September 2024 (Page 5)

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It was a rare defeat on the road for Yeovil Town as they went down to a late Mike Fondop goal at Oldham Athletic yesterday. The result means the Glovers have not scored in their last three outings, but are still just about comfortably mid-table in the National League Premier rankings. Dave made the short journey (for him) across to Greater Manchester and here’s what he made of it…..

Let’s just scrap Rule 1: I’m going to get the obvious point out of the way straight off, referee Paul Marsden had a stinker. When both sets of supporters are on your back after 20 minutes, you know it’s not going well and it just got worse as the game went on – inconsistent and at times baffling decisions. There were fouls we committed that were given our way, both Aaron Jarvis and Frank Nouble must have felt like just giving the Oldham defence their shirts the amount they were having them almost torn off at times. Referees have a tough job, I get that, but when you get as much wrong as this guy did, you deserve the bad review. I’d put our penalty shout at the end down in the ‘you’ve seen them given’ category rather than ‘stonewall’, but Marsden’s performance was awful before even that happened.

Frank ‘has a word’ with referee Paul Marsden at the final whistle.

Frank and Pearson impressed: In the first half, we went toe-to-toe with an Oldham side which has had considerable investment – I doubt either James Norwood or Joe Garner are getting paid in pork scratchings. A big part of our threat was carried by Frank Nouble, who caused Reagen Ogle all kinds of problems down the left side, and Sam Pearson who was a constant nuisance throughout on the right. I still think Frank’s best position is that free role where he can go and do as he likes, but left wing suited him down to the ground in the first half yesterday.

Take (another) bow, Ollie Wright: There has been some questions from the Huish Park press corps about ‘online criticism’ of Ollie Wright. I’m not sure if that’s @Gary47985 (that’s not a real account by the way!) saying something wayward, because if that’s the case we’re all the target of online criticism. But, from what I have seen of him this season, Ollie Wright has done more right than wrong and he kept us in the game at Oldham on multiple occasions. Big saves against big players in a big match atmosphere. I said it in my Five Conclusions after the win at AFC Fylde, Ben mentioned it in his analysis of the win at Boston, this lad is a fantastic shot-stopper and performances like that are only going to help him grow. My man of the match.

Sam Pearson was busy at Boundary Park.

There’s an issue up front: No, I’m not claiming I’m a rocket scientist and I would like the prize for the most obvious statement of the day, please! But it’s 273 minutes since Dom Bernard’s winner at AFC Fylde, the last goal we scored and there is no-one who has watched us play in the last three matches who can honestly think we don’t have an issue going forward. In their post-match interviews both Chris Todd and Frank Nouble eluded to things not clicking – even Mark Cooper shouted “get it forward” at least once at Boundary Park! So what is it that meant we didn’t force Oldham’s keeper in to a meaningful save? Well, they have a decent defence, let’s say that to start, but it’s so painfully obvious to me that Aaron Jarvis needs an actual strike-partner. Maybe not all the time, but at least some of the time. He came off for Ciaran McGuckin in the second half at Oldham, I would have loved to see one of our midfielders come off and tried the two of them up there together. Jarvis works his nuts off and his link-up play is a great at times, but give the guy some help up there. 

Let’s take the positives: There was a lot to be positive about in the first half yesterday night and we have to take that in to Tuesday night at Sutton United. We’ve said on the podcast several times that our season will not be defined by results away at Oldham Athletic – or against the likes of Gateshead, Hartlepool United and maybe Rochdale and Solihull Moors as well. Yes, I have just named the teams we have lost against. We’ve got our points against teams we need to be getting them off and our league position after ten games is one I’m quite happy with. Yesterday, Ollie Wright had a blinder, we looked defensively solid, decent on the flanks, it’s just that ‘small matter’ of scoring goals. We’re ten games in to the gelling/getting used to a higher division process now, we have to keep on improving. On to Tuesday night and let’s see if we can add those missing bits.

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Yeovil Town head to Sutton United for a midweek clash and the Referee assigned to the game is Mr Callum Walchester.

HANG ON A MINUTE!

I know that name… you know that name, that’s right he’s our first occurrence of repeat referee this season.

Mr Walchester was in charge of the Glovers’ first win of the campaign, a 1-0 win over Braintree in August.

If you recall, he dished out four yellow cards on that occasion; Mr Jarvis and Mr Nouble got in a spot on trouble, on your best behaviour, lads!

He also ruled out a Sam Pearson goal after something of a scramble in the second half, but a foul on Aaron Jarvis squandered that one and there was no real arguments from anyone in Green and White.

He does have some new friends with him this time though, he’s got Stuart Butler and Stephen Brown waving flags and Adam Merchant waving subs boards. 

There’s Mr Walchester, top right… keeping an eager eye on any shenanigans in the box. 

Matt Robinson strikes at goal for Braintree.

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Highlights of this afternoon’s 1-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic are now available on the National League’s YouTube channel.

You will see the jumped up little twerp that was officiating the game (badly – for both sides!) send off Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper, but you’ll not see the penalty shout which led to the red card. Strange, but it is the same organisation that put him in charge.

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Frank Nouble spoke to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after Yeovil’s 1-0 defeat at Oldham. Here’s what he said.

JP: Frank, never easy to do these after a loss I imagine. A disappointing result?

FN: Yeah, yeah, frustrating result. Nobody wants to lose games, especially when you feel like you put a lot into the game. I’m just proud of the team, really. Sometimes you lose a game and you’ve been outplayed or you know that position will better than you. You hold your hands up. Today I don’t think that was the case, I thought we done well. We frustrated them quite a lot and they’re big team in our division. So I’m glad we went toe to toe with them. I have confidence in the group, so just gotta keep going.

JP: What do you think it was? Because as you say in the first half you created chances. It was it was really there for the taking for both teams. What was it? What was the difference?

FN: I think they changed a few things [in the] second-half. I think they played better [in the] second-half. Sometimes a lot of pressure amounts to better chances, and I think they maybe edged it on better chances in second-half and they scored 1. So something we gotta learn from. We just got to keep going and you know the way we play our football it’s unique, I like to say. I think we’ve gone up a league and we’ve played exactly the same way. We try to play the ball on the floor, every now and then, mix it up and we’ve got personnel who are still blending with each other, you know. Partnerships are building every week, but we want it to build with winning as well. So you know we’re not going to be silly and say that we want to keep building and lose games either. Just gotta keep going and I’m proud of the group.

JP: And are you proud of yourself as well? Because, especially in the first half on that left hand side, you were playing off the shoulder of other defenders and cutting the ball into Jarvis I remember in the first half, so are you proud of yourself this season?

FN: Yeah, yeah, I feel like I’ve been OK. I’ve been good. I know if the attacking players are playing really well, we’ll win most games, so just gotta keep pushing for that form. I know it’ll come because we’re good players. It’s not a league we’re afraid of either. You know we’ve got me, Youngy, Jarvis, Sam Pearson. Eventually somebody’s going to, or a couple of us, will hit real rich form and when that does happen, we know that the back boys have been unbelievable as well, all year.. So we just got to stay together and the supporters are behind us, which is brilliant, so that gives us an extra push.

“it’s frustrating not to get it, especially in that moment of the game”

JP: And just describe to me because there were a couple of, crazy moments in thelast few minutes of the game. That apparent penalty call, shout whatever you wanna call it on Morgan Williams, was it a penalty?

FN: Yeah. Yeah, it’s a blatant penalty. Maybe the referee didn’t see it, maybe he got blindsided, cause [there’s] a lot of bodies in there, but it felt so obvious that you would think he would give it. So it’s frustrating not to get it, especially in that moment of the game there’s a big decision for referee to make. You know, we’re upset about at the time but we’ve got to move on quickly. We’ve got a game Tuesday against Sutton, which should be another tough game for us. But, you know, we’re quietly confident and we’ll keep working towards achieving the goals that we want to achieve which is looking up the table, not behind us.

JP: And as you say, tough game against Sutton. What else can you expect from that game on Tuesday?

FN: Sutton will be a good team. I think they come down from League Two last season, so we expect them to be good. I think they won today, I just checked the results. So we look forward to a tough game. I think they’ll be athletic. I know a couple of boys down there. We look forward to it, but they’ve got to deal with us as well. And I feel like we’re 5% away from giving someone a real hiding. So hopefully that could be the case on Tuesday. It’s also my birthday Tuesday as well, so I’m looking forward to it. So hopefully we can get the result. I wanted to keep it quiet until the game, but yeah, hopefully we can do it and we’ll just keep positive. The group is so positive in there. We’re disappointed today but it’s my job as one of the older players and a few of us to keep our head up high, long journey back home, rest up and be ready for Tuesday.

JP: 21 again on Tuesday is it?

FN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. How did you know?

 

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Yeovil Town assistant manager Chris Todd was on the media duties this afternoon following the Glovers 1-0 defeat at Oldham, in a match that saw Mark Cooper sent off. Todd spoke to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins.

JP: Chris, what’s your assessment of the 98 minutes?

CT: I believe we should have come away with something, whether that was a point or three points. It was a performance away from home that was capable of coming away with that, you know, at least. To not come away with anything is very disappointing but the referee’s performance, I’m sorry it has to be better. You can accept a few mistakes, that’s football, that’s that’s normal. But there was too many. It was very, very much disappointing for us as staff and very frustrating on the sideline, when you keep seeing decision after decision go the other way, you’re going to get frustrated. But then to send off the gaffer as well, which is madness because he’s got to understand, as a fourth official, the referee’s having a bad day. You can’t allow that to happen.

JP: So do you know exactly what it was that got Mark Cooper the red?

CT: I think it was just persistent us moaning at him really, I suppose. But when decisions aren’t going your way and they’re that bad, it’s gonna happen. You’re gonna get really frustrated. You’re gonna get annoyed. And to send him off, it just summed his performance up. I’m sorry, but it did.

JP: It wasn’t a straight red, it was kind of an accumulation of yellows. Is it fair that Mark Cooper once he’s on the should tread the line carefully?

CT: No, not at all because it wasn’t nothing after that. It wasn’t as if he was like screaming at him. Do you know what I mean? We all were. We were all like saying like ‘you need to be better, he needs to be better’. You know, it wasn’t like swearing or anything like that, which was malicious. It was nothing. Even their side said ‘Come on, like that’s embarrassing’  but there we go.

JP: Only one goal, to be fair, Oldham, you know created more, maybe, chances in the first half, but Yeovil still were it at the end of the first 45…

CT: 100%, it’s away from home, you know, but as I said, like you expect pressure, you expect a bit of defending to do. That’s normal every time you come away from home for sure you’re gonna get that, but the performance was worthy of at least a point, in my opinion, and you know, listen, we haven’t got it now and we have to go again. We have to pick ourselves up. We thank all the fans for their travelling and their support because they outstanding, I thought. And they deserve more on the day.

JP: And Sutton on Tuesday, you know, not too long, I guess, to kind of, as you say, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go again. What can you expect from Sutton United on Tuesday?

CT: A good team, a good team. Obviously [they’ve] come down. Obviously they’ve done quite well this season so far. Every game in this league, there’s never an easy game and we understand that. So we can’t take our foot off the gas and we’ve got to keep performing. But if you keep performing and you keep putting on performances, the results will come because the quality we’ve got in abundance. We have got quality in the attacking force and then I know defenders can score and midfielders and score. So, we just have to stick together, keep working hard and turn this turn the corner basically.

Todd also spoke to the club’s official channels which you can watch below.

 

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Yeovil Town suffered their second defeat away from home as a late winner from Mike Fondop saw them go down to a 1-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic.

The Glovers more than matched their hosts in the first half but were indebted to goalkeeper Ollie Wright who pulled off some fine saves throughout the match until Fondop’s header beat him with eight minutes remaining.

In the dying seconds of the game, Yeovil felt they were denied a penalty after Morgan Williams went flying inside the box, before manager Mark Cooper was shown a red card from the utterly inconsistent and baffling referee, Paul Marsden.

Here’s how Dave saw it from his view inside Boundary Park….

 

First half

The opening ten minutes appeared an exercise in both sides finding each other out. Glovers’ keeper Ollie Wright made a good claim off the head of Mike Fondop and at the other end both Matt Worthington and Sam Pearson heavily involved. 

The clearest cut opportunity for either side came on 13 minutes when Oli Hammond burst forward  but dragged his shot wide of goal.

Five minutes later, a short corner routine caught out the Yeovil defence and James Norwood’s effort from inside the area was denied by a smart save from Wright.

There was a worrying moment around the 20-minute mark when Morgan Williams needed an extended period of treatment after what looked to be an off-the-ball incident. He was very politely referred to as ‘soft’ by those lovely folks in the home end of Boundary Park.

They had a very different opinion of what looked to be a high boot from Frank Nouble as he challenged Ogle. The referee, who managed to make himself unpopular with both sets of fans within the opening 20 minutes, shared the home fans’ opinion and gave out the game’s first yellow card on 26 minutes to the Yeovil forward.

Wright was forced in to another fine stop on 35 minutes when Fondop rose highest inside the penalty area to power a header which the young keeper did superbly to push out. Three minutes later it was Josh Lundstrum (brother of Jon) who forced a stop of out the on-loan Southampton man.

There’s been a lot of questions about “online abuse” of Wright from the Huish Park media corps recently, but even his biggest critic could not question he earned his pay check for his performance in the first half.

Yeovil’s best chance of the opening 45 minutes came with the final move of the half. Great link-up play between Nouble and Pearson set the latter free to hit an angled shot which was headed away by Joe Raglan.

The better chances had undoubtedly fallen to the home side, attacking their own supporters in the first half, but Yeovil had caused the Oldham backline problems and more than deserved to go in level at the break.

Half time: Oldham Athletic 0 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

Pearson picked up where he left off with the first chance of the second  half falling to him. A great move down the left by Nouble found its way to the Welshman whose shot was blocked by an Oldham defender. Inexplicably it was given as a goal kick; well, not inexplicable if you factor in these were National League match officials.
 
A more worrying moment came on 51 minutes when Michael Smith called for the physio as we prepared to take a free-kick. There was no obvious incident which led to it but he was replaced by Dom Bernard, who took up the right-back position.
 
Michael Smith limps off.
 
At the other end, Fondop had another glorious chance to add to his impressive scoring form against us. On 54 minutes, a fine ball in from Kitching and the big frontman put his header wide.

Dolan forced another smart stop out of Wright before on 63 minutes another bit of good link-up play between Nouble and Jarvis put Worthington in on goal. He tried to barrel his way through defenders when maybe just swinging a boot at it would have had more effect.

Brett McGavin was introduced on 63 minutes replacing Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, and seven minutes later new loan signing Ciaran McGuckin replaced Jarvis. It had been another hard-working display from the frontman who should really donate his shirt to the Oldham defence who clear wanted to take it off him all game. That said, he gives as good as he gets.

The move saw us switch to wing-backs (yes, wing-backs) with Bernard moving in to the middle while Pearson and Whittle took up the wing-back positions.

The breakthrough came eight minutes from time and it was that man Mike FONDOP again. Another good cross from Ogle found him in the middle and he headed powerfully past Wright. That’s four goals in three games against us now.

Boundary Park finally found its voice and the Oldham players responded with substitute Jes Uchegbulam having an effort tipped over by Wright.

As happened in the first half, the best opportunity of the second half fell for Yeovil with five minutes of eight added on. McGavin’s shot from the edge of the box was blocked.

But the biggest drama came in the dying seconds.  First there was a tangle between Latics’ keeper Matthew Hudson and Morgan Williams which led to the former going to ground whilst the latter grabbed the ball to set up a corner. From the resulting flag kick, there was scrum inside the Oldham penalty box saw Morgan Williams go flying inside the box. The visitors’ bench flew up and within seconds referee Paul Marsden was showing Mark Cooper a red card.

It was impossible to tell from the angle the away end was at, but the view from the Oldham home end, see tweet below, puts it firmly in the ‘seen them given’ category.

As I mentioned in the first half, the man in black made himself unpopular with both sets of fans within minutes of the game starting, but the entire match was scarred by some  utterly inconsistent and at times baffling decisions for both sides.

When the final whistle blew, it’s fair to say Gloverscast Rule 1 (all National League referees are sh*t, just live with it), was in tatters amongst the travelling fans.

Full time: Oldham Athletic 1 Yeovil Town 0

Match Details

Venue: Boundary Park
Date: Saturday 20th September – 15:00

Competition: National League Premier

Pitch:  Literally like a carpet 
Conditions: Dry with a blustery wind

Attendance:  5,411 (210 away supporters)

Scorers: Mike Fondop 82 (0-1)

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Frank Nouble 26,
Oldham Athletic: Charlie Raglan 32, Mark Kitching 90+5, Matthew Hudson 90+8

Referee: Paul Marsden

Yeovil Town (4-2-3-1)

Substitutes:  Dom Bernard (for Michael Smith, 51), Brett McGavin (for Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, 63), Ciaran McGuckin (for Aaron Jarvis, 69), Jordan Young (for Sam Pearson, 81), Finn Cousin-Dawson (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Oldham Athletic: Matthew Hudson, Reagen Ogle, Mark Kitching, Manny Monthe, Josh Lundstrum, Mike Fondop, Tom Conlon, Joe Raglan, Jake Caprice (for Jes Uchegbulam, 55), Oli Hammond (for Callum Dolan, 55), James Norwood (for Joe Garner, 73).

Substitutes (not used): Scott Moloney, Liam Hogan, Shaun Hobson.

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Yeovil Town Manager Mark Cooper has said he is ‘pleased’ that The Glovers are not involved in the new National League Cup.

The new competition, was announced this past week with 16 Premier League Under 23 sides lined up to take on 16 National League sides.

 

Yeovil confirmed they were not involved in the first edition of this new competition and speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins before Yeovil’s game against Oldham (who are in the National League Cup), Cooper said;

“”I think, if you ask most managers, they’ll be dreading it. I think I’d be dreading it, I’m pleased we’re not in it”

The competitions gets underway in mid October, with the National League promising a £1million prize pool made available to it’s member clubs.

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Mark Cooper has told BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins that Josh Sims misses out on the trip to Oldham with some tendonitis in his knee.

The Yeovil Town manager confirmed that Frank Nouble comes in for the former Southampton youngster, but isn’t worried about the problem being a long term one.

He also said that he hopes that Raphael Araoye should be back with the Glovers “soon“, the Bristol City loanee has been absent since limping off in the win over Boston United.

Striker Ciaran McGuckin, signed on loan from Rotherham is on the bench and Cooper said he was looking forward to the “aggressive” striker potentially making his debut from the sub’s bench.