Ben Barrett (Page 4)

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Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said his patched up side are running on empty despite picking up a last gasp winner against Truro.

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset’s Jack Killah after the game, he said;

“I guess the game was another game of two halves for us and look, credit to Truro, they came here and and were decent in the first half, really aggressive. They’ve obviously had a week off to prepare and rest. We played in Southend away on Tuesday, got in at 2 a.m. and look, when you stand here as a manager and you reel off reasons or excuses, you know, you obviously open up the firing line to get hammered but I’ve got nothing but praise for our lads.

We played poorly, we know that, but the boys are completely on empty at the minute. We’ve been travelling round the country for the past few weeks, like some other teams have, but we’ve got a really, really thin squad at the minute.

We had two boys today that were even ill in the starting lineup. They’re shattered, they’re fatigued and it was not a beautiful game today. I thought second half we were we were decent enough, credit to Daz (Simpson), like, sorted out some of the out-of-possession stuff and made the game a little bit easier for the boys to get the ball back. And we obviously smoothed out the game a little bit in the second half, we looked a little bit better with it, and credit to Will Merry who’s sent the fans home really happy. But it was a poor game, it was a poor performance, but it was a great result and something that I really want to praise the boys on in their last few weeks of work.

Goal scorer Will Merry has impressed in his time on loan from Southampton, he was the sponsors Man of the Match and grabbed the winner.

“He’s a bit of a beast, Will. He’s only just turned 20, I think. He glides with the ball, doesn’t he? He’s really exciting to watch. He takes the ball in tight spaces. I think he’s trained with us once since he’s come in. He’s another one we haven’t really had a chance to actually practice what we do and why we do it. He’s just been thrown out there and said like, “Good luck mate,” and he’s delivered in in the games that he’s played. And what a goal to announce his first game at Huish!
I heard on the announcer gave him man-of-the-match in the 80th minute and 10 minutes later he dribbles round two and and slots it home. So it was well-deserved.”

Aaron Jarvis doesn’t get the decision | Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

Both Jake Wannell and Aaron Jarvis limped off during the game, leaving the side threadbare for Monday’s trip to Eastleigh.

​”I think Jake pulled up injured after about 10 minutes, so credit for him for trying to do his best he could to stay on. Jarvis went to to close down a defender and and felt a pull in his calf and gave it as good as he could for 10 minutes and had to come off.
I want to sort of double down on what I’ve said with the boys: they are absolutely shattered. There is no room to change and rotate and rest players at all. They’re just having to go week in week out, or every few days they’re having to play 90 minutes. I’ve been one of these people before, you sit on your sofa at home and you say, “Oh well, you know, they’re footballers, they get paid to do it.” I, you know, I’d urge anyone to go and try and play 90 minutes and cover 13, 12K every three days. It is really hard. Really hard. And full credit to the boys for getting through it.

We’ll have to catch up with with Joe and the medical staff tomorrow, see how they’re feeling. I’m hoping Wannell might be slightly better than Jarvis from first take, but yeah, we’ll have to see in the next 24 hours.”

The win took the Glovers to 50 points, 12 points above the drop zone (and only seven off the top 10) with four games to go.

“I think we’re 13th. I know it’s really tight in this league, but we’re sitting in 13th position and I think it’s an enormous credit to the boys to deliver that. You know, we put a lot of pressure on them in the last few weeks to do that. We obviously play for a big club, [the] support is unbelievable. The crowd today was so good. I was a little bit, not frustrated, but I was disappointed that we couldn’t deliver a better performance for the supporters today because it was a nice day, the pitch was good, the crowd was great, singing the whole time and, we probably played not great, but again, I cannot praise the boys enough for their efforts and what they’ve put into the game.”

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Lewis Sandoe is the man in the middle for the Glovers’ Good Friday clash with Truro.

24 times he’s been the main man with the whistle this season, over a number of competitions including a handful in the EFL.

He’s dished out 87 yellow cards and just the two red cards.  He has pointed to the spot three times – including in his only game in charge of Yeovil.

He gave Ollie Pearce the chance of a free 12-yard tap in when the Glovers hosted York City in September.

Two Yeovil players went in the book that day, James Plant and Aaron Jarvis.

The only other time we’d had the pleasure was when Rhys Murphy came off the bench to rescue a point against Maidstone United in the National League South.

He has taken charge of seven Truro games over the last few seasons, three Truro wins, two draws and two defeats in that mix.

He will be assisted by Grzegorz Kornasiewicz and Darren Wilding, our man in the dugout is George Warren.

Jake Wannell, ready to flip the coin
Pic – Gary Brown

Yeovil Town FC (First Team) v Truro City FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Sandoe, Lewis
Assistant Referee: Kornasiewicz, Grzegorz
Assistant Referee: Wilding, Darren
Fourth Official: Warren, George

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Dan Ellison has been recalled from National League South sides Weston-super-Mare.

With Jake Wannell on 14 yellow cards, Finn Cousin-Dawson still serving two more games of his suspension the decision has been made to recall the defender and give him a chance to claim a place in the side.

Ellison did return to the group for the FA Trophy clash with Southport but quickly returned to the promotion chasers in the league below to continue playing regularly.

Welcome back (again) Dan!

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The Football Association has published it’s annual list of agents fees paid by all clubs.

Yeovil Town spent a little over £33,000 on agents fees for the year between 4th February 2025 and 2nd of February 2026.

This is down ever so slightly from the previous year (see below)

These reports include: the total amounts of all payments made by Clubs to Football Agents registered with The FA; and all transactions involving a Player, Coach or Club where any Football Agent registered with The FA has been involved.

The Clubs included are from the Premier League, EFL and National League System, as well as the Women’s Super League (WSL) and WSL 2. The reporting periods covered are 4 February 2025 to 2 February 2026

Specifically, these fees were paid to the agents of the following personelle; Harry Kite, Tahvon Campbell, Kyle Ferguson, Alex Whittle, James Daly, Luke McCormick, Junior Morias, Michee Efete, Dan Ellison, Billy Rowley, Luke McCormick (again, for his contract renewal), Jonathon Page, Joy Mukena and Ryan Jones.

The top spenders in the league were Carlisle United who pushed the needle to almost the tune of £190k! Forest Green Rovers and York both tipped the balance into six figures.

Both Southport and Hemel Hempstead paid just £500 each!

Yeovil Town History of Agents Fees

2nd Feb ’24 – 3rd Feb ’25 – £35,628

1st Feb ’23 – 1st Feb ’24 – £41,492
1st Feb ’22 – 31st Jan ’23 – £2,210
2nd Feb ’21 – 31st Jan ’23 – £26,834
31st Jan ’20 – 1st Feb ’21 – £1,287
1st Feb ’19 – 30th Jan ’20 – £19,387

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Yeovil Town captain Jake Wannell revealed the team were given a half-time “rocket” by manager Billy Rowley to spark a second half revival at Southend United last night.

The Glovers were second best in every department during the opening 45 minutes in Essex, but rallied after the break and pulled level when Wannell stroked home a Goal of the Season contender just after the hour.

It proved to be in vain as a winner from the hosts’ Keenan Appiah-Forson saw the visitors return to Somerset empty handed,

Wannell told BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins: “They came out the traps and their fans got onside, it’s a tough place to come, but I don’t think enough of us stood up tonight. I feel like half the team did and half the team didn’t and you can’t come to Roots’ Hall and not have everyone pulling in the right direction. Billy gave us a rocket at half-time and we got hold of the ball and I thought we dealt with it quite well.”

What a finish, Jake Wannell.

​The central defender drew the game level on 64 minutes when he bent a superb strike in to the Southend net, but the captain was not keen to revel in the glory after a defeat.

Asked about it, he said: “Yeah, it was a great finish, but it means nothing, though, does it? We’re home with no points. I would have rather swapped the goal for a point or three.”

Wannell picked up a booking for protesting against that the game’s 84th minute winner from Keenan Appiah-Forson did not cross the line, but admitted no-one could be completely sure.

He added: “From my angle, it didn’t look like it was in. Jed (Ward, the Yeovil keeper) said it wasn’t in, but we’re obviously going to say that. I would need to watch it back because everything happens so fast, so we will dissect it, and try to address it for Friday.

​“You probably need a little bit of luck as well and unfortunately that wasn’t on our side tonight. I feel like we need to deal with those moments better, especially in the first half. You could see that they were flying and I don’t feel like we dealt with it very well.”

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Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley said he was disappointed with last night’s 2-1 defeat at Southend United, but did not believe his players had disgraced themselves.

It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Glovers when they fell behind to Gus Scott-Moriss’ opener after just four minutes and found themselves second best for the entire first half against their hosts buoyed by reaching the FA Trophy final and still firmly in the play-off picture.

But, a second half revival saw the visitors level through a wonder strike from captain Jake Wannell before a hotly disputed winner from Keenan Appiah-Forson sunk them six minutes from time.

Speaking to BBC Somerset reporter Josh Perkins after the game, Rowley said: “Whenever you lose a game, you don’t walk away happy, so that’s my overall feeling. If I try and compartmentalise the halves, obviously first half we were really bad. It reminded me a little bit of Woking away a couple of weeks ago, but emotionally this place does something different to you than Woking. You’re playing in front of nearly 8,000 people—fantastic support, really, really good team—and I felt like the occasion probably got to us a little bit.

​“(At half-time) we just reminded the lads about how clear we wanted to press and get the ball back. Obviously, goals change games and Southend score, and you come out second half and you’ve got nothing to lose then. We started to find a bit more bravery and composure to get on the ball and work on what we work on every day and we looked good. We then score a great goal through Jake—I thought it was a top finish —and then the game state then changes again. They’re back to being on the front foot, high line, more pressure on the ball. They make four changes; all four players are top level, a lot more energy into their press.

​“We were just on the tilt at that point. We couldn’t really get out of our half, and you have two choices when you’re under the cosh like that: you can go ultra-brave and try to keep playing, or you can just try to get the ball over the opposition a little bit more and try to get in their half. We kind of did neither. Sometimes we went long, but we weren’t great at getting up the pitch, and then sometimes we tried to play but didn’t drop off quite enough to actually get clear of pressure and stuff.

“We found ourselves in an arena which was, you know, difficult on the night. Good team, good management team, and I thought over the course of 90 minutes they probably deserved the win, but I thought second half we were probably the better team.”

Was it over or was it not? Chris Phillips of the Southend Echo was not sure.

The winner from Appiah-Forson’s back post header sparked fury among Yeovil who argued the ball had not fully crossed the line before it was grabbed by goalkeeper Jed Ward. The decision that it had was given by the assistant rather than referee Abigail Byrne, an truthfully without goal-line technology it was impossible to call.

Rowley said: “I’ve got a friend who was actually behind the goal as a Southend supporter and I just caught up with him and he just said it probably wasn’t a goal either. I haven’t seen it and the angle we’re seeing it from, it was not great, so I can’t really comment on that. This is what almost 8,000 fans do to referees and officials—they influence them. I’m not saying that it wasn’t over the line or it was, I haven’t seen it, but I think as a referee when you’re in front of 8,000 people, it’s probably easier to side with the home team at times.”

​The defeat in Essex was the game in hand Yeovil had over many of the teams below them in the National League Premier Division and means they go in to the Easter double header still nine points clear of the relegation zone. They host bottom club Truro City on Good Friday before travelling to another side battling at the wrong end of the table in Eastleigh on Bank Holiday Monday.

Dakarai Mafico. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

Rowley said he is hopeful on loan Cardiff City midfielder Dakari Mafico, who has been missing through injury in recent weeks, would return soon.

He said: “We’ve got another three days to recover, the aren’t slowing up anytime soon. We’ve got tired legs out there, but we’re going to have to go again. I felt like the boys did that tonight, and one thing I can massively praise them all on is their effort and endeavour and aggression. I’m not standing here devastated by the performance; we’ve just lost to a team that should probably be in League Two, if we’re honest. It’s no disgrace to lose here, but we are disappointed to lose.

​“Dax will probably be back in another week or so, Troy (Perrett) will be suspended until Monday. We’re going to be pretty light against Truro, but yeah, the boys that are on the pitch look good, they still look hungry. Their tanks are running on empty at the minute, but they’re still finding ways to compete against good teams.

“We’ve been really good at Huish Park; I think I saw a record the other day, we’ve got a good win percentage at home at the moment. The fans have been brilliant there, so hopefully it’s a nice day, we can turn up, we can play our style, we can imprint on what we want to do to the game and get three points.”​

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Tuesday night takes us to Southend for another National League clash and our match official is, Abigail Byrne.

Which in itself, is not a particularly interesting thing.

But, what is interesting is the only Yeovil game she’s ever taken charge of is this exact fixture from back in November 2024. A 1-0 Yeovil Town win at Southend – the one where James Plant scored from a very deliberate shot, not a cross, honestly.

What’s even MORE interesting is that she made a few headlines that afternoon, sending off Shrimpers’ goal keeper Zak Jeacock early on in the game – a red card that would go on to be rescinded.

She then sent off Southend boss, Kevin Maher. After the game he said;

“I appealed for a penalty and the fourth official said you can’t do that because my arms were up.

“I thought the referee lost control of the game after 10 minutes and the rest of it was a consequence of that. Both benches were appealing for things, no one swore at anyone.”

For what it’s worth, four Yeovil players also saw yellow; namely Charlie Cooper, Finn Cousin-Dawson, Jake Wannell and Alex Whittle.

Oh to be a fly on the wall when the team sheets are exchanged.

Byrne is actually a very highly thought of official, she’s taken charge of many, many top level matches in the women’s game and international fixtures too, and has even refereed Soccer Aid. If she can keep up with Usain Bolt, the pace of play in this one will be no trouble.

This season, 29 games have seen 103 yellows issued, four reds and eight penalties.

She’ll be assisted by Chris Myatt and Michael Haydown with Andrew Aylott on fourth official duties… he’ll be the one copping the grief from the managers!

Referee Abigail Byrne shows Southend keeper Zach Jeacock a red card.

Southend United FC (First Team) v Yeovil Town FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Byrne, Abigail
Assistant Referee: Myatt, Christopher
Assistant Referee: Hayden, Michael
Fourth Official: Aylott, Andrew

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Gloverscast Ben was in the commentary box at the Gateshead International stadium. Here are his five key takeaways from the game.

Knackered. This has been a long ol’ season, even by Yeovil Town standards. I thought that yesterday started to show just how much energy our recent schedule had taken out of us. We definitely missed the energy and running of Daly and Sims from the off and, without question, have a few players feeling the effects of their recent exertions. There wasn’t a lack of effort, I think the legs just didn’t work like they had done prior.

Discipline and officials. Now, if you can’t control the fatigue in the body, you can control the mind. I actually thought Finn Cousin-Dawson played rather well in the middle of the park, we had a lot of defending to do at times and he certainly offers us that protection. But in a game that got feisty, and got away from the ref, he really didn’t need to make that challenge in the 93rd minute, 2-0 down away from home, with a busy schedule ahead of us.

Now, let’s caveat that by saying the ref helped absolutely no-one all game. He could (should) have sent one, maybe two, Gateshead players off for different altercations and bizarrely didn’t send off Jake Wannell for giving away the penalty. (My theory is, he probably regretted booking him for the offence of being elbowed in the head by a Gateshead player). He had no control over the game and everyone got unnecessarily frustrated. Gateshead played that situation better than us.

Finn Cousin-Dawson. Picture courtesy of Frank Reid.

The curious case of Millar Matthews-Lewis. I can’t figure this one out, he gets his start after a couple of cameos and unused sub appearances and it was a strange 20 minutes from him. He tried to hold the ball up, but a couple of times he looked to be on a different wavelength/planet to those around him and nothing really stuck. We assumed he was nursing an injury when taken off, but we were told it was tactical after the game.

Jarvis came on to get his shirt ripped off on every occasion and did offer far more. But we’re going to need our entire squad for the next six games, is he destined to be filed alongside Jahmari Clarke and Reo Griffiths as strikers that happened, but we dont quite know why..? Maybe.

More the Merry-er. Yes. I tell you who isn’t looking knackered, Will Merry. I know it’s the smallest of sample sizes, but this lad has something. Simple, direct, he almost floats with the ball at his feet. He has an eye for a run too and is happy to drift off a defender and find a position. Let’s get this lad on the pitch a lot over the next six games and see what he’s about. In the name of planning for next season, these might be the sort of raw youngsters that come in to the group.

How to motivate a side on the beach? As we edge closer to the end of the season, the maths will start getting worked out and we’ll soon discover our spot somewhere in the lower-middle pack. But, over 100 people went to Gateshead yesterday, plenty will be at Southend and so on and so forth. They deserve that effort to be matched, if not bettered.

It’ll be interesting to see how we show up for this run in with the ever-decreasing jeopardy this season holds. Those fans still need something to cheer and something to get behind and remember, there’s season tickets and new kits and sponsor board to sell for next season.