Ben Barrett (Page 54)

A truly terrible night under the Huish Park lights for the Glovers. Gloverscast Ben was bemoaning his DAZN Season Ticket purchase throughout, here are his Five Conclusions.

That was abysmal. On Saturday, I said that the 1-0 defeat to Halifax, whilst obviously disappointing, was at least a significantly more spirited outing than the one we saw against Barnet. We looked to show intent, we had shots, crosses, we thought forward-thinking thoughts, for virtually the same team to go out 72 hours later and produce, a flat, disjointed, higgledy-piggledy, defeated, rudderless performance against relegation cannon fodder was nothing short of an abomination.

There were some little moments, mainly from Sonny Blu Lo Everton, who was the best of a chaotic bunch, but three terrible goals to concede rubbed salt into the wounds of a pretty terrible 10 days or so. I make it 340 minutes of football since Frank Nouble scored the second against Southend. 

Speaking of Frank…

We need to talk about Frank. As it seems to do a lot these days, the rumour mill seemed to creek into gear on Tuesday morning with murmuring reaching Gloverscast HQ that Frank Nouble was off. Gateshead we were told, another club’s name came up also. To have it confirmed by Mark Cooper both before and after the game that this was true was an almighty slap in the face.

His run of three goals in three games seems like an age ago and with recent comments about ‘Men vs Boys’, ‘Lack of Leadership’, ‘Immature’ performances, to have not just an on-field leader, but an off-field one too having his head turned by another club is producing all kinds of alarm bells for me. There’s no doubt it’s obviously affected the side since Halifax, the performance was that of a group that didn’t have a leader in the changing room. The club captains this season were either in Oldham, somewhere near Gateshead, the gym doing weights or in the stands. 

Mark Cooper says fans don’t care about transfers, sorry, but we do. We care about what’s leading our leaders to lead their families away from Huish Park.

We signed a player. Whilst the chat was about a player who was potentially on his way out, we shouldn’t overlook that we did sign a player. Jahmari Clarke, who we did see for about an hour last season if you recall – did that lovely thing against Torquay, and then disappeared. In a 45-minute cameo, he was called ‘lazy’ at least twice by the commentary team, got booked for just steamrolling through a player well after the ball had gone and blazed his only sniff of goal over the Thatchers Stand. If Jahmari Clarke on a non-contract deal is the answer, we’re asking the wrong questions.

 

I don’t harbour any ill-will towards the bloke, I’m sure he’s a nice lad and of course, we wish him well for the rest of the season, and this isn’t really a conclusion that’s specific to him, it could have been anyone that joined the group. It’s another new face who needs weeks to get back to anything close to full fitness is a fair old downgrade from where we were at the start of the season, or the heady heights of Murphy, Hyde, Fisher and co. 

 

 

2,183. The biggest red flag of the entire week was the number that flashed up on the screen. That’s the best part of 500 fewer than saw the Tamworth game a month ago – also on a midweek evening. It’s the lowest for a league game since Altrincham came to town on 28th February 2023. Sure, cost of living isn’t easy, it’s a school night, there was Champions League on the TV, heck even this game was being streamed on DAZN but that number should echo through the halls of Huish Park. This season’s home form would have us fourth from bottom, (we’re 8th in the away table), that is the simple reason people aren’t coming to watch.

It’s wasn’t to be on the sandy beaches of West Yorkshire for the Glovers, a 1-0 defeat to FC Halifax Town, here are Gloverscast Ben‘s big five takeaways from the game from the BBC Radio Somerset vantage point at The Shay.

It wasn’t as bad as Tuesday. I appreciate we’re starting with a fairly low bar here, but you’re only as good as your last game, and our last game was blummin’ rubbish! There’s no doubt that going 1-0 down gave all in green-and-white a dread of ‘here we go again’, but actually, there was a decent response to going a goal down. Plenty of players showed considerably more effort, gusto and fight than they did on Tuesday night and that was more than needed after a poor showing at Barnet. It wasn’t enough to secure even so much as a point – even if you could argue we may have deserved one – but it was far more pleasing on the eye.

We didn’t take our chances. Playing away at any top six side, pretty much regardless of form or fortune, is tough. That’s to be expected, but when opportunities to get that first goal, or equaliser come your way, you simply have to take them. Ryan McLean blazed a shot over when it looks easier to find the target, Brett McGavin hit the bar, Twamley, McGuckin, McGurk and even Lavinier all had shots that were either blocked or never really troubled Sam Johnson in the Halifax goal because of how wayward they were. I was delighted that we got into those positions, but without Aaron Jarvis in the side, we do look a little toothless in attack. As the season peters out I hope we do still have that desire to find a bit of cutting edge and really put a team to the sword sooner rather than later.

The newbies did alright. It’s easy to forget that Ryan McLean, Frankie Terry and Marcel Lavinier have all played approximately four and half seconds of football between them in the last couple of months and for them all to slot into a starting line up with minimal fuss says a lot about them as players and also one or two of the other lads on the team. Finn Cousun-Dawson spent noticeable amounts of time with Terry pre-match, warming up away from the group and really talking his new central partner through the ideas and plans. For the most part, I thought they worked well together. Lavinier was with the Forest Green Rovers’ side preparing for their game with York City 48 hours before he made his debut for the Glovers, but he made a few nice runs, wasn’t afraid to fling an early cross in and McLean did his best to stretch the pitch and get into good areas.  Small steps, but positive ones for all three.

The subs didn’t really affect the game. Maybe that’s a touch harsh on McGuckin who did get into some good areas down the right hand side, but he’s not a winger really, I want him on the end of those moments, not trying to create them, but it was good to see him back. But Sean McGurk’s cameo was all too fleeting and I wonder if it would’ve been better to leave Sonny on, he was making some lovely moves and really getting into good areas. I can’t make my mind up on Sims, I just don’t know what I’m seeing there, Bernard wasn’t able to connect the dots on the (ever changing) right hand side like Lavinier did and Twamley did a couple of nice bits of skill, one Marseille Turn in particular had me purring, but it was tough for him to get into good areas and be a real menace, he had one shot of note, which flew high over the bar.

On a pitch that sapped every ounce of energy from those who started, it was vital that players came on the make a difference. I felt that Owen Bray, Josh Emmanuel and Jamie Cooke in particular did just that for the home side, particularly on the break, ours just couldn’t replicate that.

Sort that pitch out. Seriously, it’s got worse since I last went there. It is, without question the worst pitch in the league – including the fake ones. I know it’s the same for both sides, blah blah blah, but it’s popped another hamstring, it’s not conducive to playing any kind of proper football, it’s honestly spoiled the spectacle. With a better pitch, that game would have had three goals more, certainly for both sides, so it’s not an excuse as to why Yeovil lost. But if the home side can’t trust a bobble or a back pass, it just becomes a rugby match. It’s practically unplayable, it’s almost certainly unsafe and every time I go there it makes me that little bit more wound up. If they get into the EFL through the play-offs, they’ll have to do something about it, but because it’s “just” the National League, it doesn’t matter. It’s a disgrace.