Ben Barrett (Page 2)

Changes galore for the Glovers, for the visit of Rochdale.

As ever, we take formations with a pinch of salt, but Tahvon Campbell comes in to lead the line with Troy Perrett and James Daly also getting a go from the start. Finn Cousin-Dawson drops into the back line in place of the suspended Kyle Ferguson.

Declan Skura is on the bench and could make his debut, there’s no place in the squad for Ryan Jones or Josh Tobin.

Yeovil Town have announced the loan signing of Wycombe defender Declan Skura.

Skura is a former Chelsea youth player who joins for the rest of the season on loan from Wycombe, where he’s made a handful of appearances, mostly in the EFL Trophy and League Cup.

He spent time on loan with Ebbsfleet in the 2023/24 season.

Welcome to Somerset, Declan!

For the first time since NOVEMBER, Yeovil Town have a home, league 3pm kick off on a Saturday… it just so happens to be the league leaders  Rochdale who come to town.

Our match official for the game is Mr Niall Smith, a referee we’ve already seen this season, in the 3-0 home defeat to Boreham Wood.

On that day, Luke McCormick was the only Glover to see yellow, in the dying minutes.

We also saw him in the 2-1 defeat to Aldershot (away) last season and a 1-0 away win at Taunton in the National League South.

The only two times he’s ever reffed a Rochdale game, they were both draws.

Overall this season, he’s been in the middle 17 times, with plenty of experience in the Premier League 2 division for top sides’ U21s – those 17 games have produced 67 yellow cards (avg 3.9 per game) four reds and seven penalties.

Bailey Walker and James Hooper are his assistants with Lewis B. Smith in the dugouts.

Yeovil Town FC (First Team) v Rochdale AFC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Smith, Niall
Assistant Referee: Walker, Bailey
Assistant Referee: Hooper, James
Fourth Official: Smith, Lewis B.

Yeovil manager Billy Rowley has said he is pleased with the squad for ‘rolling their sleeves’ up in the second half against Boreham Wood.

In a topsy turvy game, the Glovers were ahead, behind, level before having a point snatched away at the end and the manager has told BBC Radio Somerset’s Josh Perkins, he was full of respect for the way his side turned up a gear in the second half.

“Yeah, I’m… you know, I feel sick for the lads really in there. Look, first half, it was men against boys. We were not good enough with the ball, we were not brave enough, we weren’t playing with enough courage to actually imprint any kind of shape oor structure on the game.

Boreham Wood were miles better than us in the first half and.it was just a personality thing really. It was just a bit more courage needed and I felt like the boys came out and… and showed more glimpses of that. We then obviously go down to ten men. [It] probably is a red card, two yellows.

Made it really difficult for us but that probably brought the lads even closer together and I felt like some of them rolled their sleeves up a little bit higher and grew a foot taller and I respect that massively.

Boreham Wood are doing a, you know, and Luke [Garrard – manager] are doing a great job here, but, we’re Yeovil Football Club and we’ve got to play with more personality and more courage at times and I only really saw that when we went down to ten men.

So that’s going to be the ask for the next, you know, 17 games or so. We want to show a level of determination and aggression to play for the badge and play for their teammates and I felt like we did that and obviously, you know, [Aaron] Henry’s put in… I’m going to say maybe the best free kick I’ve seen in the last few years or five or ten years into the top corner. Jed can’t even get a hand to it and that shows how good that free kick was. So, look, in extra time to lose to that, it’s really tough to take but we’ll move on from it.”

Rowley had a mention for goal scorer and captain Jake Wannell

​”[Jake Wannell’s goal]was against the run of play. It was. I thought Jake was excellent tonight, you know, a massive captain’s performance. I thought he was one of the lads that did play with a lot of personality even in the first half. I’m really pleased for him. Obviously, he’s not going to be happy about this [result] one bit so that is what it is.

But, we scored against the run of play. but that’s sometimes what you do when you come away from home against a team that’s in the playoffs. You have to sometimes understand that you are the underdog from a from a stylistic perspective and we approached the game kind of that way.

I felt like we pressed well in our shape and that was the game plan. But, Boreham Wood have got some really, really good players and in tight spaces and in situations where you think you’ve won the ball, suddenly you haven’t because they’re just that good to get out of it.

It was a tough game tonight, really tough. And I’ll be watching this back with a magnifying glass to try and improve and keep getting better.”

The gaffer also gave us all a little reminder that our heroes in Green and White (or red and black) are still humans, who are giving their all for the cause.

“I say this to the lads inside a lot. It’s so easy for us as pundits, managers, coaches, fans, to sit from the side and say we should be doing this, should be doing that.

You know, they’re human beings out on the pitch. They’re dealing with a lot of emotion, a lot of performance anxiety. Sometimes ref decisions go against you. There’s a lot of things that influence how you play the game and I’m going to keep saying it, we need to find a way to play with more courage and personality because, you know, it is essentially just a game of football.

And there’s only three points on the line. So you might as well play with loads of courage and personality because the worst that’s going to happen is you’re going to lose anyway.

So we’ve got to tap into that. It’s so much easier to say from the sideline. You know, the elements, the pitch was quick today, you know, it was a different environment to play in.

I felt like, I’m not going to say the ref had a bad game but it definitely felt like, you know, you were playing at the Etihad or Old Trafford tonight in terms of some of the small decisions going against you. So no excuses about that though. We got beat by the better team tonight but we’re just going to have to keep improving and keep growing.