February 2024

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Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper said his side’s fifth National League South defeat of the season had only strengthened their resolve.

The Glovers went down 1-0 at second-placed Chelmsford City at the weekend but still go in to this weekend’s trip to Farnborough with an 11 point lead on their nearest rivals, who dropped points in midweek.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the trip to Hampshire, the manager said: “When it is such a long season and you see what is at stake and what is at the end of it, it is only natural you can become a bit tense and uptight. It takes a lot to become a champion and to do that you have to have ups and downs to recognise what is at the end of it and what that means and we are in good shape.”

It was Farnborough who held Chelmsford to a 1-1 draw on Tuesday night and Cooper was in the stands at the Saunders Transport Community Stadium (can we just call it Cherrywood Road?).

He watched as the pitch there got heavier and heavier as the game unfolded and, with heavy rain forecast throughout Friday, the words “weather permitting” featured in some of his pre-match analysis.

He said: “I went to watch them the other night and I thought they put in a really spirited performance against Chelmsford and got themselves in front.

“They could have lost it, but easily won it as well. They have some injury worries, but they played really well here against us. It is a really good set-up and, weather permitting, it should be a cracking games.”

Jordan Young will serve the second match of his two-game ban against Farnborough (weather permitting).
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Cooper expects to have the same squad of players available for the weekend with injured trio Rhys Murphy, Jake Hyde and Olly Thomas all expected to be missing, and Jordan Young serving the second match of his two-game ban (weather permitting).

Midfielder Charlie Cooper made a second half appearance off the substitutes’ bench at Chelmsford with full-back Alex Whittle an unused substitute. One would hope a week’s rest means they may be at least closer to a start – whether at Farnborough on Saturday or 48 hours later when Yeovil travel to Aveley.

The manager said: “We still only have 16 players available, there are still a lot of forward players injured, but with our facilities and infrastructure I know we will be able to prepare better than some of the teams we are playing against.
I will not use the Saturday-Monday as an excuse and we will use the fact we can prepare better than the opposition to our advantage.

“It will be the same squad at (as Tonbridge) last weekend. Jordan Young has one more game of his suspension, so he will be back of the Aveley game. Apart from that we have the three number nines still injured.”

Anyone for cabbages? Taunton Town’s Wordsworth Drive quagmire.

Perhaps the most explosive response of the pre-match press conference was reserved for the final question when Cooper gave a damning assessment of the National League’s handling of the sh*tshow that has become Truro City’s efforts to complete their fixtures.

The Cornish side will now play Taunton Town, with whom they are technically groundsharing after deciding Somerset’s county town was a better bet than their original landlords, Plymouth Parkway, on the artificial surface of National League North side Gloucester City this weekend, almost 200 miles from their spiritual home. Good luck to anyone trying to organise away travel for that one.

Yeovil still have to face Truro – wherever it is they choose to call home, as they could no doubt pick the Faroe Islands and the league would allow it – on Thursday 11th April.

Cooper did not hold back in his thoughts, saying: “It is an absolute shambles from the National League. They allow Truro to groundshare at one of the worst pitches in the country (at Plymouth Parkway) and when that becomes untenable they allow them to groundshare to another of the worst pitches in the country (at Taunton Town).

“Then they are surprised they can’t play any games. I don’t understand the logic of that and then they allow them to play on a different surface, so rather than playing them on 3G rather than grass.

“I am not sure whether that is allowed. I think when you start the season, when you state your plan on grass, you have to make sure you play on grass I don’t think you could change halfway through, so I think it’s completely shambles in the National League, I think they need looking at and I think it’s a complete shambles, for me, it shouldn’t be allowed.”

 

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Yeovil Town face the tough prospect of traveling up the M3 to Farnborough this weekend as they look to stabilise their recent form with a win.

The Glovers have been hit and miss lately with three wins and two losses from their last five games. The trip to Hampshire will not be easy, with Boro putting together some good results over the last couple of weeks.

Farnborough have not lost in their last five, winning two and drawing their last three fixtures. The Yellows currently sit 14th in the league.

Yeovil Town Team News

Manager Mark Cooper was in a buoyant mood after the his sides fifth loss of the season. He said: “We move onto next weekend, we’re looking forward to a really big game, with a big following and we’re ready to go.”

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

Cooper, 54, was complimentary about the Saturdays opposition, saying: “They played really well here, they have a good set up and weather permitting it will be cracking game.”

The former Darlington boss “appreciates the teams away following” and feels it will “only get bigger over the remaining games”.

Captain Matt Worthington discussed what went wrong in Saturdays loss. He said: “Our attacking play didn’t really click as it has done, so that what we’ve been focusing on this week. We know where we wrong and we’re losing to put it right.”

Matt Worthington.
Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

Cooper confirmed that Jordan Young, Rhys Murphy, Jake Hyde and Olly Thomas miss out.

Farnborough FC Team News

Boro boss Spencer Day was also in a complimentary mood when talking about going up against the Glovers on Saturday. He said: “There’s nothing tougher than playing a fabulous football club, a great side and they’ve almost won the league.

They’re the best team in the league by some distance but in a one off game it allows us to take our shackles off a bit.”

Day also made a rallying cry for “fans to turn up” as the game is being promoted as a family fun day by The Yellows.

Midfielder Millar Matthews-Lewis is player for travelling fans to look out for, having joined the Hampshire side in January from Premier League team Luton Town on loan. In terms of a goal threat, Boro have forward Hady Ghandour, on loan from Aldershot, who has bagged six goals in nine games.

No suspension or new injuries for Farnborough to worry about after Joe Haigh returned in midweek from his suspension.

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The National League have announced the next set of North and South division games which will be made available to stream via NLTV.

Recently, the league announced that not all games would be, owing, in part to a lack of demand.

However, selected games would be, so long as they fall outside of the Saturday 3pm Black Out.

The Glovers home game with Chippenham on Tuesday 12th March is one such game.

So, if you are unable to make it to Huish Park for the game, or are exiled away at that point, you have a second option. Streaming passes will be available from HERE a little closer to the time and cost £9.50.

The Full List is available below

Tuesday 12 March
Banbury United v Boston United
Blyth Spartans v Darlington
Chester v Southport
Hereford v Alfreton Town
Spennymoor Town v Scunthorpe United
Torquay United v Taunton Town
Yeovil Town v Chippenham Town

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A difficult afternoon for Yeovil, as they left Chelmsford empty handed following their 1-0 defeat in Essex. Let’s see how the rest of the league fared…

It was a day for a draw, so we’ll run through the three other games that ended with a winner – the biggest win (yet smallest in scoreline) was at title challengers Worthing, where Braintree Town did us a big favour by grabbing all three points, courtesy of Aaron Blair. There were also two 2-1 wins, with one of them being earned by Slough Town, in controversial circumstances. A goalmouth scramble was ruled to have crossed the line in the 91st minute, handing the visitors the full three points away to Tonbridge Angels, while Chippenham Town recovered from a goal deficit to win at home against Dover.

Onto the draws, and we start with Torquay United, who got off to a solid start under interim manager Aaron Downes with a 2-2 draw at home to Aveley. There were FOUR 1-1 draws, the most dramatic of which came at Hampton & Richmond, as Farnborough buried a 92nd minute equaliser, while there was more late drama at Havant & Waterlooville, where Daniel Hayfield scored an 86th minute equaliser for Bath City. The final two games were dead heats between Dartford and 10-men Taunton Town, and St Albans City and Welling United.

Two games were postponed, and one was cancelled entirely; of course Truro’s “home” game was postponed against Hemel Hempstead, and Weston-super-mare’s home tie against Eastbourne Borough was also postponed due to an unplayable pitch, while W*ymouth’s trip to Maidstone was rescheduled due to the host’s involvement in the FA Cup on Monday night.

 

National League South results – in full

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

National League South table

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Kick off for the Glovers’ Easter Monday Clash at W*ymouth has been altered to 1pm

The club say that following consultations with local authorities, the kick off time has been brought forward at the Bob Lucas stadium.

 

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A bad day at the office for Yeovil Town at Chelmsford City yesterday as they went down 1-0 to a side now sat (12 points behind them) in second place in National League South. Dave made the trip to Essex and here’s his conclusions from him trip to the athletics stadium.


This is nothing to panic about: First things first, our lead at the top of National League South is still 12 points. Yes, it could have more, but it is far from anything to lose our heads over. 
There is not a team in this division that would not swap places with us in a heartbeat. Chelmsford quite rightly celebrated their win and good luck to them for the rest of the season. I see they have Worthing next weekend, a draw from that one would be lovely.

Jake Wannell wins a header in the first half.

We never got going: Second things second, this was a bad day at the office for us and Chelmsford deserved their win. Was it the worst performance I’ve seen this season? I don’t know about that, Welling might take that prize, but we certainly did not show up in the way we know we can. It was not until we went more direct when Alex Fisher came on that we were did much to lay a glove on Chelmsford. I still don’t understand the logic of playing Sam Pearson through the middle, he was expected to win aerial duels against a defender who was at least a foot-and-a-half taller than him. So much more effective in wide positions in the second half. Olly Thomas back for Farnborough would be wonderful.

Come on, lino!: I know Rule #1 of the Gloverscast (if it still exists) is not to complain about referees, but what about assistants? If so, whichever of Nathan Briggs or Simon Parberry was running the right-hand line gave us absolutely nothing. There were blatant corners that were goal kicks and I look forward to seeing Fisher’s ‘goal’ from a better angle because I would trust that guy as far as I could throw him – which ain’t far! Don’t get me wrong, we were poor and Chelmsford deserved their win, but that guy was hopeless.

Joe Day pulled off some great saves to keep the scoreline down.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Super Joe Day is in goal: And thank goodness he was, because without him this could have been a more comprehensive defeat. The perils of changing ends is you never get to see what good saves he made, but I fully expect the highlights to show he made a couple of good ones. A lot more class than his opposite number in every sense of the word, as well.

Time for some bouncebackability: Was it Iain Dowie who coined the phrase ‘bouncebackability’? Whatever happened to him by the way? Anyway, excuse a typical Gloverscast tangent. But, every time we’ve had a blip (and that is all this is) this season we have bounced back and Farnborough seems a good place to do exactly that. If we can get more training in to the likes of Charlie Cooper and Alex Whittle, get Olly Thomas back again and give a couple of players a rest, that would be lovely.

On your marks! Yeovil Town fans Dom Maine and Tim Lancaster enjoyed the surroundings of the Melbourne Stadium.
Picture courtesy of Andy Craig.

 

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Yeovil Town lost away at Chelmsford, but the loanees dotted about the football landscape didn’t fair much better.

This wrap up won’t take long.

Jordan Maguire-Drew wasn’t involved for Barnet in their 2-0 win over York City.

There was no game for W*ymouth and thus, for Malachi Linton. However, he did score and was named Terras’ player of the match in their 4-2 defeat to Hampton and Richmond on Tuesday night.

Dropping down the divisions, Dorchester left it late to snatch a 2-2 draw with Hendon. Ollie Haste played the full 90.

Benjani Jr came off the bench in Melksham’s 0-0 with Willand Rovers, he got little over half an hour to make a difference, but was unable to break the deadlock.

Shepton lost out 1-0 to Barnstaple, Charlie Bateson started the game and was taken off in the 63rd minute after trying his best to find a breakthrough.

Aidan Skiverton was named on the bench for Sherborne who lost out 5-2 to AFC Stoneham (remember them) in the Wessex League.

Finally, Mother Nature won in the battle to get the Gillingham Town and Welton Rovers games on. 

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Mark Cooper interviewed after Yeovil Town's 4-2 win at Tonbridge Angels

Mark Cooper was not happy with the officiating on display at Chelmsford as his table-toppers fell to a 1-0 defeat.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall, Cooper said: “The overriding factor for me was the officiating today, not the reason we lost, maybe, but just spoiled the game.

“I mean Dylan Morgan makes a great tackle in the bottom corner and kicks the ball out for a corner. He gets booked for the tackle. Some of the decisions today, it was that bad, it was laughable. That’s the worst performance I’ve seen for an official in 40 years as a player and a manager.

“I just thought [it was] just rubbish. I think it’s just nowhere near good enough for the standard of play that was on the show today,” he added.

Cooper also said his forwards weren’t as sharp as they have been up until the last 20 minutes.

“I thought we controlled the first half without our forwards coming to life. We didn’t play well in the final third of the pitch today. Our forwards looked a little bit rusty a little bit blunt until the last 20 minutes. In the last 20 minutes they came to life and we should score at least one two goals with the balls that go across the six-yard box. 

“We tried to put a bit more thrust on the pitch and, like I say, we had loads of balls across the six yard box but no one got the end of. The final third of the pitch was the difference today. Our forward players are usually really bright and bubbly and lively, and we weren’t today until the last 20 minutes.”

Cooper acknowledged that his team have been ‘great’ and are in a ‘brilliant position’. He added that Olly Thomas is back with Bristol City and that they’d tell Yeovil when the striker is fit and ready.