Ben Barrett (Page 153)

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Glovers Trialist vs Taunton

Yeovil Town are back in pre-season action this Tuesday facing local side Taunton Town.

The Glovers are lining up in a slightly different formation than the one used againt Forest Green Rovers at the weekend – employing a 4-4-1-1 set up with Lewis Simper starting in the role just behind Reuben Reid the sole front man.

There’s a little rotation to the side as other members of the side build up match fitness and notably, just one trialist – a new one as well.

Early reports are that former Wolves and Bradford winger Zeli Ismail is the number 16 hoping to impress – starting the game on the wide left hand side of a midfield four – although this has yet to be confirmed (picture attached – what do you think?)

The full side is below – none of the other trialists we have seen in the other friendlies have been listed as in the squad, suggesting Deshane Dalling, Harlain Mbayo and Jack Bodenham have not been given any futher opportunities to impress.

One new name on the bench is that of attacking midfielder Ollie Haste, a Glovers academy product who has signed a scholarship from Bideford Blues Youth Side as a junior.

A name that some Glovers fans may recognise in the Taunton side is that of former Youth Team ‘keeper Lloyd Irish, a mainstay of the Under 18s set up throughout 2008 and 2009 he did make the first team bench on a couple of occasions in the FA Cup.

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Gabby Rogers playing for Tiverton. Pic from @vivcurtis on twitter

Former Yeovil Town midfielder Gabriel Rogers has been spotted on trial at Southern League Premier Division side Tiverton Town.

Our friends at WeLoveYouYTFC alerted us to Rogers’ appearance in the Tivvy friendly against Plymouth Parkway which took place on Saturday. (July 31st)

Previously, Rogers had been on trial with Wycombe Wanderers, news we broke here on the Gloverscast in early July.

Rogers left Huish Park under something of a cloud after being left out of Darren Sarrl’s plans for much of the 2020/21 season.

He played 23 times across all competitions for the Glovers, scoring one goal – that last gasp thunderbolt against Bromley in the FA Cup.

All the best at Tiverton, Gabby!

 

 

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Former Yeovil Town attacking midfielder, Matty Warburton has signed for fellow National League side FC Halifax Town after a short spell on trial.

https://twitter.com/fchtonline/status/1421887037775482885?s=21

 

Warburton appeared under the cunning guise of “Trialist” in a couple of pre-season friendlies for the Yorkshire side against Farsley Celtic and Carlisle United

Warburton was signed on loan from Northampton Town during a mid season re-jig of signings but his time at Huish Park was a struggle, failing to get regular game time before departing his loan spell ahead of schedule.

An absolute Rolls Royce of a midfielder on his day, he played 19 times for the Glovers scoring twice, once against Woking and once against his former club Stockport County in the FA Cup.

We wish Matt all the best at the Shay Stadium… with obvious exceptions for games against Yeovil Town.

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Yeovil Town Under 18s are starting to ramp up preparations ahead of the new season.

It was confirmed recently that the Young Glovers are entering a new division this season and will take on new opponents in the South West Counties league.

Training will commence in “early August” and two friendly fixtures have now been confirmed.

vs Paulton Rovers on Saturday 7th August
vs Priority Football Academy on Wednesday 18th August

At the time of writing, no kick off times, venues or ticketing details have been confirmed, stay across the YTFC Academy Social Media for more details and we here at the Gloverscast will endeavour to keep you up to date as well.

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Yeovil Town played their first pre-seaosn friendly of the season at Stratford Town on Saturday afternoon naming four trialists among the substitutes.

The game was won with a Tom Knowles strike from the edge of the box, but the game of ‘Guess The Trialist’ is a staple of any pre-season warm up.

Our roving Gloverscast reporter David Coates attended the game in Warwickshire and took pictures of the hopefuls which – with a little bit of help from social media and a good degree of guesswork, we think are as follows:

Deshane Dalling

A forward player who came on for Reuben Reid at half-time at Knight’s Lane and looked to have some pace and trickery about him.

Based on 45 minutes, he looks Josh Neufville-ish rather than Josh Neufville-esque, but definitely something there.

The 22-year-old has played for non-League Staines Town and then at youth level for both Huddersfield Town and QPR where he made one first-team appearance, as an 80th minute substitute in a 5-1 FA Cup win over Swansea City in January 2020.

He started last season on loan at League of Ireland Premier Division side Cork City and made two appearances for Wealdstone in the National League  last season.

 

 

Harlain Mbayo

A 71st minute substitute replacing Max Hunt alongside another trialist in the second half against Stratford.

This one we are pretty sure about, mostly because we checked with some fans at his former club Aberdeen and the player himself then liked the reply we got from them.

The 23-year-old was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he moved to Belgium at an early age and played for Anderlecht from the age of eight initially as a striker before being converted to a central defender.

His family then moved to England when Harlain was aged 15 and he joined the academy at QPR.

An interview with Aberdeen’s website in 2018 suggests he had some time with Oxford United and then non-League Bedford Town before he joined the Scottish Premier League side in 2015.

His record shows him as having spent 2015 until 2018 at Aberdeen without making a first-team appearance, before a seven-game spell at Scottish League Two side Albion Rovers in 2018.

He then appears to have made the (not insignificant) move from Scotland to Southern League Premier Division side Truro City in Cornwall and then back to Aidrie where he signed in July 2020.


Richard Afrane-Kesey

Richard Afrane-Kesey warms up at Stratford Town.

Came on in the 68th minute in place on goal-scorer Tom Knowles and took up a position down the left wing for the final 22 minutes of the pre-season friendly.

Looked to want to take players on when he got the ball but, as with all of these players, a bit harsh to judge him on a brief appearance in the opening game of pre-season.

There’s not a huge amount of information about him online except to say he began his career in the youth set-up at Charlton Athletic and in October 2020 had a loan spell at Isthmian League Premier Division side Margate.

 


Colin Daniel…..maybe

This is the one we are the least confident about, but social media appears to have identified the central defender playing the full second half as Colin Daniel.

The player came on in place of Luke Wilkinson at the break and looked relatively assured against the Step 4 opponents.

There is a definite similarity between the player who turned out in the number 15 shirt for the Glovers and Daniel who played 23 times in League One for Burton Albion last season, see pictured below, albeit with his final appearance coming in January.

The 33-year-old was released by the Brewers at the end of last season and would certainly bring some good experience with him having won the National League (or the Conference Premier as it was known then) with Mansfield Town in 2013  and got promoted out of League Two with Blackpool in 2017.

The picture, top, is the player who lined up for Yeovil at Stratford and, below, is Colin Daniel when he signed for Burton from Peterborough United in January 2019.

This one has divided opinion at Gloverscast HQ, so we’ll leave you to make your own minds up.

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Here at the Gloverscast, the three amigos, led by Ian Perkins have been working hard to provide Yeovil Town fans with a one-stop shop for all things YTFC.

A podcast twice a week(ish), a website full of stats, analysis and interviews as well as going through the process of saving as much of the Ciderspace archive from the incomparable Badger as we can.

We do it for free, because we love it and because you tell us that you don’t mind it either – or you’re all just being really polite – either way, thank you.

Last year, Ian pretty much single handedly got the Gloverscast nominated for an FCA, “Football Content Award” – we did not win, nor were we expecting to, but the last year has seen the Gloverscast grow exponentially.

So, we’d like to ask for your support, firstly in getting nominated again.

There are plenty of ways you can vote, via Social Media, or using the form on the FCA Website.

All the details can be found HERE 

If you’d rather send a vote in with a tweet, simply copy the text below into Twitter and post your status.

“I am voting for @Gloverscast in @The_FCAs for #BestInNonLeague Podcast”

There’s no need to sign up, they take nothing more than an (optional) name and email address, and do you know what, we’d really appreciate it, we’re proud of what the Gloverscast has become and what it has in store for us.

So, yeah, thanks, legends.

 

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Yeovil Town’s Under 18s will have a new division of opponents next season having made the switch to the South West Premier Academy Under 18s division.

Previously, they have faced sides the junior sides from the Football League including Exeter, Bristol Rovers and Newport but this season will be up against the likes of Torquay, Bath City and last year’s champions Mangotsfield Town.

Futhermore, it has been confirmed that Mark Challen of M1 Coaching will be the manager for the Under 18s this season,

If we here at the Gloverscast get details of a fixture list or ticket details we will of course bring them to you,

Here’s to finding another Alfie Lloyd or Toby Stephens in the youth set up this season.

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Here at the Gloverscast we have brought you a couple of recent rumours from journalists about potential players Yeovil were looking to sign and there’s been a couple of updates.

Andrew Dallas was linked to the Glovers alongside a number of other clubs including Notts County.

The former Weymouth front man has signed a new deal at his club Cambridge and is quoted as being “excited about being part of the campaign in League One” suggesting he’s staying put… for now.

 

Another player linked with Huish Park was former Harrogate man Jay Williams – we brought you the rumour that he had been linked to us a while ago but it seems as though his pre-season preparations have taken a detour, via Northampton.

The Cobblers have had to draft some extra bodies in for their friendlies due to some Covid related isolation and Williams was named as a trialist for their game against Stamford on Saturday.

Of course, neither news rules either out from making their way to Somerset before the season begins, but may be a sign that either they or us have set sights elsewhere…
Stay tuned to the Gloverscast for more wild speculation as pre-season continues!

 

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Former Yeovil Town defender Carl Dickinson has been speaking to sports podcast The Grassroots Guy, conversation ranged from cheesing off Tony Pulis at Stoke, to a short stint in Iceland and of course a rollercoaster couple of seasons at Huish Park.

In the podcast, Dicko talks about how it was Assistant Manager Terry Skiverton who made the move to Somerset possible and despite a promising start to his first season, things didn’t go to plan.

“Terry (Skiverton) used to come up to Stoke City quite often, so I recognised him, I went and met him, had a good chat about everything and was really excited about joining.”

“We got off to a good start that season and then things started to change quite quickly”

That good start Dicko refers to included wins over Notts County, Stevenage, Grimsby and Newport County – a game in which he scored – and an EFL Cup Tie with Aston Villa.

But, the results soon turned against the Glovers and the cracks began to show.

“I didnt have the greatest relationship with Darren Way, I’ll be perfectly honest, we didn’t see eye to eye, we didn’t get on… but that’s probably a different story” (One you’re more than welcome to tell us here at the Gloverscast, Dicko… Just Saying)

“A lot of things happened in that first year where I questioned a lot about football and what I wanted to do… it got to that point”

It was clear to all Glovers fans at the time that at the end of the season, Dickinson’s time at Yeovil was going to come to an end, exiled away from the club and training with his former employers Port Vale to keep fit.

But, when Way and eventually Neale Marmon had come and gone Dicko’s Glovers career was brought back on track thanks to Darren Sarll.

“I had a massive chat with the Gaffer, Darren Sarrl, we had a proper, deep chat about what he wanted and i was like ‘come on then, lets have a go, lets see’ “

There was still work to be done to reintergrate Carl back into a side who had just dropped out of the Football League, had lost the vast majority of the squad and was going through a change in management, ownership and culture.

“The more we trained and spoke to the Gaffer more and more, he seemed to reignite something within me”

“He was able to squad together that was so close to achieveing something, a fantastic group – loved working under him”

That first season in the National League ended up being curtailed early due to the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic, but a table was settled on points per game and the Glovers were in the Play Offs, losing to Barnet in one of the most one sided games Yeovil have ever dominated, but lost.

Dickinson was quick to draw comparisons with some of his other former bosses, saying how Sarll and he were honest with one another, could argue, disagree, but always come back around to the same wavelength and get on with the job – something which Dicko says he respects.

Furthermore, it was noted how the Sarrl era had started to bring supporters back to the club after many had fallen out of love with the style of football and lack of success on the pitch.

“He managed to get a real togetherness back with the fans, I think there was a real disconnect with the fans, players and everything at club just looked like it was defeated”

“He’d probably say the same, but it was one of his biggest achievements, getting that togetherness back and having that bond between fans again.”

Attention turned to the crop of Yeovil players that Carl and a number of other experienced players have left behind, something which the left back says should excite Yeovil fans.

“There’s some really good lads, even this year, even though we didn’t do as well as we should have done, there’s some good lads there, some good young lads who could kick on and have very good careers”

“Looking at the signings they’re making now, I think they’ll be alright again – he’s made some good signings”

Dicko singled out a couple of the players he’s looking forward to seeing at Yeovil; “(Jordan) Barnett who was at Notts County, had a great game against us at their place, Mark Little who will be a massive signing… I really do wish them all the best, I’ve got some really fond memories of the last two years”

There was plenty of praise for the likes of Luke Wilkinson and Josh Staunton too.

Of course, the final words were left to the Glovers faithful,

“The fans were always fantastic with me, they know what happened the first year, they get it, but they know deep down, every time I went out on that pitch, I wore the shirt with pride, I always wanted to give them all the best, I just want to wish them – the fans, the gaffer, the lads – I do thoroughly wish them all the best, they deserve to be in and around the top of the table.”

“Im excited to watch Yeovil this season and see how they do”

You can follow the Grassroots Guy onTwitterand Instgram

Harry has also spoken to Matty Worthington on his podcast – you can see the links to that podcast HERE

 

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Some time ago, we here at the Gloverscast decided we’d test out some questionable Latvian (and a little Slovienian) to try and track down one of the 2013 Wembley heroes – Vitalijs Maksimenko – and we did! (you can read our interview with him… HERE)

This week, we dusted off the Google Translate, set it to Hungarian and tried to find another former Yeovil star – Zoltan Stieber – and wouldn’t you know, it worked!

The former Aston Villa youngster joined Yeovil Town on loan in November 2007 and only actually spent a few months with the Glovers.

But, he has gone on to have an incredible career, which includes playing at UEFA Euro 2016 for his country and playing in the top flight of both Germany and the USA.

We sent some questions to Zoltan and he remembers his time at Yeovil fondly.

“I signed for Villa I think in 2007. I used to train with the first team at Villa regularly and it was the next step in my career to go on loan, so i was really exited to go on loan to Yeovil Town and get some first Team Football! “

It would be a fair assumption that a young Hungarian plying his trade on the verge of the Aston Villa first team may not have heard of a small Somerset club who were in League One, but that wasn’t the case.

“I heard about the club, because i was following the lower leagues as well, but didn’t know much to be honest!”

It was Russell Slade who signed Stieber, initially on a short term loan, but after impressing in his first few games, the deal was extended.

“It was a great experience to work with him, he was my first Coach in first team football so of course I had to adapt, but I learned a lot from him and I am thankful for him that he gave me the chance to get my first games in first team football it helped me a lot for my career”
A lot has been made about how Yeovil have helped young players move through their careers and go on to better things, something which Stieber agrees with – his career in adult football essentially began at Huish Park
“All the players were great with me, they helped me directly and made it easy for me to feel home for my time at Yeovil, this was the biggest step coming out of youth team football, it helped me a lot”
Stieber played 15 times in the Green and White, scoring just once, a winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Brighton in late December of 2007, a moment that Stieber will remember for a while; “It was a great feeling to score the first time in English Football”
Sadly, the Hungarian doesn’t keep in touch with any of his form Yeovil team mates any more, but he did say he keeps an eye out for the results occasionally.
He did want to send his gratitude to the Glovers faithful though
“Thanks for the support, it was a great experience to play in front of 8-9000 fans, the game days were really a dream came true feeling”
Zoltan Stieber may have made more goals than he scored at Yeovil, but you could tell there was quality waiting to burst out – time spent with Wayne Rooney at DC United and scoring at major international tournaments suggests it did find it’s way through!
A huge “köszönöm” (thanks) to Zoltan for asking my questions… where shall Google Translate take us next? Who knows!