January 2024 (Page 8)

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Yeovil Town won again at Huish Park against Bath in a game where the Glovers weren’t at their ‘fluent best’ according to Mark Cooper. It was an important win, putting Yeovil 10 points clear at the top and here are Ian’s Conclusions from a bouncing Thatchers Stand…

It was a controlled performance. In the match at Twerton Park the Glovers never really felt in control of the game, but it was different at Huish Park. We controlled possession and after Jordan Young’s opener I thought we were comfortable. It wasn’t until the second half and Bath’s long ball where they started to get forward, and even then we won everything and looked resolute at the back. 

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The first goal was a moment of magic. It was the only part of the match where things really flowed and it was Cooperball at its sumptuous best. Frank Nouble’s pass split Bath’s defence, it was inch perfect to feet of Michael Smith and his one touch pass couldn’t have been any better for Jordan Young to finish. We did that against Taunton frequently but Bath were a trickier proposition and we had to take our chances when they fell. Mark Cooper described it as a ‘trademark goal’ and it was a pattern of play we’ve grown familiar with.

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

I thought we invited Bath onto us with the switch to a back three. With Cody Cooke’s introduction, Bath changed tact to get the ball forward quickly and in the air. Williams and Wannell dealt with it well. Jay Foulston came on in the left of a back three and it felt like Bath grew into it. Thomas got more of the ball and we got deeper and deeper. Once Dylan Morgan came on and we switched to a back four again, we regained control with a lot of help from…

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, who made a big impact off the bench. I thought Sonny was quality, almost like he a point to prove. He was direct, forward-thinking and really got Bath chasing back towards goal. At the time we needed someone to step in and alleviate the pressure and he did it it brilliantly. Being able to bring on someone with his ability (and the rest of the bench to be fair) is a big part of the reason why we’re 10 points clear at the top.

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

It’s going to take a catastrophic collapse to let this slip. The gulf between Yeovil and the rest of the league is clear. Mark Cooper’s side have been the only consistent team at the top end of the League. Yesterday, Hampton lost, Torquay drew and Worthing lost. At home we’re imperious and you’d bank on us against everyone at Huish Park. Maidstone away could be tricky, but with their cup run the subsequent fixture pile up could come back to bite them. This group has every reason to be confident, and Mark Cooper will keep them grounded to get the job done, but win against crisis-stricken Taunton on Tuesday night and a gap of 13 points is surely insurmountable for the chasing pack.

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The Loan Watch feature seems to be getting busier by the week, plenty on the go… so let’s not hang about.

Starting in the division above, Alex Fisher made his second Oxford City debut – fifteen years after his first – in a defeat up in Hartlepool.

He came on shortly after the hosts took the lead, but it ended in a 2-1 defeat, after the game Oxford manager Ross Jenkins said Fisher was “a handful and did well”

 

Staying in the National League Premier, Jordan Maguire-Drew came off the bench for Barnet, the Bees were 3-0 down at the time and JM-D’s set pieces were a handful in trying to get his side back in the game, he set up Barnet’s second in the dying seconds to see the game finish 3-2, he was also booked for simulation minutes after coming on from the bench.

In to the National League South, no Will Buse for Bath, obviously, but there was a debut for Malachi Linton who came off the bench for W*ymouth in their 2-1 defeat to Tonbridge Angels.

 

Dorchester and Ollie Haste lost 4-2 to high flying Hungerford Town, Haste getting the full 90, Shepton put on one of their performances of the season beating Torpoint 4-2. Charlie Bateson started and was described as putting in an “excellent” performance when taken off just after the hour.

Benjani Jr was on the winning side at Melksham too, 2-1 victors away at Bashley, the striker didn’t score, but did play the full game.

Aidan Skiverton started for Sherborne… but they lost 6-1 to AFC Portchester, Max Dyer and Mason Alden both started for Welton Rovers in a 5-0 defeat to Buckland Athletic, Jacob Shore was introduced from the bench when the game was already at 5-0.

We’ll finish on a slightly more cheerful note, two goals from Josh Haskett gave Gillingham a healthy lead against Bristol Telephones, but a trio of second half goals saw the Bristol side take the spoils 3-2, three other young Glovers were also involved; Harrison Foster started, Jack Bareham and Harry Lock on the bench.

 

 

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Yeovil Town Under-18s got 2024 off to a flying start with a 5-1 home win over second-from-bottom Brinscombe and Thrupp at Gasson’s Lane, Somerton on Saturday.

Corey Koerner opened the scoring with a close range header as 17 minutes before striker Bobby Hilton doubled the lead with a strike from the edge of the box ten minutes later.

The visitors pulled one back with three minutes of the first half remaining before the young Glovers’ two goal advantage was extended with an own goal on the stroke of half-time.

Krystian Woods sent the keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot to make it 4-1 after an hour before George Geraghty prodded home a fifth in the final minute of the match.

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Brown. Please ask for permission before using.

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Yeovil Town forward Jordan Young has signed a contract extension to keep him in Somerset until the summer of 2026, the club has confirmed.

The two-and-a-half year deal was announced after the 24-year-old agreed had scored the opener in the Glovers’ 2-0 home win over Bath City, which puts them ten points clear at the top of the National League South.

Young joined the Glovers from Chippenham Town in January 2023 and has starred for the club in the opening half of the current campaign.

 

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Frank Nouble hailed Yeovil 2-0 win over Bath City as ‘brilliant’ and is happy to be scoring crucial goals in the Glovers quest to return to the National League.

It was wasn’t a classic afternoon at Huish Park, but it was a determined performance from Mark Cooper’s side, with Nouble playing an important part in both goals.

“[It was a] brilliant afternoon for us, result wise. And I think performance all round was good. [They’re a] tough team to play against, I thought Bath came with a game plan and I think it executed it quite well. I think early goal is what we planned to get and we got that. [There was] not much in it, but I think we controlled the game better than we did at their place.”

Frank Nouble celebrates putting Yeovil Town 2-0 ahead. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Nouble scored Yeovil’s second from point blank range, at an important time and the strike said how he enjoys a tap in: “I never get them type of goals. In my career, I’ve always been more of the player that creates a chance for someone else to then go and score a goal and for me to get a goal like that is really pleasing. I prefer them type of goals than, you know, a strike from outside the box or something like that and them type of goals, I really do appreciate, you know. Got in there in the right place, right time.

“It’s good to get these goals that I am getting because they’re crucial, crucial goals. You know, if we’re getting goals, winning 4 or 5-1 every week, they won’t feel the same, because they’re winning goals and they’re important goals. They mean a lot, So if it’s ten long may it continue and hopefully I can get to 15 and 20 if I get so lucky.”

Nouble’s brilliant pass to Michael Smith in the first half allowed the full back to put the ball on a silver platter for Jordan Young to open the scoring. He said: “At the beginning of the game we’re trying to give all energy and intensity as high as possible, but the opposition obviously play a part in that as well and I thought they started brightly, so it was quite hard to get involved in the game.

“But that is our game plan: to get certain players in certain positions, Youngy and Courtney Senior and myself behind Murphy to try execute an attack and luckily enough that move worked perfectly and then if we watch it back, it’s probably a good goal. Good passing move and obviously Young at the end finishing it well.”

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The sponsor’s man of the match also waxed lyrical about Michael Smith (who doesn’t). “We’re lucky to have him. All the boys really appreciate him, you know, his professionalism. It’s the way he trains and plays the game. He’s never stressed and he’s a calming figure to see on the pitch. And he attacks, he’s very attacking fullback at his tender age. He wouldn’t mind me saying that. We’re very lucky to have him and long may it continue that he stays at this club.”

When asked about his move to Huish Park and the future, Nouble said there’s plenty more he wants to do for the Glovers: “I’ve been to a lot of clubs. I’ve had a lot of good times and some bad times as well, of course, but this is one of my favourite moves of course. I’ll definitely say that the job is not done yet and even this season, you know, if we do get promoted, which we plan on doing, that’s only maybe a third of the goals that I want to achieve at this club. I wanna get this club back to the EFL and I think that’s what everyone wants to do here. Slowly but surely. Hopefully we can keep pushing in the right direction.”

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper admitted his side were not at their “fluent best” as they picked up another three points with a 2-0 home win over Bath City.

Goals from Jordan Young and Frank Nouble’s tenth of the season saw them extend their lead at the top of National League South to ten points with a controlled performance against the visitors who have promotion ambitions of their own.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall after the match, the boss said: “Bath tried to sit in and make it difficult for us, we had lots of possession in the first half and we just had to be patient and pull them about a bit because they were very well organised.

“We managed to score a lovely opening goal which meant they had to change about a bit and go 4-4-2 and then it was just about controlling the game in the second half. They had to go for it and they put Cody Cooke on and played lots of diagonal balls which I thought we dealt with marvellously, scored a second goal and our subs came on and made a difference and we looked really solid.

“Sometimes you can’t be so fluent but you have to manage the game and I thought we did that really well.”

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The game’s moment of pure quality led to Young’s opening goal after 13 minutes when a beautiful ball from Nouble picked out Michael Smith on the right of the penalty area to slot a ball across the box for Young to convert.

Cooper added: “It is a trademark goal for us where we isolate their full-back, play a ball in behind and have a cut back and our players know where the ball is going. It is a great goal.”

Nouble added a second with 13 minutes of the game remaining when he was in the right place in the six-yard box to prod home from a well-worked corner.

In the second half, Cooper introduced Jay Foulston who played as one of three central defenders in a back five to counter a lot of direct play from the visitors.

The boss said: “He was Johnny on the Spot and that goal came at a good time for us and calmed us down a bit. We changed the system in the second half to counter a lot of long balls forward and then we went back to our standard formation and we saw it out very comfortably.

“We said at half-time that Bath were not going to make it easy for us. They are very well-organised, it’s a local derby with a big crowd and I told the players that the worst score we should finish with was 1-0 and we had to make sure we kept a clean sheet.

“We were not at our fluent best but you can’t do that every week because there is another team on the pitch trying to make it difficult for you. They had lots of long balls, bounces in the box, but I thought we defended it really well.”

The manager described Nouble as “a talisman” for his performance which earned him the sponsors’ Man of the Match against Bath. His second half strike was his third in as many games.

Frank Nouble celebrates putting Yeovil Town 2-0 ahead.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Yeovil have now picked up 25 points from a possible 27 at Huish Park and have only drawn three matches at home this season against fellow promotion hopefuls Maidstone United, Chelmsford City and Hampton & Richmond.

Cooper said: “We enjoy playing here and you can see that from the results and the performances. It is a happy camp all round.”

The Glovers now prepare to travel to struggling Taunton Town, who have been forced to ship out a number of first-team players due to well-publicised financial difficulties in the county town, on Tuesday night looking for another win.

“It’s just another game,” said Cooper, “we can’t look at what is going on off-the-pitch, we just have to pick a team that is fresh and can go and run about and try to get another result.”

On the additions from the other side of Somerset, he added: “If you don’t pay your players and do the right things, then you do risk losing them, so we could have profited. That’s the law of the land. These players were on our radar for a while, so when the chance came we jumped on it.

“We sit in the office for ten hours a day with all our data metrics and analysis and look at players. You are always trying to evolve the playing side and Dylan and Jay are helping us evolve as a squad.

“They are two players who are really good ages and the experience is probably at the top end of the pitch which is probably why we are scoring so many goals.“

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Goals from Jordan Young and Frank Nouble earned Yeovil Town a 2-0 victory at home to Bath City in front of another bumper crowd at Huish Park today.

But, who in green-and-white was your Man of the Match?

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

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Yeovil Town extended their lead at the top of the National League South table back to ten points with victory over Bath City at Huish Park.

The home side opened the scoring after Jordan Young finished off a great move involving Frank Nouble and Michael Smith in the only real action of a tepid first half, before Nouble took his tally to ten goals for the season when he tucked home a second in the 77th minute.

With second-placed Hampton & Richmond beaten at Braintree Town and Worthing going down to fellow play-off hopefuls Chelmsford City, the results went in the favour of the table-topping Glovers.

First half

Mark Cooper made one change from the Boxing Day win over Taunton Town with Rhys Murphy replacing Will Dawes, as he did in the early stages of that game. New signing Dylan Morgan was named among the substitutes for the Glovers having signed from Taunton during the week.

After a quiet first ten minutes, Yeovil opened the scoring with their first attack after 13 minutes. A great ball from Frank Nouble found Michael Smith out on the right of the penalty box and his beautifully-cushioned ball in to the danger area was met by Jordan YOUNG who slotted it past Slav Huk in the visitors goal. Knife. Butter.

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

But in all honesty that was about all there was in terms of goalmouth action for the opening half-an-hour. The nearest the visitors came to offering a threat on Joe Day’s goal was on 33 minutes when former Glovers’ loanee Ewan Clark ran at Alex Whittle and got a shot in from the edge of the block which was turned down the bar by Charlie Cooper.

Day was in action with four minutes of the first half remaining, Clark’s free-kick was met by the head of defender Jordan Dyer, who also had a spell on loan at Huish Park, which the keeper patted over the bar for a corner which came to nothing.

If you are a fan of watching the ball get passed without any purpose, this was the game for you. Neither side really offering a great threat going forwards. Control, I guess you could call it.

An advantage at the interval.

Half time:  Yeovil Town 1 Bath City 0

Second half

Bath came out for the second half with a bit of fizz but without really creating any real threat on Day’s goal and with six minutes of the half played visiting manager Jerry Gill decided he had seen enough and brought on striker Cody Cooke.

A coming together between Charlie Cooper and Tom Smith after 55 minutes saw a booking for both players from referee Elliott Swallow. From the resulting free-kick, a right wing cross from Joe Raynes found the head of Cooke and the ball hit his strike partner, Scott Wilson, in the face giving Alex Whittle the chance to clear.

That seemed to liven up the home side with a break forward involving Murphy, Courtney Senior before it broke to Cooper 25 yards out and his effort was fumbled around the box by Slav Huk with 58 minutes played.

Immediately after Yeovil made their first change with Jay Foulston replacing Courtney Senior whilst for Bath Clark was replaced by Oscar Thorn. Foulston went in to the left side of a back three with Smith and Whittle pushed in to wing-back positions.

On 66 minutes, Thorn came close when his hooked shot from Thomas’ left-wing cross past the post with the aid of a deflection off a Yeovil defender. The visitors are definitely asking the tougher questions.

Murphy had done a lot of running, a lot of it without the ball. Lo-Everton joined the three behind Nouble

On 71 minutes, tug on Scott Wilson by Jake Wannell gave Bath a free-kick on the edge of the box and Dan Hayfield fizzed one just past the post, rippling the side netting to the extent some in the away end thought it was in. It wasn’t.

But six minutes later, it was in…..in the other net as Yeovil doubled their advantage. A corner from Whittle was met by Wannell at the back post as Huk stayed on his line, the header landed at the feet of Frank NOUBLE inside the box and he could not miss from close range.

Frank Nouble celebrates putting Yeovil Town 2-0 ahead.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

New signing Dylan Morgan was immediately introduced with his new side two goals to the good. He replaced Jordan Young.

With two minutes of the six added on at the end of the game, Morgan found a position at an acute angle inside the box but his shot hit the outside of the side netting.

That table’s looking pretty, isn’t it?

Full time: Yeovil Town 2 Bath City 0

Match Details

Venue: Huish Park
Date: Saturday 6th January – 3:00pm

Competition: National League South

Pitch: Soft, but held up well considering the recent heavy rain
Conditions:  Dry and cool

Attendance: 5,032 (616 away supporters)

Scorers: Jordan Young 13 (1-0), Frank Nouble 77 (2-0)

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: Charlie Cooper 55, Dylan Morgan 87, Alex Whittle 90+5
Bath City: Scott Wilson 20, Luke Russe 25, Jordan Thomas 50, Tom Smith 55, Danny Greenslade 85

Referee: Elliott Swallow

Yeovil Town (4-4-2)

 

 

Substitutes: Jay Foulston (for Courtney Senior, 60), Sonny Blu Lo-Everton (for Rhys Murphy, 68), Dylan Morgan (for Jordan Young, 78) Josh Owers (not used), Jake Hyde (not used).

Bath City: Slav Huk, Joe Rayne, Dan Greenslade, Jordan Dyer, Kieran Parselle, Ewan Clark (for Oscar Thorn, 60) , Dan Hayfield, Tom Smith, Jordan Thomas, Scott Wilson, Luke Russe (for Cody Cooke, 51).
Substitutes (not used): Jack Batten, Chris Lines, Elliott Frear.

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Yeovil Town have made one change from the Boxing Day win over Taunton Town as they prepare to face Bath City at Huish Park this afternoon (3pm kick-off).

Top scorer Rhys Murphy replaces the injured Will Dawes, who he replaced in the sixth minute of the last fixture after Dawes suffered a dead leg.

New signing attacking midfielder Dylan Morgan, who joined from Taunton this week, is named among the Glovers’ substitutes.