McGavin: Goal was special
Brett McGavin scored as good a volley as you’ll ever see, as Yeovil ran out 2-0 winners at Woking.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman, The Shooter said his opening strike was ‘up there’ in the goal rankings.
He said: “It’s up there. Scoring goals is always a good feeling. But ones like that, yeah, you do have to take them in, because they’re special. I was saying on the last interview, I’ve just done, when it goes that high, you just have to concentrate on getting a good contact, and thankfully, it’s gone in the back of the net. There was a moment where I thought maybe that I can’t get there. But once I made the decision to go to the ball, there was only one thing on the mind. And like I said, just got concentrate on the strike. And thankfully, it went in.”
The midfielder echoed the thoughts of his manager, in that he felt the team could probably perform better. He said: “No matter how Woking are doing in the league it’s always a tough away fixture. We could probably perform better, but as soon as they went down to 10 men, we knew that we should come away with three points, and we done enough to get them today.
“We try to gain control as early as possible. And I think us gaining control then caused the red card because they were frustrated. So, yeah, gaining control was huge for us today.”
Cooper: Win restores a bit of confidence
Yeovil returned to winning ways this afternoon with a 2-0 win on the road at Woking. A thronker from Brett McGavin and a tap in from Finn Cousin-Dawson was enough against the ten-man Cardinals.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman after the match, Mark Cooper said his side needed the win.
“[I’m] Delighted with the result, not so much the performance, but I understand, because we’re a bit edgy. We lost three games in a week and put ourselves under a bit of pressure. And it was just about getting a win to get us off and running again, to restore a bit of confidence.
“We were competent today. We weren’t overly effective in the last third, but we had good chances as well to win the game. But, today was just about three points. There’s loads of things we did wrong, but we had a right go. We were really organised and never really looked in danger of losing the game.
“I thought we could have been quicker with the ball, but listen, it’s tough to play against 10 men. It’s just about winning the game and we managed to do that.”
Brett McGavin’s volley got the Glovers off the mark after Jack Stretton received a red card for an elbow on Cousin-Dawson and Cooper felt his team needed some magic: “We needed a bit of magic. Once they went to 10 men, they get bodies back and we needed just a bit of magic to get us going. Brett supplied us with that. He’s scored some cracking goals this year, and that was another.”
Matt Worthington returned off the bench after picking up an injury at Tamworth and Cooper was happy to see some squad depth return.
“Because of last week, it’s been a little bit frustrating for everyone with the sendings off, and it’s really rocked to us in terms of not being able to get balanced team out. So hopefully that gives us a bit of a G up now. We’re close to getting Wannell back, Dom back, Worthy, back on the pitch today. So we’re close to getting a bit of depth back to the squad.”
Ed James was left out of the side after his debut on Wednesday, but the manager confirmed he’d be in contention for the FA Trophy clash with W*ymouth.
Match Report: Woking 0 Yeovil Town 2
Yeovil Town got back to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 victory against ten man Woking at the Kingfield.
The home side were reduced to ten men after just 17 minutes when Jack Stretton was shown red for an off-the-ball incident which was apparently an elbow on Finn Cousin-Dawson albeit not seen by pretty much everyone inside the ground.
The Glovers took the lead through another spectacular finish from Brett McGavin to volley home a James Plant cross just after the half-hour mark, and the game was wrapped up when Cousin-Dawson arrived at the back post to turn home a Frank Nouble centre with 79 minutes gone.
Not one for the ages, but three points, a clean sheet and two goals. The losing run is over and bring on the W*ymouth next weekend.
First half
Frank Nouble had the game’s first opportunity warming the palms of Woking keeper Will Jaaskelinen after just four minutes and then on ten minutes Morgan Williams had an effort blocked from a corner.
But on 31 minutes the deadlock was broken in some style. Plant got a ball in from the right, dropping from the heavens, Brett McGAVIN met it with a sweetly struck thumping volley.
Despite the one-man advantage, it was far from a one-sided encounter with Woking showing more fight than their league position would suggest their performances up until now have included.
They had the ball in the net three minutes in to first half injury time when former Yeovil loanee Jamie Andrews turned a ball in, but the offside flag had already been raised for some time before it hit the back of the net.
Half time: Woking 0 Yeovil Town 1
Second half
Full time: Woking 0 Yeovil Town 2
Match Details
Venue: Kingfield
Date: Saturday 30th November 2024 – 3:00pm kick-off
Competition: National League Premier Division
Scorers: Brett McGavin 31 (1-0), Finn Cousin-Dawson 79 (2-0)
Pitch: Heavy
Conditions: Dry and calm
Attendance: 2,911 (766 away supporters)
Bookings:
Woking: Cian Harries 43, Dale Gorman 70
Yeovil Town: James Plant 36, Morgan Williams 70
Sendings off:
Woking: Jack Stretton 17
Referee: Aaron Farmer
Yeovil Town (3-4-2-1)
Substitutes: Josh Sims (for Kofi Shaw, 64), Dylan Morgan (for Aaron Jarvis, 83), Matt Worthington (for Brett McGavin, 88), Harvey Greenslade (for Frank Nouble, 90+4), Ed James (not used), Sonny Blu Lo-Everton (not used), Matt Gould (not used).
Man of the Match Voting: Woking (away)
Who was your Man of the Match from today’s trip to Woking?
Loading ...Team News: Woking (away)
Michael Smith is missing from the Yeovil Town line-up for today’s trip to Woking (3pm kick-off)
Finn Cousin-Dawson returns for in a back three alongside Morgan Williams and Alex Whittle.
Captain Matt Worthington returns among the Glovers’ substitutes.
Foot In The Opposition Camp – Woking (A)
Yeovil travel to our old friends Woking today. We were delighted to welcome back David Richardson to chat through the Cardinal season so far. Have a listen to his chat with Ben!
Koerner makes England Colleges Debut
Yeovil Town youngster Corey Koerner made his debut for the England Colleges team on Friday.
England were well beaten by the Welsh counterparts, 6-1 in the end, but it shouldn’t take away from the achievement of getting to represent the International system within the college set up.
We can tell from the lineup picture that the Koerner started, but what we can’t tell is if he played the full 90, scored, assisted… or did anything else of note as details are thin on the ground.
Welsh attacker Caleb Demery scored five of the hosts’ six goals in the game at Cardiff Met university.
Congratulations to Corey and all associated with Yeovil Town Under 18s.
game no1 completed✅ https://t.co/FAIP1s1BCy
— corey (@coreykoernerr) November 29, 2024
Smith: We have let ourselves down in recent weeks
Defender Michael Smith has challenged his Yeovil Town team-mates to break their three-match losing run when they travel to struggling Woking this weekend.
The Glovers have conceded seven goals in their last three National League Premier Division fixtures resulting in losses at home to FC Halifax Town and league leaders Barnet and a 4-0 defeat at York City last weekend.
Smith featured in all three matches having returned to full fitness having missed more than a month of action with a hamstring injury and is confident the Glovers are capable of looking upwards again.
Speaking on Friday ahead of the trip to Surrey this weekend, he told BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah the side was disappointed with the 2-1 home defeat to Barnet on Wednesday night, but praised the performance of young defender Ed James, who joined on loan from Exeter City ahead of kick-off.
He said: “We let them play, we didn’t lay a glove on them, so in that respect we were really disappointed, but we have come out in the second half and shown spirit and fight and got back in to the game. It is just how it is happening for us at the minute, little bits of luck are not going our way, but we are not feeling sorry for ourselves. We are putting the work in on the training ground.
“Defensively we are usually pretty strong, but we have let ourselves down in recent weeks. I thought the big man (Ed James) came in and did really well with only one or two training sessions, he handled himself really well and was really pleased with how he performed. We are disappointed to lose the game, but we move on to Saturday.
“When you are on a good run, the confidence is high, but when you are on a losing streak, it is about breaking that and working as hard as you can. We have all been through that as footballers and we all know how to get through it, it is hard work and concentration.”
The 36-year-old was a pivotal part of last season’s National League South title-winning side and said the team felt they should be further up the Premier Division table than their current position of 13th.
He said: “The club has to look at finishing in the play-off places as a minimum. When we have a fit and available squad, it is as good as most in the league. We maybe do not have the budget of some other sides, but I think we can punch above our weight. As a club and a team we feel we need to be higher than we are at the minute, but there’s still a long way to go and a lot of football to be played. We are just concentrating on ourselves and how we perform.
“It is a good standard which probably does not get the recognition it should, but there are some good players and some good teams in this league. We are under no illusions, but we are hoping we can make a push towards the end of the year.”
On his injury, Smith added: “Last year I had a few injuries which was down to not having a pre-season, this year I had a bad hamstring injury which I played through which was probably my fault. I did not want to let the team down, but at my age it is about managing minutes. The Gaffer (manager Mark Cooper) and the medical team help me out massively, and I am pleased with how it is.”