the left by Stevens found WORTHINGTON rising like a salmon (not Pollock, he’s injured) at the back post to head the ball home. Thank goodness the useless referee did not see the push for Worthy.

A great leap (definitely not a push, ref!) by Matt Worthington for the opener.

But, this game was far from over and three minutes after taking the lead, Lloyd threatened to be the party pooper for his old employers, but his effort was deflected wide on 68 minutes.

On 73 minutes, Maguire-Drew (he might have been off the boil in recent games, but he was on it tonight) was replaced by Fisher.

Nine minutes later the visitors were reduced to ten after great play by Staunton set the tireless Young, who collided with Cisse. It was the midfielder’s second booking – his first had come for dissent earlier in the half – and he was given his marching orders by this useless referee.

Christian Maghoma gets his marching orders from referee Gary Parsons.

There were plenty of heart in mouth moments as Eastleigh were given free-kicks in dangerous positions as the game ticked in to injury time. How is your blood pressure? When Carter put an effort wide three minutes in to five minutes of injury time mine was……not great.

But Yeovil hung on for the win and put three points between themselves and Gateshead, who occupy the National League’s final relegation place.

Full time:  Yeovil Town 1 Eastleigh 0

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has confirmed new signing midfielder Scott Pollock misses tonight’s home game with Eastleigh through injury.

The boss said the fitness of the 22-year-old, who signed from National League North side Boston United on Monday, was being monitored, whilst loan arrival striker Reo Griffiths was “not up to starting yet” having not featured for his parent club Doncaster Rovers since Boxing Day.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins ahead of kick-off at Huish Park, Cooper said that he was rotating players with defender Ryan Law returning in place of Edwin Agbaje having missed last weekend’s 1-0 home defeat to Woking.

The boss said: “We have one or two that are playing with injuries they don’t even know about, but they are just playing through. We have tried to freshen it up a bit because we are playing Saturday and then Tuesday, so it’s important we have enough fresh legs on the pitch.

“Ryan came from Plymouth and he had not played for a while and then he has played four or five games in the space of two weeks and we wanted to give him a breather (against Woking) and freshen him up for tonight, so he should be flying.“

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Yeovil Town make two changes for the visit of Eastleigh to Huish Park tonight.

Jordan Maguire-Drew and Ryan Law both return to the starting line-up in place of Alex Fisher and Edwin Agbaje, who both drop to the bench.

New signing striker Reo Griffiths is also named among the substitutes having joined on loan from Doncaster Rovers on Monday, but there is no place in the squad for fellow new arrival Scott Pollock, who is understood to be injured.

For the visitors Jake Scrimshaw, who started the season at Huish Park, and former Glovers’ youth team product Alfie Lloyd, who is on loan at the Hampshire side from QPR, start up front, with fellow ex-Yeovil man Michael Kelly at left-back.

Yeovil Town (5-3-2)

 

 

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Save the ‘net zero’ jokes, we’ve heard them all already! But, yes, Yeovil Town appear to have formed a partnership with Net Zero World to become net zero.

The company, which was sold by Paul Sackey to new owner Benjamin Matley last month, made the announcement on its Instragram account on Monday night whilst we were all busily trying to figure out what kind of a standard Lyon’s reserves play at.

The post read: “We are so excited to announce our new partnership with @ytfcofficial. We’re looking forward to support he club achieve their goal of becoming the first Net Zero National League team.”

The club’s official Instagram account responded to the post with: “Welcome to the YTFC family.” So it’s safe to suggest this is legit.

Not to get too science-y, but becoming net zero means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere. It is different to carbon neutral which is about removing carbon dioxide, and counts for any harmful greenhouse gases.

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Back with our regularly scheduled programming on this one, with a look back at Woking and a look forward to Eastleigh. Plus, we answer your #GCQs.

Thank you for your continued support of the Gloverscast. Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news and views from Huish Park.

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If you have an idea for the website, want to contribute or just want to send us a message, feel free to email ian@gloverscast.co.uk.

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Striker Reo Griffiths has become Yeovil Town’s second signing of the day after joining on loan from League Two Doncaster Rovers.

The former Tottenham Hotspur youngster follows goal-scoring midfielder Scott Pollock in to Huish Park as the Glovers prepare to face play-off side Eastleigh in the National League tomorrow night.

The 22-year-old has made five appearances for his parent club who he joined in January 2022 from French side Lyon. The Ligue 1 outfit signed him from the Spurs academy where he was prolific at youth level, scoring 33 times in the 2017-18 season in the club’s academy side.

Despite not making a first team appearance for Lyon, he netted 13 times in 34 appearances for their reserves.

 

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Boston United goal-scoring midfielder Scott Pollock has given Yeovil Town a boost as they seek to battle away from the National League relegation zone.

The 21-year-old has 14 goals in 26 National League North games for the Pilgrims has joined until the end of the 2024/25 season, subject to FA approval, for an undisclosed fee.

Speaking on today’s edition of the podcast, new owner/chief steward Matt Uggla announced that a deal had been done for two new signings who would be joining training on Monday. Listen to the latest edition – here.

He has also hinted at a second signing this evening in a post on his Twitter – keep your eyes peeled at 8pm.

https://twitter.com/matt_uggla/status/1632815097029468164?s=46&t=WtvNT_gimbsZucukkCH_Aw

Announcing the signing, Boston revealed the former Northampton Town player turned down a new contract to make the move to Somerset.

They said: “We made a very attractive offer to retain his services, however it was clear that Scott did not wish to fulfil his contract, therefore the move to Yeovil became the best option for both parties.”

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Yeovil Town’s home game against Southend United, scheduled for April fools Day – April 1st has been selected for TV Coverage by BT Sport.

The game has been shifted from a 3pm to a 5:20pm kick off as a result.

You’ll be able to tune in and see how the presenters butcher the name “Huish” following the conclusion of their Football Goals programme covering the 3pm games.