Ben Barrett (Page 79)

Yeovil Town’s Alex Fisher has said he is ‘gutted’ his side couldn’t force a late equaliser against Worthing on Saturday.

The Glovers missed a second half penalty and had a goal chalked off for offside in the final stages, with other results as they were, a draw would have been enough to secure the title.

There were a number of controversial moments in the game, not least the disallowed goal from Rhys Murphy and Fisher admits it’s tough to take.

“I imagine there is a feeling of injustice, I’ve not seen Murph’s goal back, but from my angle it looked onside, if it is onside, it’s a very important decision to make, it’ll be tough to take, but we’ve got four games left with everything to play for… we’ve got a fantastic opportunity on Thursday to seal the deal”

“[We need] one point in four games, but you don’t want to just limp over the line though, we’d like to take maximum points from every game we’ve got, [there’s] no complacency in the team, we look to go into the last four and try and everything out of them that we can”

After Fisher himself had halved the deficit to 2-1, the Glovers had plenty of the ball in attacking areas, but couldn’t force the second goal before a late sucker punch from Worthing wrapped up the game.

“I think we had the ball in some dangerous areas, you’ve got to play against a team that are good under pressure, good on the ball and respect them at the same time, they know how to see a game out… there was plenty of time left and I am gutted, to be honest, that we couldn’t get the second”

We’ve got a fantastic opportunity on Thursday to seal the deal

“I wouldn’t say there was a frustration, just a desire to get a result that the turnout today deserved, and we pretty much got it, if it wasn’t for the last five minutes, so I wouldn’t say frustration, just a solid desire to entertain the fans.”

The front man also said that he would back Murphy to score from the spot in high pressure situations after the Bagsman saw his spot kick saved just a few minutes into the second half.

“Murph is a really composed individual, I have a lot of confidence in him that he would do it, to the best of his ability, I think it’s a good save, I think it’s hitting the side netting, I’ve got no qualms with the person, under the pressure and circumstances taking that responsibility on themselves. It would have been fantastic if it goes in, but we’ve still got 40 minutes-plus to get ourselves into the game, I think it shows real character of the individual that he steps up and took it”

Now the squad look ahead to Truro (in Gloucester) on Thursday, where the maths are simple. One point wins the League.

“Forgive me for sounding slightly negative, but it’s just the fact that it was such an incredible end to a game – or could have been – those emotions are quite high in my system at the moment, but yes, one point in four games, you’d like to think we will clinch this title, in the next week or two, but we’re taking nothing for granted, we’ll go out on Thursday with a team, that we hope will take maximum points”

Alex Fisher’s goal
Video Credit: Debs Curtis

Yeovil Town Manager Mark Cooper has been charged with misconduct by the FA for an incident against Hemel Hempstead in January.

In the latest set of FA Charges for the month of March, it details;

INCIDENT OF MISCONDUCT – STANDARD CASE

Mark Cooper, Manager, Yeovil Town FC

 

Yeovil Town FC v Hemel Hempstead Town FC

National League South

20 January 2024

 

Breach of FA Rule E3.1 – It is alleged that following the completion of the fixture, in or around the match officials changing room area, he used abusive and/or insulting language in confronting a Match Official.

 

Mr. Cooper admits the Charge, submits SP1 [Standard Penalty 1] is too excessive, electing a Paper Hearing.

Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper said that common sense had prevailed following the early abandonment of the game on Bank Holiday Monday.

The Glovers were trailing 1-0 to W*ymouth when the game was stopped shortly before the 75th minute due to a medical incident in the crowd – after the game the Gaffer spoke to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins and wished the supporter well.

“The most important thing is that the lady gets better, but we’re still no nearer to leaving, it could be two hours before the game restarts, I think after you’ve played 70 minutes you can’t expect athletes to get warmed up and go again, it’s just best that we wash our hands and move on to the next one”

“Our paramedic, Tony was with her and she was in a bad way and they couldn’t do what they needed to do properly so they had to do some real invasive treatment on her, I think, and there’s just no guarantee of when the game could have taken place.”

The Glovers had taken themselves back into the changing rooms during the stoppage and discussions continued with the severity of the incident making it difficult to pin point a potential restart, with implications for players having to get going again.

“You’ve got to bare in mind that we’ve got Rhys Murphy back on the pitch, with a big calf injury, we’ve got two or three that are struggling with tight hamstrings, you ask them to go and play after 70 minutes – you’re in danger of those injuries reoccurring. 

At one point there was going to be a ten minute stoppage, then it went to 25, then it went to 40 and I think once you get to that time scale… listen the W*ymouth side will say we didn’t want to play and we’re losing, and I get that, I understand that, but listen, common sense has to prevail and I think the right thing was done.

The W*ymouth players are winning against the top team and having a right go at it, and they see it as we’ve backed out, but we’ve got bigger fish that we have to try and fry, in terms of, we’ve got a league to win, they’re safe, it doesn’t matter if one of them pulls a hamstring, it does to us.”

“Common sense has to prevail and I think the right thing was done”

As for the football itself, Yeovil were 1-0 down at the point of abandonment, but were trying to get back into the game. 

“Listen, Jamari Clarke was ruled out this morning, Olly Thomas’ performance when he came on on Saturday, we thought that it was the right decision to start him, looking back, it looks as though it wasn’t, we tried to react, Jordan Stevens felt his hamstring tighten up, so he had to come off. We tried to put lots of forward players on the pitch, Alex Fisher was just about to come on, which would have meant half the team were forwards.

We were trying everything to get back momentum, I thought we had a head of steam up when the game was abandoned, I was confident we would score, there was still 24 minutes to go in total.”

It likely means that Yeovil will have to make the trip back to W*ymouth before the end of the season.

“It’s a bit surreal, the atmosphere was incredible, unbelievable support from both sets of fans, Yeovil fans today, we went on the sea front, in the coach just to see the fans, it was incredible.”

Mark Cooper has told BBC Somserset’s Sheridan Robins that Jahmari Clarke has a strain which keeps him out of the match day squad against W*ymouth.

Speaking pre-match the Gaffer said; 

“Jahmari (Clarke) doesn’t feel fit enough to play, he’s got a strain in his left quad muscle, so yeh, he’s not fit enough to start. 
Olly Thomas comes in, Olly was outstanding when he came on on Saturday [sic – Friday] , if we get him fired up and at it today he can be a real handful.

We have had to be careful with him [Olly Thomas] but he did great, if we can replicate that for a bit longer, he was great on Friday.

When he does grow up, he’s going to be 6 foot 4, I said to him that he should play in the Premier League with his physical attributes and your ability, but he’s got to put that into practice.

This is where he’ll learn, he’ll look back on this in years to come and think this did me really good, while he’s here we can get good performances out of him and we can benefit from it.”

There are 2,500 plus Glovers fans by the seaside today, and Cooper made sure the squad soaked up the pre match atmosphere.

“I made the coach driver drive along the sea front to see the amount of green and white and flares and everything and the support that they are getting today.

We have to do what we do, dominate large parts of the game with the ball, be brave, we can’t worry about the occasion.”