February 2024 (Page 7)

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Ian and Dave are joined by Three Valleys Radio’s Tom Bailey to talk through the 2-1 defeat at Maidstone and the aftermath. This podcast contains Michael Winner references and your GCQs.

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Yesterday was not a great day for anyone involved with Yeovil Town with a hopeless first half performance and then stupidity in the stands culminating in a 2-1 defeat at Maidstone United. Dave made his second journey to the South East in as many weekends and here are his conclusions.

 

The first half killed us: For months we have said that “if we do what we do well, we’ll win” and the simple fact is we didn’t yesterday. Defensively we were all over the show in the first half. Mark Cooper described it as “soft in the box” and he was being generous, we looked like strangers playing together. I can count on one finger the amount of times Jake Wannell has looked exposed this season and now I need two. But he was not alone, throughout the team we allowed ourselves to get bullied by a Maidstone side who looked like world-beaters in the first half. Every credit to them, they deserved their win.

Michael Smith. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

We missed Cooper and Smith: There was a Michael Smith-shaped hole down the right side of our defence. We started with Morgan Williams out there and, after the first goal, we went back to Matt Worthington there, and all Maidstone’s threat came from that side in the first half. The quality and experience of Smith cannot be underestimated, but the control, bite and experience of Charlie Cooper was also noticeably absent in midfield. The things he often gets criticised for doing – putting his foot on the ball, retaining possession – we missed them all.

Sam Pearson is not a number nine: It was our mistakes in defence which cost us the game, but going forwards we never got going. Sam Pearson is a talented player, the kind who gives defenders nightmares with his pace and trickery but we persisted with knocking long balls against the 6’5″ Reiss Greenidge in the Maidstone defence. It didn’t work and we could not seem to find another way through in the first half. Second half things improved. When Olly Thomas came on, he was more of a number nine, but the damage was done by then.

Setting off a pyro at 1-0 down is as embarassing as our defending for the goal.

No-one comes out looking good: Sadly, the off-the-pitch stuff has to be referenced for the first time this season. My conclusion? Everyone looks bad. Pyros lit and then thrown in to the away supporters – idiotic. Pictures of Lee Collins being held up by home fans – disgraceful. This is the first time this season I can say a small section of our support have let themselves down, just last weekend St Albans City fans (no segregation there) were saying how good we were. There’s a place for banter, atmosphere, having a go at opposing fans, but this quickly turned in to something which was none of those things. There was blame on both sides and no-one comes out looking good.

‘Only’ ten points clear: Let’s not get carried away, there wasn’t a huge amount to be positive about our performance, but that is why our advantage at the top is so important. Those battling wins at places like Eastbourne, Taunton and Bath the last-gasp winner at Worthing, our unbeaten home form, they have all put the ground work in. It was a poor performance, Maidstone deserved their win, but we move on to Tonbridge.

If you take one thing from yesterday, make it this.

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Well, it wasn’t to be for the Glovers this Saturday afternoon, but what of the loanees out and about in Loanee Land.

The first thing to note is that Alex Fisher is back with his parent club after the expiry of his loan stint at Oxford City, the front man did play from the start in midweek for Oxford though, in their county cup game before returning to Yeovil and making a cameo from the bench in the defeat to Maidstone,

Also in the National League Prem, Jordan Maguire-Drew started for Barnet in a 1-1 draw against Wealdstone. He was a threat throughout and was taken off just after the hour mark.

Right, into the NLS and Malachi Linton was in the goals for W*ymouth, the front man bagged the first of their FOUR goals in a seven goal thriller against Hemel Hempstead – we’re not keen on the tweet though, Admin. 

 

Dorchester were reduced to 10-men after just 10 minutes in their game against Didcot Town (remember them), but the Magpies still got a 1-0 win and Ollie Haste played the full game.

Melksham Town lost 4-1 to Yate Town, Benjani Jr started but was taken off towards the end in the defeat.

It was a good week for Charlie Bateson, he scored in midweek for Shepton and clocked up 71 minutes in their 1-0 win over Ilfracombe on Saturday.

Down at Gillingham, a trio of young Glovers started in their 1-0 loss to Hengrove Athletic; Josh Haskett, Jack Bareham and Harrison Foster all in from the beginning, Harry Lock came on in the second half in some tough and heavy conditions.

Aidan Skiverton started on the bench for Sherborne in their 1-0 win over Cowes Sports, whilst Welton Rovers fought back from 2-0 down to grab a point in their game against Wellington AFC.

Jacob Shore and Max Dyer both played the full 90 in a dramatic fixture.

Jacob Shore (Green) in action for Welton Rovers
? @AroundWelly

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As Yeovil come back down to earth with a thump in their 2-1 defeat away to Maidstone, let’s see how the rest of the league took advantage of this, as well as quickly looking over the three midweek games, one of which involved the mighty Glovers!

We start on Monday night, where a 92nd minute equaliser for Weston-super-mare rescued them a point away to promotion-chasing Chelmsford City. On Tuesday night, Yeovil Town registered a 3-1 win (see match report here) at home to Slough Town, and in the other midweek fixture, relegation-threatened Welling United came from a goal down to win 2-1 at home to Hampton & Richmond.

Onto the weekend fixtures now, and we begin at our noisy neighbours, as W*ymouth came from behind twice in a thriller against Hemel Hempstead, Malachi Linton contributing to their 4-3 win. Torquay United’s woes continued amid protests against Gary Johnson and Clark Osborne, as they were hammered 4-0 at home against St Albans City, and there were two 3-0 wins, for Braintree Town at home to Dover Athletic, and Worthing on their travels to Aveley, Ollie Pearce grabbing a double to further cement his position as the league’s top scorer.

There were three more 2-1 wins, all for home sides, as Havant & Waterlooville continued to fight for survival with a comeback win over Chelmsford City, 10-man Hampton & Richmond took the three points against Truro City, and Farnborough battled back against Dartford to take a hard earned win in a mid-table clash.

Slough Town bounced back from their midweek defeat to the Glovers with a 2-0 win at home to Weston-super-mare, while next week’s hosts Tonbridge Angels registered a 2-0 win at home to Chippenham Town, the hosts did go down to 10 men for the last 5 minutes however. Ex Yeovil man Ewan Clark scored the winner in a 1-0 win for Bath City at home to Eastbourne Borough, and in the fina game of the day, Welling United and Taunton Town played out a 0-0 draw, a result that doesn’t help either side.

 

National League South results – in full

Midweek

Chelmsford City 1-1 Weston-super-mare
Welling United 2-1 Hampton & Richmond Borough

Saturday

Aveley 0-3 Worthing
Bath City 1-0 Eastbourne Borough
Braintree Town 3-0 Dover Athletic
Farnborough 2-1 Dartford
Hampton & Richmond Borough 2-1 Truro City
Havant & Waterlooville 2-1 Chelmsford City
Slough Town 2-0 Weston-super-mare
Tonbridge Angels 2-0 Chippenham Town
Torquay United 0-4 St Albans City
Welling United 0-0 Taunton Town
W*ymouth 4-3 Hemel Hempstead Town

National League South table

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league-south/league-table

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Mark Cooper described his side as ‘soft’ in their box following the 2-1 defeat at Maidstone.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall, Cooper said the errors at the back have ‘been creeping in’ and that he’d had a ‘nibble’ after Slough.

He said: “We didn’t compete in our box. We were really soft in our box. We’ve been defensively really good. But today, our back line, goalkeeper, defenders, we didn’t compete in our box. We didn’t head the ball, we weren’t authoritative and we let them dominate our penalty area. That was the difference between the two teams.”

“It’s been creeping in. I had a nibble on Tuesday night about it. We conceded a soft goal on Tuesday night for not defending our box. Two centre halves jumped into each other. And today was a culmination of the last couple of games, we’ve been a little bit soft In our penalty area. That might be a knock on effect from the players we are missing but the boys that were out there, we had enough.”

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

Cooper praised Maidstone and said they ‘probably deserved to win.’ “Full credit to Maidstone. They were physically better than us today. We can blame it on the coach breaking down. We can blame our injuries, but Maidstone, physically, today were better than us for a 20 minute spell. The second-half, you know, we have to go for it. We get back into it, could draw at the end, but they probably deserved to win.”

Yeovil were without Rhys Murphy, Jake Hyde, Michael Smith and Charlie Cooper, but still felt his side should have had enough to be competitive.

“We didn’t really stick to our identity. We’re missing key players, which I can blame, and I think you can see when you take those players out of our team we’re totally, totally different. But we still should have enough to be able to be competitive – certainly physically. It doesn’t matter about ability, if you’ve got a man in the penalty area and he gets in front of you and scores the goal, that’s just a desire and a will to do your job.”

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

Dylan Morgan came off the bench to score his first goal in green and white and boss thinks Morgan will be a big asset for the Glovers. “[It was a] really great finish, very difficult. It’s the edge of the boxm rolled back and he has to put it in the corner and if you had a bit more of that calmness, the chances we had in the first half and late on and we would have got something. Dylan’s got great ability and he’s getting used to how we work and we’re getting him up to speed fitness wise. He’ll be a big asset for us in the future.”

It’s only the fourth game Yeovil have lost this season in the National League South and the first since Welling on the 25th of November, but Cooper stuck the the mantra that he’s done all season and isn’t looking at the now ten point lead.

“We’re not as arrogant or as flash to think anything like that, we don’t really look at the lead. We just, and as boring as it is as a cliché, we just look at the next game and three points and today we lost an opportunity to get some points on the board.

“We’ve established up that [the lead] position by being a really good football team and dominating the possession of the ball. And the two or three actions in each half that the ball comes in our box, we’ve defended today. I think they had three entries in our box in the first half and they scored twice.”

 

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A disappointed Matt Worthington spoke to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall following Yeovil’s 2-1 defeat at Maidstone this afternoon.

The skipper was, on the whole, disappointed with the afternoon in Kent as the Glovers conceded two first half goals and gave themselves an uphill struggle to get back into it.

Worthy said: “I thought [in the] first half we didn’t defend well enough [the] balls into the box, which we knew they were good at. They looked for the ball forward and get crosses in wide areas and ultimately we didn’t defend the the box well enough. Two goals come from crosses and I think a free kick as well, so we’re disappointed with that.

“[In the] second-half, we were in total control, I’d say. But it was a little too late. And we were sort of pushing for the second goal, and was unlucky not to get it. But like I said, we weren’t, we weren’t good enough in the first half and we gave ourselves a challenge in the second-half.”

Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Mark Cooper made some tactical switches this afternoon with Charlie Cooper absent through injury and Michael Smith yet to return. Jake Wannell, conceded a free kick which Maidstone scored their opener from.

“We stick by all the lads. He’s made the decision and like you said, he’s done it all season. He’s done it very well, him and Morgs. Unfortunately, that didn’t come off, we conceded. But I was saying in there that we all stick together, still 10 points clear game in hand. But we’re disappointed with today.”

The Glovers couldn’t get fully into their rhythm in the first half, and resolute defending from the hosts in the second half restricted Yeovil to one goal from substitute Dylan Morgan.

Worthington said: “I think when you’re defending a lot in the first half, which we did, it puts it out of sync in the final third. We had quite a few chances in the first half with some good play, some good link up play, but we couldn’t really finish it off, which we’re obviously disappointed with. But [in the] second-half we had more chances. We had a lot of the play. A little bit too late to get the second one, which we’re disappointed with.

“They [Maidstone] made it difficult because they sat in. But yeah, we always believe that going score goals think we said that a lot. As long as we defend well, we’re always going to score goals and have chances. So I think that us not defending well today has hurt us really because, we got the goal and we were pushing for the second.”

With Tonbridge away next weekend, Worthington said the team will be back at training this week to look at what went wrong.

“As a group we have to stay together. We have to analyse it and see what went wrong today and put it right. We have to demand standards from eachother when we have meetings, sometimes, we can not dig people out, but we sit together and we talk about what went wrong. We have to stick together now and we will be better for it.”

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Yeovil Town lost 2-1 on the road to Maidstone United this afternoon. First half goals from Mo Faal and Matt Rush put Maidstone in the driving seat and Dylan Morgan’s strike only ended up as a consolation.

There were some unsavoury scenes towards the end of the game, which is great following last night’s statement from the club.

The Glovers sit 10 points clear with a game in hand on Worthing. Here’s how Coatesie saw it from the away end…

First half

For the second match in a row, the formation was something of a mystery. But, the surprise was Alex Whittle started in the centre of a defensive four with Morgan Williams on the right and Jay Foulston on the left, pairing Whittle with Jake Wannell.

With 12 minutes gone, a foul from Wannell on Matt Rush was about as close to the penalty area as it is possible to get. A ball in to the back post was met by Rhys Greenidge who played it back in to the middle and Mo FAAL turned it home. The big striker, on loan from Havant & Waterlooville, had scored twice against the Glovers for his parent club on August Bank Holiday and came back to haunt us.

That change the formation with Worthington going to right back and Whittle to a more familiar left back, with the home side’s tails up.

With 17 minutes, Frank Nouble had Yeovil’s first opportunity on target as he burst in to the box and fired in a shot which Lucas Colovan turned wide for a corner.

But two minutes later it was 2-0 to the home side. Great work from Lamar Reynolds down the left side found Matt RUSH at the back post and he headed home. The threat was from Reynolds down the Maidstone left with a Michael Smith shaped hole down that side of the visitors’ defence.

Call it a plastic pitch, FA Cup fever, whatever you like, Yeovil could not cope with the home side who appeared stronger and hungrier of the two sides.

A long-range effort from Sam Pearson went comfortably wide after half-an-hour, before a a well-worked move came to Jay Foulston on the edge of the box flew just wide two minutes later. But the visitors were being restricted to long-range efforts.

Ironically, the best move we put together all half came as two minutes of additional time were announced. A move which ended with Sonny Blu Lo-Everton picking out Jordan Young on the edge of the box but he pulled his shot wide.

The final action of the first half saw Wannell make a superb block to spare Joe Day another stop, but that was as good as it got for the normally composed centre half who had a first half to forget.

Half time: Maidstone United 2 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

There were no changes at half-time but there was a formation change with Foulston starting at right back with Whittle on the left.

The opening 10 minutes of the second half offered very little in terms of chances for either side with the best chance falling to Pearson. Set free down the left by Josh Owers but his effort was high and not that handsome.

Dylan Morgan was introduced in place of Owers with 56 minutes gone, but Maidstone seemed quite happy to let us have possession and the result was a pretty tame start to the second half.

On 62 minutes, that possession led to a good chance with Nouble appearing on the left and finding Pearson who could not get a good enough connection to force a chance. That was his last chance of the match as he was replaced by Olly Thomas with 65 minutes played.

Despite seemingly moving down a gear this half, Maidstone showed they still posed a threat cutting through our defence with substitute Jephte Tanga feeding defender Sam Bone who poked his effort wide.

Just when this game looked like it was set to go to sleep it burst in to life as Yeovil pulled one back. With 15 minutes remaining, Nouble pulled clear inside the box and laid it back to Dylan MORGAN who coolly stroked home his first goal for his new side.

At the other end, Tanga had a shot superbly turned over by Day before Greenidge had the ball in the net from the following corner, only for the offside flag to deny him.

Witt two minutes of normal time remaining, Alex Fisher, back on the bench following his loan spell at Oxford City, replaced Young.

The action off the pitch seemed livelier than on it as the game closed to an end. Both sets of supporters, housed head-to-head had been simmering at each other all game and it spilled over as the Glovers pushed for an equaliser. Things were thrown from both sides and there was plenty of people marched out of the Gallagher Stadium. No-one comes out of that looking great.

 

Meanwhile, on the pitch, a last hurrah saw Yeovil in injury time. Nouble flicked one wide from a corner and Wannell’s shot hit Fisher and deflected wide. The points went to Maidstone and on the basis of their first half dominance, that was probably fair.

Full time: Maidstone United 2 Yeovil Town 1

 

Match Details

Venue: Gallagher Stadium
Date: Saturday 3rd February – 3pm

Competition: National League South

Pitch: Plastic
Conditions: 

Attendance: 3119

Scorers: Mo Faal, Matt Rush, Dylan Morgan

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: Wannell, 12
Maidstone United:Sam Bone 75, Reiss Greenidge 80

Referee: Dave McCarrick

Yeovil Town (5-2-3)

Substitutes: Dylan Morgan (for Josh Owers, 56), Olly Thomas (for Sam Pearson, 65) Alex Fisher (for Jordan Young, 88)

Maidstone United: Lucas Covolan, Reece Greenidge, George Fowler, Raphe Brown, Liam Sole (Chi Ezennolim 76), Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong (Jephte Tanga 61), Sam Corne, Sam Bone, Lamar Reynolds, Mo Faal (Manny Duku 64), Matt Rush. Substitutes (not used):Harley Earle, Bivesh Gurung

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Yeovil Town have made two changes to their starting XI at fourth-placed Maidstone United today (3pm kick-off).

Josh Owers and Jay Foulston come in for Charlie Cooper, who went off late in Tuesday night’s 3-1 home win over Slough Town with an injury, and Dylan Morgan.

On the bench, striker Alex Fisher, who has been on loan at National League Premier side Oxford City, returns.

This is the formation which makes the most sense to us…

 

 

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We’ve got a trip to this season’s FA Cup heroes Maidstone United today. Dave caught up with Nigel Seager, who does commentary for Stones Live.

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We’d love to welcome some local businesses into the Gloverscast family through advertising. If you’re a business that would like to speak to a dedicated audience of more than 1000 monthly listeners, please get in touch. Find out more about advertising with us here.

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.