Ben Barrett (Page 130)

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Yeovil Town captain Josh Staunton.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town’s stand in skipper, Josh Staunton has been given a place in the Vanarama Team of the Week for the FA Cup.

The Glovers saw off Yate Town 5-0 in the first round proper, with Staunton not only keeping a clean sheet, but also providing an assist for Adi Yussuf’s goal.

Yeovil with host either MK Dons or Stevenage in the 2nd round in early December.

The Glovers have now gone three games without conceding with both Woking and Solihull also failing to breach the defence.

 

 

 

 

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The Glovers’ quest for the quadruple continues onWednesday night as Yeovil travel to Larkhall Athletic in the Somerset Premier Cup second round (7.45pm kick-off).

Team News

Darren Sarll has promised to take this seriously and suggested before the 5-0 FA Cup win at Yate Town that his Somerset Premier Cup side would likely include the substitutes from the weekend.

That would mean goalkeeper Max Evans, the only sub who did not feature at Lodge Road, together with defenders Luke Wilkinson and Alex Bradley, midfielders Toby Stephens and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and top-scorer Joe Quigley.

Speaking after Saturday’s win, the boss said he would field “a strong side” at Larkhall to “develop the game time minutes” of both Wilkinson and Morgan Williams, who played 53 minutes at the weekend, his first action since the last SPC tie against Bridgwater United at the end of September.

Who Are Ya?

Larkhall currently ply their trade in the Southern League Division One South Division, where they currently lie ninth in the table.

Their last outing on Saturday  saw the Larks lose 1-0 to Bideford; their overall league record reads…

Played 11, Won 4, Drawn 5, Lost 2. Scored 23, Conceded 11 – Pts 17.

They beat Street on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the previous round to earn this home tie against the Glovers.

Tickets

Larkhall confirmed via their social media that tickets are available on the day; £7 for adults, £5 concessions.

 

Travel

Larkhall Athletic Football Club is based in Bath, the post code for your sat navs is BA1 8DJ, and there is an embedded Google Maps below…

We’ve met before

Yeovil Town were last drawn against Larkhall Athletic in the Somerset Premier Cup back in March 2015

The Glovers put out a strong side, which included future Wales international striker Kieffer Moore… (at Centre Back!)… the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes with Yeovil progressing on penalties.

Here’s the Ciderspace news report from that evening:

Penalty Shoot-Out Needed To Settle Cup Tie

Yeovil Town needed extra time and a penalty shoot-out tonight to get past Southern League Division One South and West Larkhall Athletic tonight. In a match played at their Plain Ham Ground near Bath, the Glovers had taken the lead midway through the first half when AJ Leitch-Smith beat home keeper Alex Shaftoe to the ball to score from inside the box. However, they were pegged back when Joe Tumelty scored from close range midway through the second period to level the tie, and despite having the greater number of chances they couldn’t convert a winner.

That took the game through extra time, and after 120 minutes the two sides still couldn’t be divided. Thankfully Yeovil Town found their shooting boots during the penalty shoot-out, with AJ Leitch-Smith, Sam Hoskins, Kieffer Moore and Nathan Ralph converting a perfect set of penalties, whilst Larkhall failed to convert two of theirs, with Jamie Lyons the unlucky man whose spot kick was missed to send Yeovil through to the semi-final stages. There they will meet Bridgwater Town at Fairfax Park, after they saw their way past Odd Down at the Quarter-Final stages – a date for this tie has yet to be arranged.

Final Score: Larkhall Athletic 1 Yeovil Town 1. (After Extra Time. Yeovil win 4-2 on penalties).

Scorers: AJ Leitch-Smith (0-1, 24 mins), Joe Tumelty (1-1, 67 mins).

Penalty Shoot-Out: AJ Leitch-Smith (scored, 0-1), Tyler Sibbick (scored, 1-1), Sam Hoskins (scored, 1-2), Matt Thorne (missed, 1-2), Kieffer Moore (scored, 1-3), Rob Hobbs (scored, 2-3), Nathan Ralph (scored, 2-4), Jamie Lyons (missed, 2-4).

Yeovil Town:
1. Artur Krysiak
3. Seth Nana Twumasi, 4. Kieffer Moore, 5. Ben Nugent, 2. Liam Davis
6. Fergus Bell, 8. Craig Eastmond, 10. Alex Smith, 7. Nathan Ralph
9. Sam Hoskins, 11. AJ Leitch-Smith

Substitutes:
12. Gareth Stewart 13. Nathan Smith 14. James Hayter 15. Gozie Ugwu

Larkhall Athletic
1. Alex Shaftoe 2. Giorgio Wrona 3. Jamie Lyons 4. Rob Hobbs 5. Ollie Price (Capt) 6. Dan Jones 7. Joe Tumelty 8. Matt Thorne 9. Chris Pile 10. Brad Norris 11. Ben Horan.

Substitutes:
12. Tyler Sibbick 14. Jake Gardner 15. Ross Lye 16. Ryan Elliott.

Referee: Ron Ganfield. Assistants: Adam Fricker and Kevin Williams.

Attendance: 160.

We will do our best to bring you team news, goal updates and any post-match analysis here at the Gloverscast – if you’re going to the game and have any thoughts, opinions or whatnot, reach out to us on twitter @gloverscast or via email Gloverscast@gmail.com

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Max Hunt warms up

Yeovil Town defender Max Hunt has had his one-match suspension confirmed by the Football Association.

Hunt was sent off in the 2nd half of the weekend’s 0-0 draw vs Solihull Moors for scything down Andrew Dallas when through on goal.

The red card has been classified under the “Denying a goal scoring opportunity” (Law 12, S5) category and carries a single match ban.

The FA Club Disicipline mobile site says the suspension ends on Saturday Nov 6th, which means it is confirmed he will be missing for the FA Cup game with Yate Town this weekend

(see below pictures from the FA Player Guidance document where it is confirmed that Yellow Card Accumulation suspensions are competition specific, but red card offences must be dealt with across different compeitions.)

Also sent off in the match was Solihull’s Jordan Cranston, he has three matches to sit out due the more serious offence of “Striking – Violent Conduct” (Law 12, S2). He hit out at Tom Knowles and last time I checked, this was football, not boxing.

 

 

 

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Matt Smith probably mispronoucing a stadium name

BT Sport have confirmed the first set of festive fixtures to be shown live on their channel and unfortunatley Matt Smith, Adam Virgo and co won’t be making a trip to Hush/You-ish/Weesh Park (depending on how they butcher the name this time) any time soon.

Wrexham are on TV (shock) for their December 11th home game against the part-time sandcastle builders from just down the A37 whilst we will tuck into our Boxing Day left overs whilst enjoying Bromley taking on Southend United on the 26th of December.

The confirmed list of TV Fixtures can be found below – correct at time of writing and subject to chage, with more games to be confirmed in due course for the missing dates in December.

 

Confirmed Vanarama National League matches on BT Sport (kick-off time):

Saturday October 30 – Barnet vs Aldershot Town (5.20pm)Saturday November 13 – Stockport County vs Bromley (5.20pm)Friday November 19 – Grimsby Town vs Southend United (7.45pm)Saturday November 27 – Notts County vs Dagenham & Redbridge (5.20pm)Saturday December 11 – Wrexham vs Weymouth (5.20pm)Sunday December 26 – Bromley vs Southend United (5.20pm)

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On the face of it, going away to a Solihull Moors side on a run of four consecutive wins and getting a 0-0 draw is a result that plenty sides in this division would take.

Plenty have tried and failed to do what a solid Yeovil Town defensive unit did and keep and clean sheet.

Here are five things Ben Barrett took away from a battling draw at Damson Park…..

It might be an odd place to start, but after some chat about the loans that have ended recently, some quotes regarding the Lewis Simper, Dion Pereira, Ben Seymour and Jordan Dyer deals have suggested that maybe our place as developers of talent for other clubs has been questioned.

But the loanees we have are very, very good for the club.

I can’t really comment on Sonny Blu Lo-Everton as his cameo was short and purely a fresh pair of legs to chase and chase.

Loan signing Dan Moss in action against King’s Lynn Town.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

But, the full-backs Dan Moss and Jack Robinson were two of the star players in the Midlands.

Both of them are clearly here to get used to ‘grown-up’ football and they will have learnt so much in that 90 minutes.

How to take a pummelling from the likes of Tyrone Williams and Adam Rooney, but picking themselves up  heading the next cross away and putting themselves right in harm’s way.

I gave Robinson my man of the match. When at left-back he links with Jordan Barnett and Charlie Wakefield well, but when called upon to slot inside next to Josh Staunton he stood up and made it his own.

Moss was equally impressive and is not afraid to put his head in where it hurts (literally a couple of times) which is wonderful to see from a player who is not ‘ours’.

Darren Sarll spoke after the match about how Robinson was ours until January and Moss was going “absolutely nowhere.” I want them both secured for the rest of the season.

I’m sure you’ve noticed, it may have been mentioned, but we don’t have much squad depth.

Only Luke Wilkinson and Morgan Williams were missing from the squad and it felt like we were missing a golden ticket from the bench.

Jamey Osborne and Adam Rooney came on and made a real difference for the hosts, when I looked at the bench, I didn’t see the midfield general we needed to control the game.

As the second half especially rolled on it was crying out for another Josh Staunton in the middle, someone to put their foot on the ball and try and calm the play down.

With Staunton’s time at centre-half set to last a while longer after Max Hunt’s dismissal, I feel we need to think about this area in recruitment.

In my last Five Conclusions after the 2-0 win over Woking in midweek, I said I didn’t really know what to think about Adi Yussuf.

Yussuf Warming

Well, 70-odd minutes more and well, now I can say with some confidence, that I am still absolutely no nearer to knowing what I think of him.

For every neat passage of play with his strike partners, there was an offside, or a stupid free-kick given away.

For every flick on into good areas, there was a frustrating lack of control especially at times where we needed to take the pressure off… and then there’s THAT miss.

At the time of writing, I haven’t seen it back on the highlights yet, but I REALLY hope it’s not as bad as I thought when it happened live.

Going into half time 1-0 up would have flipped that game on its head and quite simply you have to be taking those chances when they come around.

Darren Sarll and plenty of others have talked about how fit this bunch are, but for the first time, maybe all season… we did finish the game looking a bit tired.

Eight games in October, one of which went 120 minutes and penalties, a couple long coach trips have all piled on, and I reckon they’ve earned a Sunday and maybe a Monday off before cranking in to gear again for Yate Town in the FA Cup last weekend.

No doubt our new fitness coach Scott Wickens has been doing wonders and will be crucial in the weeks to come.

I actually wanted to do one of these without an off-the-pitch mini rant, but it was so good to see a club clearly committed to putting on a show for their family fun day.

It was Halloween special day and fans of a number of higher positioned league clubs could attend at a reduced rate, there was a Halloween fun fete thing on the outside 3G pitch, plenty of activities, face paint, the works.

Kids there had Aston Villa shirts [did you leave have yours on, Ben? – Ed), Birmingham shirts, Coventry shirts and more, and with those kids, parenmts who want a coffee, a bite to eat, to pay to park, to have a drink in one of their multiple bars – you get where I’m going with this, don’t you?

I understand that COVID restrictions are preventing us having ball boys and girls at Huish Park, but that didn’t seem to be an issue at Damson Park – if they can do it…..

We have people at our club who could do and have done this stuff with their eyes closed… they just need the green light from above.

Oh, and the away supporters’ bar at Damson Park was a small breeze block building with a bar, nicely done up with a Peaky Blinders’ theme, and it was rammed for a couple of hours before kick-off.

Not hard, is it?

 

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Andrew Barrowman (White shirt) playing for Airdrie Reserves

Yeovil Town have taken former Airdrie forward Andrew Barrowman on trial.

Barrowman, who has also spent time on the books of the New England Revolution in the MLS is the nephew of former Dr Who, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Strictly Come Dancing star and all round actor/comedian type, John Barrowman.

Uncle John posted on his Instagram that he was in Yeovil watching Andrew train with with Glovers down at Alvington and it was “freezing“.

It also appears that John visited Huish Park during his visit, mentioning that the “merch shop” stayed open for him.

Uncle John in the Huish Park “merch shop” with Paul Hadlow of the Green & White Supporters’ Club.

He also refers to assistant manager Terry Skiverton as “the #gaffer”. Awkward.

As far as we can tell, Andrew never made a first team appearance for Airdrie, nor in the MLS but impressed in plenty of reserve games.

The 23 year old is listed on Transfermarkt as being able to play in midfield or attack.

Best of luck to Andrew with his trial!

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Ben Seymour in action
Credit:Weymouth FC Flickr

Exeter City Manager Matt Taylor was asked in his weekly pre match press conference about the reintroduction to his squad about Ben Seymour and Jordan Dyer after their loan spells with Yeovil were brought to an end.

He confirmed that the busy schedule meant he would be using his entire squad and that both were back in training with the first team this week but did suggest at least one of the duo could be back out on loan soon.

“Yeah, they returned and trained with the group, there’s always the option and opportunity that both players could go back out on loan – possibly one sooner rather than later.”

“It’s a shame because, we sent them out on loan to get game time, the experience and opportunity and they didn’t quite feel that they got that due to whatever reason”

“They come back to us with a little more hunger to do well for ourselves and to impress in training and then, their next loan, really make the most of it”

Ben Seymour started twice for the Glovers making four league appearances altogether, whilst Jordan Dyer was on the pitch for a total of 2 minutes against Woking on Tuesday night.

STAT TIME

In terms of minutes on the pitch, we think that the four loans to have ended have spent the following time in the starting  XI.

Of the four loans that have gone back:

  • Ben Seymour: 329 minutes
  • Dion Pereira: 90 minutes
  • Lewis Simper: 16 minutes
  • Jordan Dyer: 2 minutes

To add a little context to the numbers, Seymour missed the Grimsby game due to COVID issues, Pereira decided he did not want to return after one match, and COVID and injury kept Simper out for most of his time at the club.

It is only Dyer where you feel the parent club has a legitimate complaint for a lack of opportunities offered to their player.

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Ben Seymour in action
Credit:Weymouth FC Flickr²

Yeovil Town have announced that loan pair Ben Seymour and Jordan Dyer have returned to Exeter following the expiry of their loan deals.

Initially signed on one-month deals from the Devon side, Glovers’ manager Darren Sarll told the Gloverscast last week, any renewals would go down to the wire, but it has now been announced that they will both return to their parent club.

Seymour made four appearances for the Glovers, including two starts whilst Jordan Dyer just made one, two-minute cameo in green and white.

With Lewis Simper being recalled by Cambridge early and Dion Pereira seemingly not coming back to complete his loan spell from Luton, it leaves just Sonny Blu Lo Everton (Watford), Dan Moss (Millwall)and Jack Robinson (Middlesbrough) as temporary additions to Darren Sarll’s side.

This weekend’s game vs Solihull represents Moss’ last game of his initial spell before he will either return to his London base or renew for a longer stint in Somerset.

We wish Jordan and Ben all the best back at St James’ Park.

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The Glovercast’s Ben Barrett took up residence in the Thatcher’s Stand to see Yeovil Town pick up their first victory in eight matches with a much-improved performance and a 2-0 win over Woking.

Here’s his Five Conclusions on what he saw….

First thing is first, you’ll have to let me have one for myself, but it was really nice being a supporter again.

That sounds stupid, but I’ve only watched on streams, or on TV, or had my professional hat on as part of the media.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m VERY lucky to do occasional bits for the BBC and I’ll never turn those chances down. But to stand in what used to be something of my usual spot, just behind the left hand post in the home terrace with my Dad, a cup of coffee and a few familiar faces (hi, Foxy!) felt fantastic.

It’s been a while since I’ve had that feeling and whilst the overall ‘match day experience’ still leaves a lot to be desired, but being told by a steward ‘don’t worry about that, it’s only Woking’ as I held my arms aloft expecting a pat down, to Max Evans saying ‘evening’ with a little nod as we crossed eyes whilst I waited for Dad to go through the turnstile reminded me, that it’s not ALL bad at Huish Park.

Onto the football then and this is my first experience of the 4-3-3 formation and for me it has one main benefit and one major flaw.

We’ll start with the benefit, because you know… #BeMoreBarrett and all that.

Knowles and Wakefield are seriously dangerous attacking options in the front line.

Catching Woking on the break, quick one touch passing through midfield and either a ball whipped down the line or sprayed out wide was the order of the day and it worked nearly every single time.

That man Tom Knowles (#DFILWF) back in the goals – and we love to see it.

Having one of those split the full back and the central defender meant they didn’t really know how to defend against us, afraid to push their full backs on for fear of being caught and defenders being pulled out of their regimented shape.

Wrap these two up in cotton wool, protect them at all costs… and it’s absolutely fine to fall in love with footballers.

However, the Yin to that Yang is that I’m not quite sure where it leaves our midfield.

Jordan Barnett on the left of three is fine when in full attacking flow, but he did occasionally fall out of position as possession fell to Woking.

Matt Worthington continues to work his backside off, but he isn’t a right sided player, almost opposite to Barnett he DOES look fairly well placed when we don’t have the ball, save for a few uncontrolled hooked clearances, he wasn’t quite the attacking driver that Barnett was on the other side.

Dale Gorman was combative and all hustle and bustle, but at times in the 2nd half, I wanted a controller, someone to dictate the play and he isn’t quite that.

When I knew I was going to do these conclusions, I really hoped to have something concrete (and ideally positive) to say about whoever led the line up front.

But… after an hour of seeing him from the start… I just don’t know what to think about Adi Yussuf.

I think I enjoyed his first half performance, I think he was reasonable at the back-to-goal stuff, I think we played less hoof-ball that we seem to revert to for Joe Quigley, and I think he put himself about and ruffled a few feathers… but I don’t KNOW any of these things… you know?

He was pretty anonymous in the second half and I wasn’t surprised to see him come off after a pretty stale 15 minutes in the second period, I don’t know that we missed him, but I don’t know if there might be more in there.

I think I want to see him have a bit of a run in the side, I think I want him to have a bit more of a chance to impose his game on our style of play, but I don’t KNOW any of these things… you know? No? Sorry.

Finally, I’ve been thinking about what happens now we’ve ended the winless run.

After the 3-0 win against Stockport, we were crying out for a performance to back it up, to probe it wasn’t a one-off.

Now, I think we desperately need to back that performance up.

We can talk about ‘runs of one’ and resetting after the previous result, regardless of a win, a loss or a draw, but there isn’t a Yeovil fan out there who is desperate to see a bit of a streak of results.

Another three points on Saturday away at Solihull would lead us nicely into another big couple of weeks, with a prime opportunity against Yate Town in the FA Cup and then a couple tests with Eastleigh and Dagenham on the horizon in the league.

The Gaffer giving it the big ‘un after a much-improved performance. He’ll be wanting more like that from his side going forward.

That was a solid 2-0 win, about a solid of a win as you can ask for, there is an extra gear to find, a gear that will determine if we’re a side with ambitions of glancing up and thinking… ‘maybe’… or a side glancing over our shoulders thinking… ‘oh, maybe’.

Shall we do it again on Saturday? Yeah, go on then.

 

 

 

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Max Hunt in action against King’s Lynn at Huish Park.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Following Yeovil Town’s 2-0 win over Woking on Tuesday night, defender Max Hunt spoke to Sheridan Robins from BBC Somerset.

The centre back said that the sides righted a few wrongs from previous performances which hadn’t seen the points secured despite decent showings.

“Coming away from Grimsby on Saturday, the fans there, and all of us would have seen that we did a lot of things right, but there’s just a few things missing in both boxes. We went into it tonight knowing it was important to start fast, and getting an early goal was massive”

“Going on and getting that second, which we haven’t done much much this season, takes the pressure off and allows us to focus on keeping that clean sheet which was even more important.”

Much like the first half, the second started with a goal, something which helped calm the nerves of players and fans alike.

“We knew it was important to come out the 2nd half and start it well like we did the first, and it’s a good team goal; Charlie (Wakefield) is looking like a threat down that side and brilliant for Knowlesy, he’s deserved it, he’s worked hard and had a difficult start and now he’s got his first he’ll be up and running”

The former Carlisle man also spoke of his central defensive partnership with Josh Staunton who not only pairs with him on the pitch, but at home as well.

“I live with him, I can’t get away from him, play together, now live together… we’ve got a great relationship on and off the pitch and I think it’s been showing, we’ve been putting some good work in and to get the rewards tonight is enjoyable”