January 2025

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The departure of Matt Worthington came has quite the shock on Friday afternoon. No sooner had we finished recording Thursday’s episode of the Gloverscast than the rumours started to circulate in a couple of Whatsapp groups and on Facebook. The speed at which it went from all very quiet to Worthy’s departure shows the speed at which football moves. Yeovil’s skipper, who made his 250th appearance the week before was gone, out of nowhere.

Matt Worthington leads the team out
📸 Gary Brown

There’s not a lot more to say about Worthy that’s not already been said. I’ll miss his desire and athleticism and I think his teammates will miss him too. Speaking before the Rochdale defeat, Mark Cooper said that Yeovil would “never ever” have been to get to the deal that Oldham offered. Obviously Worthy’s contract was up in the summer and my gut tells me that chances are he would have left anyway, but it’s further evidence of the disparity between the top teams in the league and the middle pack. The former skipper led Yeovil to National League South glory last season, and he yet another departure from that team that clawed Yeovil back to the National League. Of the squad who won the league just Morgan Williams, Jake Wannell, Alex Whittle, Frank Nouble, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, Charlie Cooper and Michael Smith are left. I totally understand the reasoning behind it, but I am disappointed that our winning squad was dismantled so quickly after clinching promotion.

The partnership between Williams and Wannell has been a key part of success this season. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Following the Rochdale defeat, Mark Cooper alluded to more departures and arrivals planned in the coming days. I don’t think it would be at all surprising to see Nouble, Lo-Everton or even Smith move on. If it is another couple of experienced heads on their way, the recruitment of leaders has to be a priority. With Worthington gone, Smith and Williams struggling for fitness and Nouble struggling for form, there’s a real lack of characters at the moment, in my opinion. There are different types of leaders on the pitch. Those who lead by example with their performances and those Terry Skiverton types who drag everyone up by the scruff of their neck. I think we need some more of them. Now, I know they don’t grown on trees, especially at this time of the year and for a reasonable price but if Yeovil are delving into the market in the coming weeks, I think we’ve got our fill of young loanees.

Huish Park (Pic by Gary Brown)

Last Tuesday, we were given some insight into the situation with the future of the land and stadium. Sold for £2.8m by ‘You-Know-Who’, the value is Index-linked by the council and will see the cost go above £3m if it is ever to return to the club. The exclusive buyback of the land expires in May 2026, leaving not a lot of time. We all dream of self-sustaining football club, enabled by the real-estate which surrounds the stadium. Hearing Mark Cooper talk about training facilities as a leaving a legacy that will attract players to the club is an idea that I don’t remember anyone talking about before. It’s always been about retail or houses, so the idea of something that will make a long term material difference to Yeovil Town FC is appealing. 

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It was a miserable afternoon for the Glovers on Saturday, as they fell to a drab 4-0 defeat away to Rochdale. Let’s see what else went down across the league…

We begin with a big upset, as Boston United did the double over York City in an emphatic 3-1 victory, giving themselves a sliver of hope of survival, while York dropped further points in their title hunt. In contrasting fashion, Barnet comfortably defeated Maidenhead United in a 3-0 scoreline to move to the top of the tree, and leaving Maidenhead a point outside the drop zone.

Aldershot Town continued to show fight in their battle near the bottom, coming from behind twice to draw 2-2 at home against Tamworth. Three big games up and down the league finished 2-0, as a huge playoff boost was handed to FC Halifax Town, defeating Matt Taylor and Solihull Moors in their first game together; at the bottom of the table, AFC Fylde kept themselves in the survival battle with a massive win at home to Wealdstone, while it was derby day defeat for Dagenham & Redbridge, as they lost at home to Southend United.

There was yet another late goal to save Forest Green Rovers, as Christian Doidge scored in the 94th minute to rescue a point away at playoff chargers Altrincham; two playoff contenders played out a 1-1 draw as Oldham Athletic couldn’t defeat a weakened Gateshead, a game that also saw the debut of former Yeovil captain Matt Worthington, while Woking stood firm with 10 men to continue their unbeaten start under Neal Ardley in a 1-1 draw at Hartlepool United.

Finally, there were two 1-0 victories, as Sutton United dispatched of Eastleigh, while Braintree Town secured a huge victory for their survival ambitions against an Ebbsfleet United side that is all but down, sitting 14 points from safety with two or three games played on the teams above… check the link for the table below to take a look for yourself!

National League results – in full

AFC Fylde 2-0 Wealdstone
Aldershot Town 2-2 Tamworth
Altrincham 1-1 Forest Green Rovers
Barnet 3-0 Maidenhead United
Boston United 3-1 York City
Dagenham & Redbridge 0-2 Southend United
Ebbsfleet United 0-1 Braintree Town
Gateshead 1-1 Oldham Athletic
Hartlepool United 1-1 Woking
Rochdale 4-0 Yeovil Town
Solihull Moors 0-2 FC Halifax Town
Sutton United 1-0 Eastleigh

National League table

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Gloverscast Ben was on the mic for BBC Radio Somerset at Spotland on Saturday afternoon to witness a second half capitulation send the Glovers back down south with the square route of nothing. 

Here are his five conclusions. 

Well, it was okay at half-time

During the half-time interval, I told Rich Hoskins and the team back at BBC Radio Bristol that whilst Rochdale had enjoyed far more of the ball in the first 45 minutes, Yeovil had begun to build into the game.

Chances for Sean McGurk and Ciaran McGuckin as well as flashes of pace and skill from Kyrell Wilson – who I thought showed enough to suggest he’s an exciting prospect for us – suggested to me that we were growing into the game.

It was always likely that we would give up plenty of possession and I thought it might take time to get into our full stride, which was the case. What I didn’t think would happen would be THAT second half.

Rochdale’s left side tore us apart

The combination of Leon Ayinde and Jid Okeke down the Rochdale left were, quite frankly, a joy to watch.

Time after time, wave after wave of Rochdale attack came down the Glovers’ right side and, while I don’t think Dom Bernard had his best game in green and white, he was certainly being outnumbered time and time again and putting up as best a fight as he could.

When Jacob Maddox went off injured in the first half, I felt that the introduction of Josh Sims might offer a bit more protection to Bernard at right back, but that simply didn’t happen. Okeke played the perfect wing-back role and Ayinde’s freedom to run at the back line and pull the strings just caused havoc for Yeovil who simply didn’t have an answer.

Playing against high, flying wing backs is tough enough, but we just had no answer to Rochdale’s main attacking fire starters.

We miss you, Michael Smith. 

Wright place, wrong time 

Ollie Wright’s improvement between the posts over the past few months has been nothing short of astronomical. He’s made points-winning saves, he’s been commanding and confident and decisive, and he’s shown us exactly why Southampton think so much of him in a goalkeeping department that is fairly stacked at St Mary’s.

But – and he’ll know this – two errors led to two goals which, by the time the clock struck the hour, rendered the game over.

His confidence took the first blow when he came for a corner, got nowhere near it, flapped, and saw the ball trickle in off a combination of Whittle’s backside and Devante Rodney.

The punch….

 

….the punchline

Then, eight minutes later, a split second of hesitancy cost him the vital half yard which allowed Kairo Mitchell to get to the ball first, penalty.

To his credit, he would go on to make a couple of impressive saves and blocks to prevent Rochdale from racking up a cricket score. He’ll know it wasn’t his best showing and I’m confident he’ll be able to get his mojo back after a little breather, but those two moments were big in the context of the game. 


We need to help the kids.

Ciaran McGuckin (21 years old, 16 career senior appearances), Sean McGurk (21 & 23), Kyrell Wilson (20 & 1), Kofi Shaw (18 & 17), Lewys Twamley (21 and 2).

Five young Glovers tasked with leading our line today – Harvey Greenslade (20 & 13) didn’t come on. 

The reason clubs send their talent out on loan, to make names for themselves… and to make errors and learn from them. At Rochdale there were plenty of moments, near misses, through balls which didn’t quite make their mark or split second decisions which didn’t go the right way.

That frontline needs some guidance and experience to help it. On a day-to-day basis, having the voice of Marcus Stewart around them will only help, of course, but in the thick of it, in the heat of the moment, who is going to be the cool, calm, reassuring voice in their heads?

Aaron Jarvis ( 27 & 212) isn’t around to do it, I think it’s time for us to ask about Frank Nouble (33 & 479) and how we can best use him going forward.

He started against Woking on January 11th, but has been in and out of the team for a while – still yet to score this season, I want to see someone of Nouble’s skill, calibre and leadership steer the ship front and centre.

There’s so much potential in the group, but it certainly needed some help out there. 

I left Spotland quite angry.

I’m one of the lucky ones, I only had an hour on a train to negotiate back to Leeds and I get to put in an invoice to the BBC that will reimburse me for the expenses incurred on Saturday.

But even I left the ground feeling a palpable frustration at the performance – particularly in the second half. I felt a sense of real injustice at a rare-as-rocking-horse-poop Saturday off work going that way. I missed out on a couple family events, because I love what I do and I love that club. 

As I say, I’m one of the lucky ones, there were people leaving the away end from Spotland with a five-hour, 240-mile journey back to Somerset to come having parted with their hard-earned cash for the privilege.

I’m not a fan of refunding supporters off the back of a poor showing, after all, you pay your money, you take your chance – I’m yet to ever hear of a fan paying twice for their ticket after a 4-0 win. So wouldn’t call for anything along those lines, the apology from both Mark Cooper and Brett McGavin post match were absolutely correct.

What I do want to see us take the chance over the next couple weeks to do what Mark Cooper says – reset. Realign our squad, to bring our natural leaders together and point everyone in the right direction. It is not panic stations, it’s just a chance to take a breather, before a big push to the end of the season.

We are still, somehow, only four points off the play-offs!

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Saturday, was NOT a good day to be a YTFC player either at Spotland or anywhere else for that matter.

Let’s wrap this up quickly shall we.

Jordan Thomas and Torquay lost to Hampton & Richmond, his former club 1-0. Thomas nearly snatched a late equaliser with a backheel, too.,

Will Buse was helpless to prevent Enfield Town taking an 83rd minute lead against W*ymouth. But he would see his side salvage a point a the end in a battle of the National League South’s basement sides.

Sherborne took the lead against Hythe & Dibden. But they would lose 4-1… and lose a player in the process.

Corey Koerner was named on the bench, we’ll let you know if there’s any evidence that he came on.

Sol Padmore started for Bridport, George Geraghty was used from the bench in their 2-0 win over Middlezoy. 

Jacob Shore wasn’t named in Shaftesbury’s squad in their 0-0 draw with Tavistock.

Corey Koerner (Green 7) in action for Sherborne
Pic C/O Robin Caddy/The Wessex Way.

 

 

 

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Brett McGavin apologised to the travelling Yeovil Town supporters who made the almost 500-mile round journey to Rochdale to watch the team capitulate to a 4-0 defeat on Saturday.

The midfielder was the player who faced the post-match media interviews at Spotland after being part of the team which committed four defensive blunders to extend the team’s run without a win to seven matches.

Asked how he responded to the defeat by BBC Somerset reporter Josh Perkins, McGavin said: “First of all I would like to apologise to the fans, they should not have to travel as far as they did and witness a performance like that. They are a credit to this club and we let them down today.

“We will do what we need to do, analyse it and we will move on to our next game. We are a team, so we take the loss together, if you make an individual mistake you put your hand up and say that you made one, apologise to your team-mates and the people who have done today have done that. But we are a team so we take a loss as a group.”

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper said his side had “no excuses” for the second half horror show which saw them crumble to a 4-0 defeat at Rochdale today.

Having gone in at the break level, the Glovers committed three defensive errors which handed the home side a comfortable win and extended the run without a win to seven matches.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the match, Cooper said: “That is the first one for a long while where I can say we were nowhere near it. We had a spell for ten minutes in the first half where Sean McGurk had a great chance to put Kyrell (Wilson) in for one-v-one and then Ciaran McGuckin hits one which looks like it’s going in the top corner, and you think ‘okay’ and we go in nil-nil at half-time.

“Every goal was horrendous defending. I just said to the players in the dressing room that the way I would describe us today was ‘powder puff’ and you cannot be powder puff, sometimes you can not play well and get a result. No excuses from us, we were miles off it. There was not enough leadership out there. We let the fans down massively, there was a great following and we let them down massively.”

He added: “We told them ‘start well and stay on the front foot’ at half-time and then it is just people not doing their jobs at a set piece, Wanns get blocked in, Ollie comes and tries to punch it and misses it and it comes off Alex Whittle’s bum and goes in. The goals were all horrendous, they were all terrible.”

Kairo Mitchell puts Rochdale 2-0 ahead from the penalty spot after 57 minutes

 

Yeovil lost midfielder Jacob Maddox, one of just three central midfield players in the squad following the departure of captain Matt Worthington on Friday,  to injury in the first half and handed a debut to Swansea City loanee Kyrell Wilson as they made three changes from the side which started the goalless draw at home to Gateshead.

They are now without a match next weekend due to their intended opponents Boston United’s involvement in the FA Trophy and do not play again until the trip to Dagenham & Redbridge on February 8th. Cooper said that the break in fixtures would give the squad a chance to “reset” and said there would be further incomings and outgoings from the club before the next match.

He said: “Now we have a bit of a break a chance to reset and there will be one or two players coming in this week and one or two going out, so hopefully that gives us a bit of added impetus.

“We need to make sure we give our new players the chance to settle and we need to keep improving our squad. We have lost our captain (Matt Worthington), we were confident Jacob (Maddox) could step up and he has got a niggle now which will hopefully be cleared up (by the time we play next) but we still need more at the top of the pitch.”

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A second half horror show saw Yeovil Town crumble to a their joint heaviest defeat of the season as they capitulated at the hands of Rochdale at Spotland.

Having weathered an early storm of pressure from the home side, the Glovers could even have taken the lead when Ciaran McGuckin forced a fine out of Sam Waller and probably deserved to go in level at the break.

But after an error from goalkeeper Ollie Wright gifted Rochdale the lead four minutes after the break, it went from bad to worse for the visitors. Wright conceded a penalty for a foul on Kairo Mitchell eight minutes later which the striker converted before another defensive blunder gifted Leon Ayinde the third on 64 minutes.

Dale lifted their foot off the gas after that but found just enough for Jake Burger to add a fourth in second half injury time to send the travelling supporters back on the 240-mile trip back to Somerset thoroughly dejected.

Here’s how Dave saw it from the away end at Spotland…..

First half

The game started with both teams trying to avoid the huge square of new turf laid down in the middle of the pitch and a mud-sand hybrid in both corners of the end which Yeovil were attacking in the first half which offered the potential of being a serious risk of injury.
 
A fifth minute scramble inside the box which was hacked away by Ciaran McGuckin after a melee of bodies and a 12th-minute free-kick – featuring a yellow card for Finn Cousin-Dawson – which was has eventually headed over by Kairo Mitchell for Rochdale was as near to action as the opening 15 minutes offered.
 
On 16 minutes, Devante Rodney put a ball over the bar after good play down the left by Ayinde before the striker stroked another one harmlessly in to the arms of Ollie Wright. But the opening exchanges were almost entirely one way traffic against a Rochdale side happy to keep probing at the Yeovil back line.
 
On 26 minutes, one of our only midfield players, Jacob Maddox, who had gone down with an injury twice was replaced by Josh Sims.
 
Looking at the state of their pitch, there’s not been much sunshine in Rochdale lately – but there was plenty in the first half.
 
It took until the last 15 minutes for Yeovil to begin to come back in to the game and on 34 minutes McGurk and Wilson combined well for the latter to lift a shot over the bar when he would have been better feeding the Swansea City youngster for a chance on goal.
 
But undoubtedly Yeovil’s best chance of the first half fell to McGuckin after 39 minutes. Good pressure by McGurk and Wilson saw the ball break to the Rotherham United loanee whose effort looked to be going in the top corner only for Dale keeper Sam Waller to turn it over for a corner.
 
At the other end Ollie Wright was in action after 43 minutes after Charlie Cooper’s foul – leading to a booking for the midfielder and a two-match ban – gave Rodney an opportunity to get his effort on target only to be denied by the on loan Southampton keeper.
 

Half time: Rochdale 0 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

The first chance of the second half led to the first goal of the game and from an error from Ollie Wright. He came to punch a corner from East and it comes off the back of Alex Whittle and cannons in to the net. I think there’s a flick from Devante RODNEY before Wright punches it, but that looks like an own goal to me. A disastrous way to start the second half.
 
 

A complete communication break down between Wright and Cousin-Dawson saw Mitchell sneak in and go down under pressure from the keeper. Penalty. Kairo MITCHELL put the ball in the far corner with 57 minutes played. It’s gone from bad to even worse.

Kairo Mitchell strokes home the penalty.
 
Rochdale are running riot and our team looks like they have never met each other – an excuse which only new signing Kyrell Wilson can offer as any kind of defence. Charlie Cooper lucky not to pick up a second yellow card for a foul on the edge of his box.
 
On 61 minutes, Yeovil made three substitutions with Morgan Williams, Lewys Twamley and Frank Nouble coming on in place of Dom Bernard, Alex Whittle and Sean McGurk.
 
Three minutes after the changes and it is 3-0. The third goal was another defensive calamity, a ball from Tobi Adebayo-Rowling was completely missed inside the box by Cousin-Dawson and lands to Leon AYINDE who could not miss from inside the six yard box. 
 
It could have been worse on 68 minutes when a corner was nodded on by Liam Hogan who came back off the bar and away.  The amount of times that Rochdale cut us open down the right side with complete ease, even though that side of the the pitch is basically a swamp.
 
McGuckin has an effort well-saved by Waller before Cooper is replaced by Kofi Shaw with 68 minutes played, presumably as much to protect him from a second yellow card as much as anything else. Mercifully, Rochdale make a raft of changes with just over ten minutes remaining and seem to have taken their foot off the gas.
 
That said, Wright makes a good save from substitute evergreen striker Ian Henderson with eight minutes remaining and then with four minutes of second half stoppage time played, it’s four. A shot from substitute Jili Buyabu is saved by Wright, falls to Henderson who is denied by a last ditch tackle and Jake BURGER is on hand to smash it home from close range.
 
The final whistle is met by the sound of boos from the away end and quite rightly. That was a performance completely lacking in spirit from Yeovil and there can be no defence for it.
 

Full time: Rochdale 4 Yeovil Town 0

Match Details

Venue: Spotland
Date: Saturday 25th January- 3pm kick-off 

Competition: National League Premier Division

Scorers: Devante Rodney 49 (0-1), Kairo Mitchell 57 (0-2), Leon Ayinde 64 (0-3), Jake Burger 90+4 (0-4)

Pitch: Looked like the type of carpet your Dad puts down in his garage, but inside of oil stains there were huge muddy patches
Conditions: Brilliant sunshine

Attendance: 2,463 

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Finn Cousin-Dawson 10, Charlie Cooper 41, Dom Bernard 41
Rochdale:  Sam Beckwith 90

Referee: Scott Oldham

Yeovil Town (3-4-2-1)

 

Substitutes: Josh Sims (for Jacob Maddox, 26), Lewys Twamley (for Dom Bernard, 61), Morgan Williams (for Sean McGurk, 61), Frank Nouble (for Alex Whittle, 65), Kofi Shaw (for Charlie Cooper, 69), Harvey Greenslade (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Rochdale: Sam Waller, Jid Okeke (for Jili Buyabu, 77), Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Liam Hogan, Kyron Gordon, Sam Beckwith, Leon Ayinde (for Jake Burger, 77), Ryan East (for Charlie Weston, 87), Harvey Gilmour, Kairo Mitchell (for Connor McBride, 77), Devante Rodney (for Devante Rodney, 73).

Substitutes (not used):  Kyle Ferguson, Tarryn Allarakhia.