September 2023 (Page 7)

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Mark Cooper described Yeovil’s upcoming FA Cup tie with AFC Stoneham as a “no-win” situation.

The Wessex League Premier Division side, who ply their trade three divisions below the Glovers, will travel to Huish Park looking to cause an upset.

Cooper said: “It’s a ‘no-win’ for us and it’s a ‘win-win’ for Stoneham because everyone expects us to win. For us, it’s about paying total respect to Stoneham.

“It’s about them, it’s their day but we have a job to do and our only job is to make sure we try and get in the next round.

“They’ve not played lots of league games yet but I think they’re at the top of their league. We had them watched at Cowes on Saturday, so we’re paying as much respect as we would to a Torquay United or whoever we were playing.”

When asked if he’d consider rotating his team for the visit of the Purples, Cooper had a simple answer.

“No. We’re trying to win the game so I’m going to play the strongest team I can. I’ve never had an easy game and I don’t expect one.”

Experienced defender Michael Smith could be in line to make his debut after signing for the Glovers following his release from Hearts.

“He’s been on our radar for a while and obviously Michael with his stock and having played 30-odd games in the Scottish Premier and Europe last year, he was a little bit out of our price range.

Michael Smith signed on Tuesday

“He was exploring the possibilities of League One and he’s had some big offers to go back to Scotland but he wanted to settle in Bristol because of his family and that’s the only reason we’ve managed to get him. He could have gone back to Scotland for treble the amount that he’s getting paid with us and it just fell lucky for us at the right time.”

The Northern Ireland international will be hoping his first Huish Park appearance is as successful as the drum that made its debut on the terrace last week!

“I think the Chairman’s just got that to drown out the moaners! I asked him for that to shut them blokes up behind me!

“I thought it was great, the players loved it. When there’s those dull lulls in the game, it keeps going. I think it adds to the experience, definitely.”

 

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Yeovil Town have completed the signing of experienced defender Michael Smith until the end of the season with an option for a further year.

The 35-year-old has been a free agent since he left Scottish Premier League side Hearts of Midlothian.

Speaking on the club’s official channels, the new man said: “Speaking to the gaffer [Mark Cooper] and the coaching staff, they want to build something here. The club’s probably lower than it should be at the minute but you know with a good squad, I thought it’s a good opportunity to create something and help the team and hopefully get promoted this year.”

On how the move came about Smith said: “I was moving back to Bristol anyway, that’s where my family home is now. I wanted to be based around the area. I had a chat with the gaffer, came down, seen what it was all about and had a good chat with the staff, trained with the boys and decided ‘yeah it fits’. I’m just looking forward to the challenge now.”

He made over 200 appearances in all competitions for the Edinburgh side, including appearances in their Europa Conference League campaign last season.

Smith also boasts a wealth of experience elsewhere, including 200 appearances in the EFL for Bristol Rovers and Peterborough United, and 19 caps for Northern Ireland, scoring 1 goal for his country.

He was seen as a trialist at Cheltenham Town this summer, but has shuffled down south to join the Glovers. Smith is primarily a right back, but can also fill in at centre back, or defensive midfield, giving manager Mark Cooper plenty of options across the field.

Welcome to Huish Park Michael!

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Yeovil Town’s National League South fixture with Hampton & Richmond Borough will be segregated with 625 tickets available.

The game takes places on 23rd September and tickets are available from here and are priced at £17 for adults, £12 for concessions, £5 for 16-18 and £3 for Under 16s.

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A ‘doublay from Noublay’ was enough to help the Glovers pick up another three points against Eastbourne on Saturday.

It was also enough to land him a spot in the Vanarama National League South Team of the Week.

We might be biased, but Josh Owers and Joe Day might consider themselves unlucky not to have made the cut, but we would say that.

Jack Paxman of Eastbourne also makes it as does former Glovers loanee, Ryan Law,now of Truro.

Good work, Frank.

 

 

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Two wins in a row and an entertaining match to boot. Ian and Dave are joined by Former Gloverscast Quiz Champion, Rob Manley, to talk about the 3-2 win over Eastbourne Borough.

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What’s better than one 3-2 win? Well, two 3-2 wins of course! That’s exactly what happened yesterday, as Yeovil defeated Eastbourne Borough at a baking hot Huish Park. Let’s go around the grounds and see what else went down on a sweltering Saturday afternoon.

We’ll begin with two 3-1 fixtures, both ending in victories for the away side. Truro City had too much for Havant & Waterlooville and their new manager Steve King, while W*ymouth picked up their first points since matchday 4 with a win over Dover Athletic. Another big win came for a travelling side in Taunton, who dismantled Tonbridge Angels by 3 goals to nil.

Torquay United continued their good start with a late 2-1 win over Chelmsford City, who can feel unlucky to not come away from the south west with a point following a 94th minute own goal from Samir Carruthers. Two sides going into the day with the same record were Chippenham Town and Maidstone, who came away with a 2-0 win. A surprise result came west of London, where Slough Town ended Aveley’s good run of form with a 2-0 victory.

There were some 1-1 draws across the division, with Braintree Town and Farnborough getting off to a frenetic start with 2 goals in the first 6 minutes. A match that took a little longer to warm up was at the site of Yeovil’s midweek win, where Weston-super-mare and Hampton & Richmond settled for a point each, while Worthing came back to earn a point at home to 10 man Hemel Hempstead.

St Albans City continued to get their season back on track with another win, winning 1-0 at home to Dartford, and another 1-0 win came for a team who already have their season well and truly on track, with Bath City leaving Welling United with all 3 points.

 

National League South results – in full

Braintree Town 1-1 Farnborough Town
Chippenham Town 0-2 Maidstone United
Dover Athletic 1-3 W*ymouth
Havant & Waterlooville 1-3 Truro City
Slough Town 2-0 Aveley
St Albans City 1-0 Dartford
Tonbridge Angels 0-3 Taunton Town
Torquay United 2-1 Chelmsford City
Welling United 0-1 Bath City
Weston-super-mare 1-1 Hampton & Richmond Borough
Worthing 1-1 Hemel Hempstead Town

National League South table

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The 3-2 win over Eastbourne Borough was the second in a row to take Yeovil three points off the top (not that we’re looking) and continue the unbeaten run at home. Here are Ian’s conclusions from Huish Park…

You can’t say we weren’t entertaining. Was it classic National League South? I hope to not find out, but it sure was entertaining. The early goal from Nouble, shooting ourselves in the foot and conspiring to concede 2, Nouble’s second goal with an onrushing keeper, Joe Day making huge saves, Josh Owers sublime winner. It was a toasty day which undoubtedly led to errors from both sides, but it was an enjoyable end-to-end game of football that ended with us getting the three points.

How has he saved this?

Joe Day had to makes some big saves again. Both Day and Will Buse have been busy in goal this season with the amount of opportunies we give oppostions. Day had to make two brilliant saves in the first half, the first of which seems impossible to get to. There’s little doubt he has improved our defensive unit and we walked away with the sponsor’s Man of the match for his performance.

That the best we’ve seen of Frank Nouble so far. For someone who’s best position is allegedly not at centre forward, Nouble has had two good games leading the line. He rose above everyone to head home, held the ball up nicely, had the desire to get on the end of Sonny Blu Lo Everton’s ball before the Eastbourne Borough goalkeeper to get us level before half time.

Frank Nouble.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The changes were needed at half time. Mark Cooper said he thought Eastbourne Borough were the better side and certainly in the first half they were cutting through our midfield and defence like a hot knife through butter. The introduction of Charlie Cooper and Jake Hyde saw us match up Eastbourne and change to a 3-4-1-2. The change in shape saw us get more control and prevent Eastbournes wingbacks having as much freedom as they did in the first half.

It’s been a good week for Josh Owers. He had a solid game in his first start against Weston and he was my man of the match yesterday. He’s busy, never stops running and looks to get the ball forward as much as possible. He worked hard to keep possession after a loose pass from Jake Hyde and was in the right place to hit a wonderful, controlled finish into the top corner to win the game. He’s been a part of two wins on the spin and certain given his manager something to think about in the centre midfield.

PS. I liked the drum.

 

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As the sun shone down on local football on Saturday, the fortune of our loanees wasn’t quite so beaming.

Let’s start at Tiverton Town, where goalkeeper Lewis Williams found himself picking the ball out of his net three times as his side lost 3-0 away at Bracknell Town.

It didn’t get much better at Shepton Mallet, either who lost 5-1 at home to Helston AFC in the Western League Premier Division.

Charlie Bateson did get the goal for the Mallet, a 42nd minute free kick curled expertly into the far corner.

But… having been reduced to 10 men in the 3rd minute with the Goalkeeper sent off, it was always going to be difficult. They also had forward Jake Sloggett taken off with a suspected fractured arm… when it rains… it pours… well, metaphorically.

Finally down at Dorchester Town, they did get a vital three points.

A 2-1 win over Swindon Supermarine.

Defender Ollie Haste played the full 90 as the Magpies came from behind for the win. Glovers‘ striker Benjani Junior was an unused sub.

 

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Two-goal hero Frank Nouble admitted his Yeovil Town team-mates had to win “ugly” to get three points from an impressive Eastbourne Borough side at Huish Park today.

The big frontman took his tally to four for the season after heading a 13th minute opener from a corner before a quickfire brace from the visitors’ Jack Paxman saw them take a deserved lead which silenced a previously boisterous home crowd.

But, with the half-time break getting closer, Nouble took advantage of a rush of blood to the head from keeper Ben Dudzinski to lob the keeper from long range and take the game in level at the interval.

He told BBC Somerset’s Tom Seymour: “I scored on similar to that last season during a loan spell at our bitter rivals [he’s talking about Torquay United] down the road. It was just instinctive, the keeper came out and I saw the goal there and the most important thing was hitting the ball as well as I could.

“Looking back on it now, it was really important. At the time I was very frustrated because they were playing well and they scored two quickfire goals.For us it was just about staying in the game and going in at half-time level.

“A few harsh words were said at half-time and then we regroup and go again because we have to win the game.

“You can’t win every game pretty, I think we have won more ugly games than pretty games, but we have won and that is the most important thing.”

He added: “We want to make sure we want to keep at a level of about two points a game and we are just behind that at the moment.

“As long as we keep close to that we will be nearer the top and that is where we should be at this level. It is a harder league that people think, teams are coming here and playing very freely.

“We have got to be better and I am just happy we can win whilst we are improving.”

The 31-year-old, who arrived in the summer having been released by Torquay at the end of last season, said he was pleased to score the opener from a Jordan Young corner, admitting the team had been working on set-pieces in the days leading up to the match.

He said: “We work hard on set pieces in training and I am just trying to be in the right areas. I think earlier in the season we had quite a few corners coming in and we were not getting the first contact in there.

“I think we are quite a big side and you have to want to head the ball, it was in a good connection and so close to goal the keeper couldn’t do anything about it.”

The striker also had praise for fellow scorer midfielder Josh Owers whose 69th-minute strike earned all three points. The former Bristol City player was starting his second successive match having not featured in the National League South season up until this point.

Nouble said: “He is one of the boys in the changing room who people want to do well. He’s such a great kid and he’s really humble. He works really hard as well and the Gaffer gave him the chance to play today and he’s taken it really well.
It’s a great finish and he’s scored the winning goal, so I am buzzing for him.”

As is the case this season, Nouble was also interviewed by club press officer Dan Howell after the match and you can also watch that interview on the club’s official YouTube channel.