October 2024 (Page 8)

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Frustrating was the word of the day in the Yeovil Town camp following FA Cup defeat at Chesham United. Captain on the day, Frank Nouble, echoed the thoughts of his manager as the Glovers drew a blank for the sixth time this season.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Chris Spittles, Nouble said: “I think it does epitomise how our season has gone so far. I think we’ve played relatively well with the ball and controlled large spells. I don’t think they created too much. That’s not about being arrogant, either, it’s just just the facts of the game. But, they took their chance when it came in last minute of the game, or whenever it was. It’s hugely frustrating for us, particularly for our supporters and our players in there. We’re all disappointed. A few things were said in there, and rightly so. But the beauty about football is always enough opportunity to go out there and reclaim some form or some sort of happiness and bring back some joy, back to our supporters.”

Frank Nouble on the charge.Pic Gary Brown

Nouble, who is yet to find the back of the net this season, is still taking the ‘small positive’ of the side playing ‘relatively well’ and that the team will keep working.

“We’re not creating gilt edged chances where someone’s one v one and they’re missing them. [It’s] a lot of half chances, but it’s from good play. And you know, last year,  you might say it’s a league below, but we we’re still taking them chances, even if they were half chances. So this year just got to keep working. You know, we’re not scored many goals in the league overall, but we still find ourselves, I don’t know, 10th or 11th in the league. So it shows that, if we do turn that form around, in terms of attacking, God knows where we could be? So it’s a small positive to take from today that we are playing relatively well, but need to take our chances.”

“I do a lot of things outside the box, but I also need to chip in and help out with the team”

Club Captain Matt Worthington has been on the sidelines in recent weeks, with Brett McGavin and Charlie Cooper the preferred midfield pairing. Nouble as a senior player in the team has taken the armband in his absence.

“Matthew Worthington is the club captain, when he’s not playing or he’s not been selected recently, I’ve stepped in. Results have been decent, and they will be decent when Worthy’s captain again. But, as a senior Pro, I do find it my duty to just voice the positive and constructive opinions, and particularly myself, I’ve got to lead by example, on the pitch as well. I’m an attacking player, I do a lot of things outside the box, but I also need to chip in and help out with the team.” 

Despite the defeat, Nouble was proud of his teammates and said that they’d be ready for the next challenge: “I’m really proud of all the players in there, and lucky to play with them as well. I think it’s a pleasure to play and work with them every week, and we’re gonna have down days. Today is a real down day for us. But the beauty of it is, the rebound, always a reaction. We can’t rest on our laurels. [We’ve] got another tough game coming up. I think Wealdstone away, and then Tamworth and stuff like that. So just got to keep working. The players in there are good enough, if they choose to go get other players to come and do it, we support them, and we’ll now be ready for the next challenge.”

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Mark Cooper’s frustration with his Yeovil Town side was clear in his post-match interview following this afternoon’s FA Cup defeat. The Glovers tripped at the first hurdle of this season’s competition, losing 1-0 to National League South side Chesham United.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Chris Spittles, Cooper bemoaned his side’s attacking play on the day and in previous weeks. It was another game of keep-ball from the Glovers, but no cutting-edge.

Cooper said: “Full credit Chesham, they hung in there, didn’t they? We had all the play – dominated the game. We had loads of play around the edge of their box, but we didn’t get opportunities to kill it off.  We were really sloppy at the top of the pitch today. We didn’t take care in and around the penalty area. We should be scoring at least two or three today.”

Expanding on his side’s woes in front of goal, he added: “We haven’t scored enough goals for our play. That’s another game where we haven’t [scored]. We scored one last week and we dominated the game, we had loads of chances – we scored one. We scored one the week before, scored none the week before that, we scored none today, you know. So we can only do so much.

“We get the ball safely from the our goalkeeper, and we play nice, and we get the ball to the edge of their box and it breaks down, or we pick the wrong option, or we miss the target, or we smash it straight at the keeper. I think there’s one great bit of play where Josh Sims has got an open goal from five yards, and he hits it straight at the goalie, just roll it in the corner with a bit of composure. So, really frustrating. 

“we are really nice to watch from tee to green, but once we get on the dance floor, not quite enough”

Yeovil started the day with Ciaran McGuckin, Josh Sims, Frank Nouble and Jordan Young as the attacking quartet, and were able to introduce Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Sam Pearson in the second half, but still couldn’t find a way through. Expanding yet further on his side’s woes in front of goals, Cooper really mixed his metaphors…

“If you look at our forward line, we’ve got Josh, Sims, who played 20-odd games on the Premier League, got Frank [Nouble], who’s played in the Premier League. We’ve got Ciaran McGuckin, who’s a young lad, scored two in two for us, and got we’ve Jordan Young, who was player of the year last year. So, you know, we expect. It’s not just the forwards, because we have set pieces, we had free kicks, shots from the edge of the box, but the forward boys have got to start scoring.  I’ve said to them in there, I can’t keep defending you if we keep missing chances and keep taking the wrong shot or finding the goalkeeper. Your job in the team is to score great goals. And we are really nice to watch from tee to green, but once we get on the dance floor, not quite enough.”

The set piece winner came deep into stoppage time through Jack Cawley’s header after the Chesham man rose highest above Raphael Araoye to break Yeovil hearts.

“We give them a free header. Our centre-half young Raph [Araoye], he’s coming out of U21s football, you have to learn that you have to head that ball. You can’t let your man jump above you, because that one action means that we’re out the FA Cup and not going back to a replay. So it’s great for Raph, because he has to learn that that can’t happen. And I’m sure Bristol City will be delighted, because that’s part of his learning. But, it doesn’t help us at the moment.

“[I’ve got] no qualms about the overall performance. We looked comfortable, just not ruthless enough in front of goal, and that’s been the case all season,” he added.

When asked what the next steps are to find the goals and if he needs to find the ‘devilment’ in them, Cooper said: “We either do that, or we say to the chairman, right, we need to bring some more attacking players in, because the ones we’re not we’re not quite firing. But I’ve said to them, I’ll stick with them, we keep working with them and try and make them better. And that’s your job as a coach.”

On a positive, Cooper said he expected to have Aaron Jarvis back next weekend, but that he could have been back for today: “We missed out on the protocol by 12 hours. You know, [I’m] not sure we did everything properly. We should be having Jarv coming off the bench today and winning us the game, but we didn’t, and we’ll have to wait until next week.”

Cooper finished off by setting the bar for the next few games, and promised a hard week of training for his team.

“Now it’s going to be a tough week for the boys. They’ll be in all week, and we have three games now, Wealdstone, Tamworth and Maidenhead that I want to go and take a real big points haul to propel us up the table.”

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Yeovil Town were dumped out of the FA Cup by a late winner at lower league Chesham United on Saturday.

With the game seemingly drifting towards a replay at Huish Park, Jack Cawley’s header at the back post from a late corner gifted the National League South side a win and a place in the competition’s first round.

Here was how Dave saw it from the away end in Buckinghamshire…..

First half

A booking for loan striker Ciaran McGuckin was the only action of the opening 20 minutes with neither side able to do much more than try to thread a pass through a defence.

Then on 20 minutes, efforts from first Jordan Young, then Ciaran McGuckin and Brett McGavin were blocked before the ball went out for a corner. From the resulting flag-kick a Frank Nouble effort came back off the post and away from danger.

Five minutes later, McGuckin challenged with Chesham keeper Ben Goode on the edge of the area, the gloveman spilt the ball but his effort was blocked by one of the defenders back.

Without question the best chance of the half so far fell to the home side on 36 minutes. A misplaced pass in midfield saw them break away and Joe Grant’s effort forced a fine stop out of Ollie Wright.

The first half came to an end with the distinct feeling that you could have had an extra 45 minutes in bed instead. Not much of a Cup tie yet.


Half time: Chesham United 0 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

The second half started with a bit more impetus from the visitors with a good bit of quick passing leading to the ball breaking to Josh Sims inside the box with 48 minutes gone. His snap shot was well saved by Goode and two minutes later McGavin’s effort went just over the bar after being set up by McGuckin.

That same combination linked up nicely on 56 minutes to earn a corner from which McGavin had an effort over and then on the hour mark Young tried to jink in to the box but could not pull the trigger.

With 20 minutes remaining, Young, who everyone had been screaming at to ‘have a go’ rather than take another touch, unleashed one which cleared the crossbar….and the covered terrace behind the goal.

On 74 minutes, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Sam Pearson replaced Josh Sims and Ciaran McGuckin.

Five minutes later, Nouble got away and fired in a shot which pinballed around inside the Chesham area but there was no-one there to turn it home.

Three minutes from time, Young was on the wrong end of a crunching tackle in the middle of the pitch. He was replaced by Harvey Greenslade.

As the game ticked in to injury time, there was another bit of pinball inside the box with Lo-Everton among those with having an opportunity to shoot.

If like me you were at the opposite end of the ground to see what happened for the winner, the Chesham United tweet, below, will tell you what you need to know. A corner to the back post saw Jack CAWLEY out jump Araoye at the far post to head a famous winner.

If you play with the lack of tempo and urgency we had for the majority of the game, the risk of getting hit by a sucker punch is huge. That is exactly what happened and we honestly have no-one to blame but ourselves.

Full time: Chesham United 1 Yeovil Town 0

Match Details

Venue: The Meadow
Date: Saturday 12th October – 15:00 Kick Off

Competition: FA Cup, 4th Qualifying Round

Scorers: Jack Cawley 90+3

Pitch:  In surprisingly good nick considering it had been played on Tuesday
Conditions: After a pre-match cloud burst, a glorious autumn afternoon broke out 

Attendance: 1,321 (approx 250 away supporters)

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Ciaran McGuckin 7
Chesham United: Jack Connors 52

Referee: Scott Tallis

Yeovil Town (4-2-3-1)

 

Substitutes:  Sonny Blu Lo-Everton (for Josh Sims, 74), Sam Pearson (for Ciaran McGuckin, 74), Fin Cousin-Dawson (not used), Matt Worthington (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Chesham United: Ben Goode, Lewis Rolfe, Alex Lafleur (for Bradley Clayton, 81), Jack Cowley, Connor Stevens, T’Sharne Gallimore, Nathan Minhas (for Eoin Casey, 90+5), Mitchell Weiss (for Samson, Easan, 81), Jack Connors (for Ashley Lodge, 69), Joe Grant (for Omar Rowe, 69), Callum Adebiyi.

Substitutes (not used): Steve Brown, Avan Jones.

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Josh Sims returns to the starting line up for the Glovers as they get their FA Cup campaign underway.

There’s no place in the squad for; Alex Whittle, Michael Smith or James Plant.

The first two due to injury, we presume Plant has not been given permission to play by Port Vale.

Dylan Morgan is cup tied and misses out, there’s a place on the bench for Harvey Greenslade who is on the road to recovery after injury.

The Glovers only name six subs for the game away at Chesham Utd

 

 

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If you scroll to the bottom of the Gloverscast homepage, you might notice three emojis. A badger, a pint of beer and a dragon. These represent the three men without whom this website and podcast may probably not exist, Martin ‘Badger’ Baker, ‘Huish’ Hugh Gleave and Jon ‘Taff’ Morgan, the founders of Ciderspace.

The recent passing of Hugh, who would undoubtedly be happy to be represented by a pint of beer (as long as it was a real ale), led to an outpouring of memories from many Yeovil Town fans young and old who recalled his role in establishing, filling and keeping going a resource which has been the mainstay of every Glovers’ fans since it first started in 1999.

12th October 2024 marks five years since we got the terrible news of the death of Badger, who the other two would not mind admitting was the driving force behind Ciderspace. His dedication to bringing news, match reports, maintaining mind-blowing records on the club’s history undoubtedly kept thousands of us in the know about the happenings at Huish Park.

Badger, Hugh and Taff were quite a trio. Badger worked night and day to keep Ciderspace updated and Hugh and Taff, who sadly passed in December 2010, brought the humour, razor-shap wit and fearlessness to take on the club’s hierachy in (almost unanimously) a constructive way, made them a crucial resource. It began with a mailing list – essentially a group email made up of people’s contributions which landed in your inbox every day – and progressed to a website.

The Ciderspace founding fathers. From left, Martin ‘Badger’ Baker, ‘Huish’ Hugh Gleave and Jon ‘Taff’ Morgan.

You can listen to Hugh talk about the establishment of Ciderspace in an episode we recorded in October 2021 – click here to listen – and read about what it meant to one supporter, Seb White who went on to co-found the hugely popular football magazine, Mundial, here.

This blog is not an attempt to retell those stories, I am sure you will have your own memories of Ciderspace, its founders and much more. But, as we mark five years (where has that time gone?!) since the passing of Badger, we wanted to ensure we remember those who went before us.

For our part, the ‘Three Plebs’ who you hopefully allow to interrupt your thought patterns twice a week, to be taking up the reins from these founding fathers is a privilege. So I simply encourage you all to raise a glass of whatever you’re drinking today and toast the memory of Badger, Hugh and Taff – it’s how they would have wanted it.

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It’s FA Cup Time.

The Glovers are playing a FA Cup to for the XXXth time in their existence (You’ll have to listen to the podcast to hear the answer from the Historical Oracle) and Ben and Dave are joined by another member of the Gloverscast team, Debs Curtis to talk Chesham United and answer the biggest cake-based questions.

——————————

The Gloverscast are nominated in two categories in the 2024 Football Content Awards and voting ends this weekend.

More details – https://gloverscast.co.uk/gloverscast-given-two-football-content-award-nominations/

The Gloverscast are also nominated in two categories in the 2024 Non League Bible Awards.

More details – https://gloverscast.co.uk/gloverscast-nominated-for-two-more-awards/

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The FA Cup is back, as Yeovil Town travel to Chesham United in the Fourth Qualifying Round this Saturday, as they look to carry on winning ways.

Form Guide…

The Glovers  took all three points last time out, as they beat a tough Dagenham & Redbridge team. Yeovil were impressive throughout, with the only goal of the game coming through on-loan striker Ciaran McGuckin. It was the first time the Somerset side had won since a 4-3 win over AFC Fylde on September the 7th.

Ciaran McGuckin celebrates his second goal in green and white
Pic Gary Brown

Chesham United got through to the Fourth Qualifying Round on Tuesday evening as they defeated Bishops Cleeve in their replay 4-0. Their five games before that saw them win two, draw two and lose one which was at home to Bath City.

Key Players…

Chesham United – Nathan Minhas

The centre-forward has been in good form this season across the league and cup scoring five goals in nine games for The Generals. The 27-year-old joined form Slough in the summer and has been an instant hit. After missing games against Welling and Salisbury his goalscoring has slowed down in recent weeks with one goal in three.

Nathan Minhas goal celebration. Picture courtesy of @cheshamutdfc on X.

Callum Adebiyi has also been impressive for the Buckinghamshire side playing every minute so far this term. The full-back has also contributed to with one goal and three assists.

Yeovil Town – Ciaran McGuckin

The Northern-Irish frontman has proved his worth so far with impressive performances in his first three games. The on loan Rotherham United youngster bagged his first goal at the weekend in the 1-0 home win against Dagenham. Although the Glovers signed Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade in the summer they have been in need of a presence up top and McGuckin provides that.

After 140 minutes of football so far for the Glovers it finally feels that they may have a natural goal scorer in the 20-year-old.

That’s what he said…

Yeovil boss Mark Cooper spoke to local media about how seriously he is taking the game. He said: “We want to pay full respect to Chesham, they have got through some rounds to get to this stage and we have to respect that. I would not disrespect them by giving people minutes for the sake of it, we are going to pick the strongest team we can.

We want to get to the third round and pull a Premier League team and we have to dream, but I am sure Chesham are doing the same. They got promoted last year, they are brilliant, lovely people and they got me a cup of tea and a bit of cake the other night, so we will give them our full respect.”

The Generals joint manager, Michael Murray spoke to the clubs media after his side win against Bishops Cleeve. He said: “It’s a big thing for the football club, to play Yeovil at home. We are going to have our supporters out in numbers like we did with Maidstone last year.

Our boys will compete, our boys will be ready…we know we’re going to have to hit our maximums to compete and to get a right result against them.”

We’ve met before…

These two sides have only met three times before, once back in 1982 in an FA Cup fixture at The Meadow. The result that day was a 1-0 victory for the Glovers, seeing them progress to the second round proper. That day it was Yeovil striker Andy Bell who grabbed the winning goal in front of 1,433 fans in Bucks.

 

The second time we met was in 1986 in the League Cup which the Yeovil won 7-1 with a hat-trick from John McGinlay, two from Carl Zachhau and just one a piece for Mickey Tanner and Phil James.

The last time Yeovil played Chesham was a year later in 1987 again in the league cup which the Glovers again ran out winners, winning 3-0, two form Phil Ferns and one for Paul Randall.

Don’t I Know you…

No we don’t, as there is no ex-Glovers in the Chesham United side. There isn’t even a tenuous link we can make which is a first.

Who’s been naughty then…

No one has been naughty for either Chesham or Yeovil. Glovers boss Mark Cooper was also cleared of his red card last week which he got against Oldham Athletic.

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Manager Mark Cooper will take nothing for granted as he takes his Yeovil Town side to Chesham United determined not to become the victim of an FA Cup giant-killing this weekend.

The boss was in the stands in Buckinghamshire as the National League South side booked their place in the competition’s fourth qualfiying round with a 4-0 win over Bishop’s Cleeve in a replay on Tuesday night.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah ahead of the tie, Cooper said: “I enjoyed the game, it was a competitive game, Bishop’s Cleeve had some chances but Chesham were good. They are two leagues above Bishop’s Cleeve and I think that showed in the end, they have some good players that we came up against last year in the National League South, so we are expecting a tough game.

“The rules of the FA Cup are that you cannot take any team lightly, you have to go there and play well. If we turn up and think (this is going to be easy) we are going to be in trouble. We have done the same amount of preparation for this game as we have any other game. They are not that many places below us in the football pyramid, so we have to be right at it and we have to play really well to win.”

He added: “We want to pay full respect to Chesham, they have got through some rounds to get to this stage and we have to respect that. I would not disrespect them by giving people minutes for the sake of it, we are going to pick the strongest team we can. We want to get to the third round and pull a Premier League team and we have to dream, but I am sure Chesham are doing the same. They got promoted last year, they are brilliant, lovely people and they got me a cup of tea and a bit of cake the other night, so we will give them our full respect.”

Mark Cooper is hoping to have forward Harvey Greenslade back in the squad at Chesham. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The Glovers’ boss has vowed to play his strongest team and hopes to have full-backs Alex Whittle and Michael Smith available for the game. Whittle missed last weekend’s 1-0 home win over Dagenham and Redbridge with a shoulder injury suffered in the goalless draw at Sutton United two-and-a-half weeks ago, whilst Smith came off at half-time against Dagenham.

Cooper confirmed Whittle has trained this week whilst Smith had a scan on a hamstring injury and, if the results came back clear, he would be available for the Cup tie. He is also hoping to have forward Harvey Greenslade in the squad for the first time since he suffered a shoulder injury at the end of August.

Striker Aaron Jarvis missed last weekend with concussion trained on Thursday and the Glovers are waiting to see if he suffers any ill effects before deciding whether he is available to face Chesham. Cooper said that the striker was working through the FA’s concussion protocols – you can hear him explain them in the video on the club’s YouTube channel, see below.

One definite change from the side which started the win over Dagenham will be Dylan Morgan who is cup tied having played in this year’s competition’s earlier rounds whilst on loan at Weston-super-Mare. Fellow loanees goalkeeper Will Buse, defender Jordan Thomas and full-back Corey Koerner are also cup tied, but were unlikely to feature at this stage even if they were not.

There was no question in Thursday’s press conference about whether Yeovil’s own loanees, goalkeeper Ollie Wright (Southampton), striker Ciaran McGuckin (Rotherham United), wideman James Plant (Port Vale), would be allowed to play by their parent clubs. One assumes Wright’s appearance before the media on Thursday means he is available, but goalscorer McGuckin and Plant were both influential in the win over Dagenham.

Rotherham United loanee Ciaran McGuckin has two goals in his last two matches for Yeovil Town. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

If you ever wondered what playing in the FA Cup means, Cooper was able to remember his first match in the competition. It also happened to be his first professional start in the second round of the competition for Exeter City against Maidstone United in December 1989, he recalls scoring with a header in a 1-1 draw with the Grecians winning the replay four days later to make the third round. Ironically Maidstone had put Yeovil out in the previous round.

On the competition, the Glovers’ boss said: “I grew up in an era when you were watching the television coverage at 9am when the whole build-up to the final started. There were interviews with players in the hotels, it was terrific and you would be mesmerised by it from 9am until 7pm – and then you would get your ball and go and try and pretend you had just played in the game.

“At our level it can be the lifeblood of a football club in terms of the revenue it brings. The further you progress the more money you get and there is always that dream of pulling Manchester United or one of the other big boys which can transform the fortunes of your club for the future, that is why everyone is desperate to have a good run in the FA Cup. It would be nice if we could be sat here in January talking about an away day at Old Trafford, but we have got some work to do starting with a really good team on Saturday.”