Frank Nouble returns to the Yeovil Town starting line-up for the trip to Oldham Athletic today (3pm kick-off).
The frontman replaces Josh Sims in the only change from the goalless draw at home to Altrincham last weekend.
Striker Ciaran McGuckin, who joined on loan from Rotherham United yesterday, is among the six substitutes.
Oldham away today and Ben has spoken to Matt from WeAreOldham about the Latics’ season so far and a bit of history…
Yeovil are back in the road this weekend, as they make the trip to Greater Manchester to play Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park on Saturday.
The Latics have been the kings of 1-1 draws this season with five results ending with that score line, with four of those coming in their last five games.
However, their latst result against Woking saw them triumph 3-1 winners away from home.
Over the last five games the Glovers have picked up seven points with wins on the road at AFC Fylde and Boston United, and two defeats and a draw on home soil against Rochdale, Solihull Moors and Altrincham respectively.
Away from home, Yeovil go in to the weekend with the third best record in the division, facing the 15th-best home record in the division in Oldham, who have not won since a 3-0 success over Braintree Town on the opening day of the season.
With the Somerset side currently sat in 12th in the National League it has been a steady start to the new campaign, however, on paper, Premier League founder members Oldham will provide a much sterner test than the past couple of weeks.
Oldham – Mike Fondop
Fondop has been the Greater Manchester side biggest threat this season with three goals and two assists in nine games. The striker has started 67% of games for The Latics, becoming someone they have heavily relied upon.
He will be a familiar face for all the wrong reasons for Glovers’ fans having scored against us both home and away in the 2022-23 season, including a brace in a 3-0 win for Oldham in the penultimate game of a forgettable season (for us) at Huish Park.
Another notable name is James Norwood who hasn’t been his prolific self but his qualities at this level could be on show if he finds form. Norwood rose to prominence with an impressive goal-scoring record at Tranmere Rovers which earned him a move to Ipswich Town and then Barnsley, before arriving at Oldham in the summer of 2023. He scored 18 times last season and has just one in five appearances so far this campaign.
Yeovil – Sam Pearson
The winger has been very productive this season with four assists and one goal in nine games so far this season.
The Welsh youth international has contributed mainly when playing on the left with one goal and two assists coming from when playing in that position. But the ex-Bristol City man has found himself more often than not on the right where he has been far less effective.
Pearson will need to be outlet this weekend for Yeovil as attacking opportunities may be hard to come by against a recently relegated team.
Glovers boss Mark Cooper talked to the press about the talent Oldham have at their disposal. He said: “They have a squad of players that are probably above the level and at a club like Oldham they know they have to win games of football, otherwise the crowd are not happy.”
Latics’ manager Micky Mellon spoke to the club’s website about the weekend, he said: “We are definitely competing with the better teams in the division and we need to turn these draws in to victories, we are certainly creating chances and the next stage is being more clinical and ruthless.
“This is the most balanced National League I have known, every game seems to be contested evenly, there’s loads of quality players in to this division and every week is a tough challenge and the next game (against Yeovil) will be that.
“There’s loads of Football League experience, loads of players that have been schooled well at Under-23s level, but we believe we have a really good group that can handle that.”
Oldham and Yeovil have met 22 times in their history with The Latics winning eight of those, the Glovers have also won eight with the other six fixtures being draws.
The last time these two side met was in 2019 at Huish Park with the away side winning 0-3. In fact Yeovil haven’t won a game in this fixture since 2015 when they won 2-1 at home.
The former Yeovil players don’t stop as former Glovers man Otis Khan is now in Micky Mellon’s squad. Khan played 87 times for the Glovers netting 18 times and setting up 15 goals. The Pakistan international was at Huish Park for two years between 2016 and 2018.
Since leaving Somerset the winger has gone to play for Mansfield, Newport and Tranmere to name a few.
Neither team will have anyone missing through suspension.
If you fancy the 500-mile round trip from Somerset to Greater Manchester, tickets are available – check the Huish Hugh Ciderspace Away Travel Guide for full details.
BBC Somerset will have full coverage of the match with Josh Perkins the man with the mic.
National League TV has this game listed as available to watch outside of the UK
We’ll have team news, match report, Five Conclusions and our usual reaction podcast to follow on Monday.
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Yeovil Town have been given an away tie at Helston Athletic in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Youth Cup.
The Under 18s – who begin their league campaign at Huish Park this Monday – have been drawn away to Helston who got through the first round this past week.
The game will be played Week Commencing 30th September and will kick off at 7pm. There is no Extra Time or replays at this stage, draws at 90 minutes will lead straight to spot kicks to decide the tie.
Full Match Details to Follow.
NEXT ROUND…
Following Tuesday evenings win, @HelstonU18s will host @YTFC U18’s in the FA Youth Cup 2nd Rd Qualifying.
Date – TBC pic.twitter.com/YoNG6b71xS
— Helston Athletic FC (@HelstonAFC) September 20, 2024
The plebs are back to talk new a signing, the silly National League competition and plenty of other stuff too. You might want to stay to the end of this one…
Charlie Cooper has said he is enjoying the competition for places in the Yeovil Town midfield this season.
The 27-year-old has been up against skipper Matt Worthington, summer signing Brett McGavin and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton in the battle for a starting place in the opening nine matches of the National League Premier season.
Having missed the opening match of the season, he has appeared in the previous eight matches and appeared in a deep-lying role in the goalless draw with Altrincham at Huish Park last weekend.
Speaking ahead of this Saturday’s trip to Oldham Athletic, he said: “Between the four of us, whoever plays you are going to have a good midfield. Each of us are good at different things, it is just a case of getting the right balance and some people are better suited for different games. It has been a good competition.”
On his role in the midfield, he added: “How I play depends on who we are playing and what sort of press we are facing, that dictates where I am on the pitch. I think first half against Altrincham they came with a press and (the way we played) killed it.
“We work on things (in training) and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, but that is football. I am a defensive midfielder, but I do like to get us playing as well.
“I know sometimes it looks like you are playing sideways but that is to make sure we keep possession for long periods of the game.”
The stalemate with Altrincham was met by boos from some sections of the Huish Park crowd, but Cooper called on fans to recognise the step up in quality from that they encountered in National League South last season.
Yeovil have picked up four points from a possible 15 at home, compared with nine points from a possible 12 away from home.
The midfielder said: “Last year, we won most games at home and I think that is why you see a little bit of frustration at home from the fans, but it can’t get like that after the connection we built with the fans last year.
“I know it has been frustrating and we have picked up more wins on the road, we need to stick together because (the atmosphere at Huish Park) can be a massive thing that will cause problems for other teams.”
This weekend sees Cooper return to one of his former clubs, Oldham Athletic, where he spent the first six months of the 2022-23 season, the Latics’ first since relegation out of the Football League. Having been signed by John Sheridan at the start of the campaign, Cooper saw the boss shown the door in September and replaced by David Unsworth, who endured an equally torrid time.
But, Cooper knows that the club’s fan base – they are averaging the second-highest home attendances in the division going in to the weekend – can be a negative force as well as a positive one.
He said: “Our main aim to be competitive and, if we can string a run of games together, I think we will be up there but there is a bit of pressure on Oldham.
“They get a lot of fans going there and backing them, so there will be a lot of pressure on them to be automatic promotion or in the play-offs.
“It is a massive club and it is great to play in front of when you are doing well, but when it’s not going well (the crowd) can turn. I like playing in those kind of games in front of big crowds.”
Young striker Ciaran McGuckin has joined Yeovil Town on loan from League One side Rotherham United until January.
The 20-year-old striker made three appearances off the bench for the Millers at the start of last season in the Championship before making his first start in a 6-1 EFL Cup defeat at Stoke City last August under then-manager Matty Taylor,
He had a spell on loan at Dundalk in the League of Ireland Premier Division during the current campaign, which runs from February to November, which was cut short by injury.
In a statement on its website, Rotherham have described the deal as “subject to ratification from the FA, EFL and National League.”
The Millers added: “The striker joins the Glovers in pursuit of more regular first team minutes and could make his debut for his new club on Saturday, when they travel to face Oldham Athletic.”
These details were later confirmed by Yeovil’s own statement announcing the signing which followed the usual unveiling video posted on its social media channels, see below.
Speaking to the Rotherham Advertiser earlier this week, Millers’ boss Steve Evans (yes, that one) said the striker was lined up to join National League side Rochdale in the summer only for the ankle injury which ended his spell at Dundalk to scupper the move.
Evans said: “The plan will be for him to go and get some games. He was all set to sign for Rochdale on loan and then twisted his ankle when he was training with the youth team.”
Welcome to Somerset, Ciaran!
Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper said he has no concerns about his side’s home record as they prepare for their tenth game of the new season this weekend.
The Glovers have four points from their opening five National League Premier matches at Huish Park, the fourth-lowest points total in the division, but have the third-best away record in the division having got three wins and one defeat on their travels.
They head to Oldham Athletic to face a side which have also only won once in front of their home crowd this weekend looking to extend their impressive form away from home.
Speaking about the home form on Thursday, the manager said: “We have gone up a division and it is a massive jump, which we knew it would be. We thought we deserved to win against Altrincham on Saturday, it was probably our best all-round performance.
“We have had a solid start and if you add another two or three points to our total it is a really good start, so I do not want to make a big thing out of (the home form). We are not bothered where we win the points, we just want to win them.
“It is a utopia to win home and away and we have teams that come here and know that if they do not concede in the first 20 minutes, sections of the crowd will get agitated and it becomes more difficult.”
The boss was speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday ahead of the announcement of the signing of young Rotherham United striker Ciaran McGuckin which came out at 6pm on the same day.
The only absentees will be injured forward Harvey Greenslade and on-loan Bristol City defender Raphael Araoye who has been missing since coming off with a dead leg in the win at Boston United three weeks ago.
Cooper said the Glovers were still waiting to get an update from Ashton Gate about the 19-year-old’s fitness and was asked if he would have to consider an alternative signing if the absence continued, he replied: “Possibly.”
Oldham won 3-1 away at Woking last weekend having picked up five draws and one defeat in their previous six matches and will be looking to use that victory to lift them as they look for their first victory at Boundary Park since an opening day win over newly-promoted Braintree Town.
The Latics are managed by the experienced Micky Mellon who played alongside Glovers’ boss Cooper when the pair were at Bristol City at the start of their playing careers in the the late 1980s.
The Yeovil manager said: “When the fixtures come out, you look for games like Oldham away because you know it will be a great atmosphere and a really good game of football.
“I played with Micky as a young boy at Bristol City in the 1980s, he has a great managerial career and won promotions with Fleetwood and Tranmere. We have beaten each other in the play-offs, so there is a lot of respect there. Micky will play to win. They have a squad of players that are probably above the level and at a club like Oldham they know they have to win games of football, otherwise the crowd at not happy – similar to Yeovil.
“I think they will be grounded and they will know it is early in the season because if you put a couple of wins together and you are in the play-offs. We are only a point off the play-offs and the world is going to end in Yeovil apparently. They will be aware they have had a decent start.”
The Glovers failed to score in their last two outings, a 1-0 defeat against Solihull Moors and last weekend’s goalless draw at home to Altrincham, having netted seven times in a 3-1 win at Boston and a 4-3 success at AFC Fylde in their previous two matches.
Cooper said: “We scored seven goals in two games at Boston and Fylde and we kept the same forwards for the Solihull game and didn’t spark at all. I should have freshened the team up (against Solihull) but when you have the euphoria of winning late on at Fylde you think that momentum will carry you through and it didn’t. I should have changed something and freshened something up, so I learnt something there. The longer the forwards play together, the connections will get better.”
The boss also said that he had learned a lesson from his decision to rest a number of players for the FA Trophy tie at Torquay United with his side on a run of 14 wins in all competitions last November.
Asked whether he would consider resting players for upcoming cup competitions this season, Cooper said: “I will pick the team that will win games of football in every game I play. I learned last year that we had a terrific run of 14 games unbeaten and then we decided we needed to rest one or two for the Torquay game in the FA Trophy and we got beat. I don’t think I would do that this year, I will try and get as many people out there as I can which drives competition because people know they are not going to just get a game because you feel sorry for them. They have to earn the opportunity and when they do it get, they have to take it and I think that has to be the starting point to getting a really competitive group.”
This season, the Glovers enter the FA Cup at the fourth qualifying round stage with ties played on October 12, and the FA Trophy in the third round at the start of December.
On-loan Yeovil Town players Dylan Morgan and Jordan Thomas are using their spells away from Huish Park to recover from injuries, manager Mark Cooper has confirmed.
Morgan, who started the Glovers’ opening league fixture, joined National League South side Weston-super-Mare for three months at the end of August whilst defender Thomas, a summer signing from Hampton & Richmond, joined Salisbury on a one-month deal at the start of September.
Speaking on Thursday ahead of the weekend’s trip to Oldham Athletic, the boss was asked by reporter Tom Bailey whether he would consider bringing players back to bolsyer his first team squad.
Cooper said: “That is something we will look at if we get to that point, if we are that short of bodies we need to bring people back. You have to weigh up is it better for Dyl to be there playing every week, scoring goals than coming off the bench for us and playing 20 minutes.
“The injury rocked Dyl in pre-season and he is in a good place at the moment, the same with Jordan Thomas who picked up an injury and missed three weeks (of pre-season training) and he was behind the group.
“So when we have enough bodies in we will try and send certain players out on loan that we are trying to top up their minutes and get them up to full speed.”
Out-of-favour goalkeeper Will Buse joined National League South strugglers W*ymouth last week and Under-18s’ defender Corey Koerner has been turning out for Plymouth Parkway, although he is on dual registration terms which meant he was able to link up with Yeovil’s first-team squad for the recent win at AFC Fylde.
Yeovil Town have not been included in the new National League Premier League Cup (Think EFL Trophy – but if you ordered it from Wish.com)
The National League have today announced a new cup competition that absolutely no-one asked for, which, along with the FA Trophy, FA Cup and County Cups will squeeze into an already busy campaign, getting underway in mid-October.
Yeovil, however, are not on the list of teams taking part as we… dunno, are not worthy!? Who knows!?
Anyway, here’s the spiel from the National League.
The National League Cup is designed to give young players from Premier League and EFL clubs
additional opportunities to test themselves against senior opposition, with the aim of further aiding elite player development.
The competition, which begins in October, also offers an opportunity for National League clubs to play regular matches against the best U21 teams in England at their own stadia, with this additional exposure intended to improve the playing and spectator experience. National League clubs will also keep all gate receipts from these fixtures.
What format will the competition take?
The National League Cup is a 32-team midweek competition, comprising 16 under-21 teams
participating in Premier League 2, and 16 first teams from clubs participating in the National League.
The competition will consist of a group stage (four groups of eight), with the two best-placed teams in each group advancing to a knock-out stage to determine the winner.
The first round of the competition includes fixtures between Oldham Athletic and Stoke City PL2 and FC Halifax Town and Newcastle United PL2 while Dagenham & Redbridge host Tottenham Hotspur PL2.
Tony Scholes, Chief Football Officer at the Premier League said: “We’re excited to launch this new competition in partnership with the National League.
“The competition will provide additional opportunities for young players in the under 17-21 age groups to gain valuable experience of playing against First Team opposition, something many of our current Premier League stars have experienced in their development.
“We’re pleased to be able to support in the operation of the competition and look forward to seeing the wider benefits it will bring to National League clubs.”
Mark Ives, General Manager at the National League said: “This new competition presents another exciting chapter in our partnership with the Premier League.
“Our sides will have a great opportunity to compete against some of the best academy players in the country. We’re excited to be working closer with the Premier League on the operational side of the new competition and look forward to continuing our valued partnership further.”
Further information
The combined prize fund for the competition is £1million, provided by the Premier League. Prize money will be distributed only to National League clubs.
The competition becomes a component of the Elite Player Performance Plan, which has seen over £2billion of investment into Premier League and EFL academies over the last decade, with the aim of producing more and better homegrown players.
Players within the Professional Development Phase (under-17 to under-21) compete in a range of competitions including Premier League 2, the Under-18 Premier League, the Premier League International Cup and the EFL Trophy.
Competition round dates:
• Group stage match round 1: 1 – 2 October 2024
• Group stage match round 2: 5 – 6 November 2024
• Group stage match round 3: 3 – 4 December 2024
• Group stage match round 4: 21 – 22 January 2025
• Quarter-finals: 5 – 6 February 2025
• Semi-finals: 11 – 12 March 2025
• Final: 1 – 2 April 2025
