February 2025 (Page 2)

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It was another W for Yeovil Town as a 2-0 win away at Maidenhead United saw them record back-to-back wins for the first time since the start of November. Dave was at York Road to see it unfold and here are his conclusions.


Seven days is a long time in football: Well, it feels very different to this time last week when we were all fearing the worst after our winless run extended beyond two months. It’s easy to mock and say that was an overreaction, but the reality was the defeat to Wealdstone was a low tide mark for the season both in the result and the performance. But, the second half at home to Tamworth on Tuesday night and the entire 90 minutes at Maidenhead proved those tides are rising. I don’t think we’re really doing much different, but the past 135 minutes has seen us offer a lot more going forward and that’s the difference. Things feel a lot more comfortable now and hopefully we can take the momentum we are building in to the coming matches.

Yeovil celebrate the opening goal from Frank Nouble – probably.

All hail the strikers: Who’s the new lad up front?! I joke, but Frank Nouble looked a completely different player to the one I saw at Dagenham & Redbridge just two weeks earlier. This was 90 minutes of hard running, goal-scoring Frank the leader and you love to see it. Whilst the record books may not credit the opening goal to him, he deserved his second in as many games. And, whilst we’re handing out credit, let’s give some to Harvey Greenslade for that finish. It’s not been easy for him having got himself in to the team back at the start of the season, suffering that shoulder injury and then being loaned out to Weston-super-Mare, but the way he took his goal was outstanding. It may not beat Brett McGavin or Sean McGurk for Goal of the Season but it will be pretty close.


Consistency crucial for the cleano: Let’s put this in to the correct context, Maidenhead did not offer much. In the first half they seemed to want to play the role of the away team, pack players behind the ball and hit on the counter, and that takes a lot to get past. In the second half they changed it up and started to push players forward. In the first half we worked hard to get ahead and in the second our defence stood firm and, much like the exact same four players did against Tamworth in midweek, defended everything. We can’t underestimate the value of that consistency in these back-to-back results, only one change (enforced by the absence of James Plant) and it made all the difference for a cleano.

It’s always Sonny: What a re-emergence Sonny Blu Lo-Everton is having. Having wandered in the wilderness for since the end of November, he returned in midweek to good effect and yesterday he was at the heart of a lot that was good going forward. With the back up on Charlie Cooper and Brett McGavin, he is able to show what a talented technician he is with the ball. 

Momentum not perfection: Let’s not get too high with the highs, any more than we should not get too low with the lows. The last two matches have delivered that crucial ingredient – momentum. League position is looking a lot healthier (not that it ever looked that unhealthy) than it was seven days ago, but more importantly we are playing with some swagger again. There are tougher tests to come starting with Southend United at home next weekend. Let’s keep on building to the magic 50+ points target and, be under illusion, that would be a very successful season. 

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Normally, these are quite formulaic; Torquay won, W*ymouth lost… see you next week.

But not this time, this Loan Watch is flipped on it’s head.

As the title suggests, our seagull bothering friends – with Will Buse in goal – overcame Aveley by a 4-1 scoreline in the game between 24th and 23rd in the NLS.

Three of the scorers were ex-Glovers with Linton, Goodship and Genesini all bagging.

 

Whilst Torquay actually fell at the hands of Chelmsford and lost a little ground in the race for the Top Spots.

Jordan Thomas played the full 90, and despite a Matt Jay goal from the half way line, the Gulls lost 3-2 despite leading 2-1 in the 85th minute!

Sherborne had both their first team and reserve games called off, but with Corey Koerer representing England Colleges on Friday, it was unlikely he would have played.

Koerner (front row, far left) representing England Colleges.
Pic CO Mo Hopkins

Wellington was waterlogged so no game for Jacob Shore, but Bridport did get a game in, they lost 1-0 against Bishop’s Lydeard.

Sol Padmore and George Geraghty were both used from the bench.

With another poor weather weekend, there will be plenty of midweek games coming up for local sides and maybe a few YTFC youngsters getting some game time in.

 

 

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It’s two wins in a row for the first time since November for the Glovers, as they handily defeated Maidenhead United away from home in a 2-0 victory. Let’s see how the rest of the league got on!

We begin in London, where Wealdstone made it three wins on the trot with a comeback win over basement boys Ebbsfleet United. The bottom placed side had the lead for about 10 minutes in the first half, but braces for Alex Reid and Harrison Sohna handed the Stones another vital three points. There was another big result for a side around the bottom, as Aldershot Town secured a late victory at home to Hartlepool United, as Josh Barrett scored in the 94th minute to hand the hosts the points.

It was four-galore for Barnet, as they easily defeated Rochdale at Deepdale to extend their lead at the top of the table to nine points, former Glover Rhys Browne among the goal scorers for the Bees. Solihull Moors’ difficult start under Matt Taylor continued with a 3-1 loss at home to Gateshead.

There was late drama in both 2-2 results today, as Oldham Athletic rescued a point at Dagenham & Redbridge courtesy of a 95th minute equaliser from Joe Pritchard, while a 99th minute equaliser from Callum Howe spared York City’s blushes at home against FC Halifax Town, the hosts ending the game with 10 men in a Yorkshire derby.

AFC Fylde secured a massive 2-1 win away to Altrincham to keep their survival hopes alive, while a late Connor Teale goal wasn’t enough to rescue a point for Boston United, as they lost to Eastleigh. We finish the roundup with a trio of 1-1 ties, as Forest Green Rovers were held by Woking, Tuesday’s visitors Tamworth shared the points with next weekend’s visitors Southend United, and 10 man Sutton United drew with Braintree Town.

National League results – in full

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

National League table

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Yeovil Town picked up their first back to back wins since the end of October as they eased past Maidenhead United at York Road.

The Glovers took the lead with seven minutes of normal time remaining in the first half as Frank Nouble thumped in a shot which cannoned off a Maidenhead defender and flew in to the net.

There was some solid defending required to keep out a Maidenhead side who came out for the second half much brighter, before substitute Harvey Greenslade hooked home the second with seven minutes remaining.

First half

The opening chance fell to Yeovil after just two minutes. A good move found Michael Smith on the right side and his ball in to the box came to Sonny Blu Lo-Everton whose shot was deflected wide for a corner.
 
There were a number of half chances (box entries?) which followed with Yeovil probing at the back five in the well-stocked Maidenhead defender. On ten minutes, a free-kick found by Brett McGavin found its way out to Charlie Cooper on the left side and his cross found the head of Jake Wannell in the middle, but the effort was held by Craig Ross.
 
The first opportunity for the home side fell to striker Shawn  McClowsky on 26 minutes who was found in the middle of the box but shot over the bar, before a great ball in from the effective Alex Whittle picked out Ciaran McGuckin  inside the box but his header was well saved by Ross. The pressure was all Yeovil with Maidenhead preferring to play like the away team, sitting deep and hitting on the break.
 
The deadlock was broken on 38 minutes when a sustained period of Yeovil pressure saw a corner worked out to Cooper on the left again and Frank NOUBLE timed his run perfectly and smashed a shot towards goal. It looked to take a deflection off someone on its way in to the net, with the away side crediting Nouble and the home side putting it down as an own goal. If you don’t shoot, you don’t score, so we’ll give it to Frank.
 
Yeovil celebrate the opening goal from Frank Nouble – probably.
Overall, Yeovil looked good value for their half-time lead with a controlled performance. Solid without being spectacular.

Half time: Maidenhead United 0 Yeovil Town 1

Second half

The home side made two changes at the interval with Joshua Johnson and Ricky Korboa brought on and it was Maidenhead who started the second half like they had received a half-time dressing down from their manager.
 
But the  first chance of the half fell to Yeovil after ten minutes when McGavin threaded a ball through to Lo-Everton inside the box whose shot was parried away by Ross, before Will de Havilland’s headed wide from a Reece Smith corner four minutes later.
 

Having gone more than hour without a booking, Yeovil picked up two stupid ones within the space of a minute. First Charlie Cooper saw yellow for squaring up to McGuckin who he felt had not done enough to stop a Maidenhead raid down the left side. Then moments later, Yeovil were awarded a free-kick for a foul on Aidan Stone from a corner, the ball fell to Lo-Everton whose hoofed it away. Kicking the ball away, bookable offence. 

Not long after his public dressing down, McGuckin was replaced by Josh Sims. Whilst I understand why Cooper felt the need to do that and we have all called for leaders to set standards on the pitch, the harsh words felt like they would have been enough. In my opinion, grabbing McGuckin in the way Cooper did was too much.
 
With eight minutes left, the visitors doubled there advantage. A deep free-kick in to the box from Michael Smith looked to have missed all the Yeovil forwards, but substitute Harvey GREENSLADE had different ideas. He bustled in to the defender, controlled it on his chest before bringing it under his spell, swivelling and firing it in to the net. From the other end of the ground it looked special, on the replay it was even better. 
 
There was even a chance for a third with a minute to go when substitute Dom Bernard picked out Nouble on the left, he powered towards goal and flashed a ball across the face of goal with Lo-Everton flying in. Today was a different Frank Nouble to the one I saw at Dagenham & Redbridge just a fortnight earlier – and I am here for it. This was The Guv’nor and we need him in this form.

Full time: Maidenhead United 0 Yeovil Town 2

Match Details

Venue: York Road
Date: Saturday 22nd February, 3pm kick-off

Competition: National League Premier Division

Scorers: Frank Nouble 38 (1-0), Harvey Greenslade 82 (2-0)

Pitch: Not terrible for this point of the season
Conditions: Sunny and bright

Attendance: 1,330 

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Charlie Cooper 68, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton 69
Maidenhead United: Larry-Fairweather 10, Abrahams 42, Tyrese Dyce 82.

Referee: Callum Walchester

Yeovil Town (3-4-2-1)

Substitutes: Harvey Greenslade (for Kyrell Wilson, 56), Josh Sims (for Ciaran McGuckin, 70), Dom Bernard (for Brett McGavin, 80), Lewys Twamley (not used), Sean McGurk (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Maidenhead United: Craig Ross, Will de Havilland, Thierry Latty-Fairweather (for Tyrese Dyce, 72), Shawn McClousky, Kane Ferdinand, Casey Pettit (for Ricky Korboa, 46), Reece Smith (for Sam Barratt, 84), Miles Welch-Hayes, Tristan Abrahams (for Tobi Sho-Silva, 84), Alan Massey (for Joshua Johnson, 46), Manny Onarise.

Substuitutes (not used): Harvey Collins, Owen Cochrane.

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Yeovil Town have made one change for today’s trip to Maidenhead United (3pm kick-off).

Ciaran McGuckin comes in for the injured James Plant, who has been ruled out for the season with a hamstring injury, in the only change from Tuesday’s midweek 2-1 win over Tamworth.

 

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After a W on home soil in midweek, Yeovil Town are back on the road this weekend visiting Maidenhead United.

Form Guide…

Whilst Yeovil were picking up a 2-1 home win over Tamworth on Tuesday night, Maidenhead came away from Oldham Athletic with three points of their own. 

The Berkshire club are in a decent run of form with the 1-0 win in the North West being their third in their last five matches with a creditable goalless draw at Hartlepool United in there for good measure.

It appears The Magpies are making their annual push away from the National League Premier Division drop zone and find themselves in the top ten in the division’s form guide over the past six games. They have also won their last three home matches – against Southend United, AFC Fylde and Wealdstone.

For Yeovil, a hard fought win over Tamworth lifted some of the grey clouds which hung over Huish Park after more than two months without a victory.

Manager Mark Cooper and goalkeeper Aidan Stone have both said that the result needs to be the foundation upon which they can pick up their form between now and the end of the season.

Key Players…

Yeovil – Frank Nouble

We haven’t mentioned Frank Nouble’s name much this season, mostly because his winning goal in midweek was his first in almost a year.

The forward returned to the starting XI against Tamworth and showed just how crucial he can be to the team. It’s under appreciated how valuable Nouble’s experience can be in tough times, and with young squad around him, hopefully he can show his worth over the next couple of games.

If the 33-year-old can find his goal-scoring form, in the closing straight of this season, it will be a welcome boost.

Maidenhead United – Tristan Abrahams

If you don’t remember Tristan Abrahams’ time as a Yeovil Town player, you’re probably not alone. He had a fairly forgettable spell on loan from Norwich City in the ill-fated 2019-20 season which saw us drop out of the Football League – albeit one memorable two goal appearance in a home win over Morecambe.

But, the forward has made a name for himself in the lower leagues and he is a player in form going in to this match. Over the last ten games, the 26-year-old has scored three times and got five assists. In total, he has eight goals and six assists, and his strike-partner Shawn McClousky is a goal ahead of him.

Expect those two to be a test for the Glovers’ defence in Berkshire.

A collector’s item. Tristan Abrahams scoring one of his two goals in a home win over Morecambe during his loan spell in 2019-20. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

 

That’s what he said…

Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper spoke to BBC Somerset on Thursday and said he was expecting a tough game at York Road. 

The Glovers’ boss said: “It is a tough game because they have some physically big players, they play five at the back who are tough and have two lads up front who are a threat in (Shawn) McClousky and Tristan Abrahams. The other night (against Tamworth) we had to deal with untold numbers of balls in our box which we had to head, cleared and blocked and we will have to do that against (at Maidenhead) on Saturday. The work-rate and the endeavour has to be the same, that has to be the starting point. You have to match whatever they bring and we have to do that on Saturday. They are a team which fight and stay in the league every year, so it will be a tough game.”

Speaking after Maidenhead’s win at Oldham on Tuesday night, Maidenhead assistant manager Ryan Peters said: “It’s really important because we are looking at that dreaded line (just above the relegation zone) but this is a chance for us to push up. We have got a couple of wins together now and we can start to look at 14th place.”

We’ve met before…

Yeovil do not have fond memories of their visits to York Road and have only taken one point in their three visits there in recent years with the last coming with a 2-1 defeat in February 2023.

In all their four previous visits, the Glovers have picked up one point – a 1-1 draw in February 2022.

However, they did pick up their first win against Maidenhead back in October when an Aaron Jarvis double secured a 3-1 win in the reverse fixture. Miss you, Jarv.

 

Don’t I know you…

As previously mentioned, Tristan Abrahams had a spell on loan at Huish Park in the second half of the 2019-20 season which proved to be Yeovil’s last in the Football League – for now, at least!

Then in the Norwich City youth set-up he was brought to the club by then-Glovers’ boss Darren Way on loan on transfer deadline day in January 2019. He scored twice in a 3-2 home win over Morecambe that season – a game capped by a memorable late Ryan Seager winner – but otherwise did not do too much to make his spell in Somerset a memorable one with three goals in 15 appearances.

However, since leaving Norwich he had spells at Newport County and Carlisle United before dropping in to non-League with Eastleigh, Welling United before joining Maidenhead in February 2024. 

Tristan Abrahams in a Yeovil shirt during his loan spell in 2019-20. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz

Who’s been naughty then…

No-one.

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Yeovil finally registered their first win of 2025 on Tuesday night, as they came from behind to win 2-1 at home to Tamworth! Let’s see what the rest of the league got up to in chilly midweek conditions across two nights!

We begin in the north, where Gateshead triumphed over Sutton United in a 4-3 thriller, the visitors coming back from 2-0 down to take the lead via a belter from Lewis Simper, before the Heed staged a comeback themselves to take all three points. There were huge implications in the title battle, as Barnet defeated York City 3-1 to move seven points clear of their opponents. The Bees were the better side throughout the 90 minutes, and have built themselves a healthy gap at the top with 13 games to go…

On Wednesday night, Eastleigh disposed of a free-falling Dagenham & Redbridge in a 3-0 scoreline, leaving the visitors just four points from the drop and boosting the Spitfires up to 10th in the table. In further relegation drama, Wealdstone came from behind at Braintree Town to win 2-1, jumping out of the relegation zone in the process.

There were three more 2-1 results, all on Tuesday night; all three goals came late at Victoria Park as Hartlepool United were defeated at home to Altrincham, AFC Fylde started life without Kevin Phillips with defeat, as Boston United secured a vital three points in their fight against the drop, and Southend United condemned Aldershot Town to the bottom four with their win at home.

In a big shock, Saturday’s hosts Maidenhead United took all three points back to Berkshire in a 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic, Shawn McCoulsky scoring the only goal of the game for the Magpies. Woking secured a 1-0 win over Solihull Moors on Wednesday night, the final Wednesday night fixture was a 0-0 draw between FC Halifax Town and Rochdale, and the final Tuesday night fixture saw Ebbsfleet United hold Forest Green Rovers to a 0-0 draw at home.

National League results – in full

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

National League table