Ben Barrett (Page 8)

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Summer has come and passed

The innocent can never last

Wake me up when September ends

That’s right, it’s the Green Day Episode, we are looking at how things are going at Huish Park and where they could lead us, so we’ve pulled in the big guns.

Ben and Dave are joined by former Glovers Captain, Defender, Midfielder and Manager Josh Staunton to talk about the season so far, the Luke McCormick situation and Worthing and Boston matches too.

There’s three voice notes and 20+ GCQs… no wonder this one topped 90 minutes!

Enjoy!

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Yeovil Town have been drawn at home against Wells City in the second round of the Francis Hillier Somerset Premier Cup

The draw took place on Thursday night and the Glovers were in there thanks to a 7-0 win over Radstock.

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Rob Massey-Ellis will be the man who takes charge of the Glovers’ home game this Saturday against Boston United.

He’s certainly one of the busier officials, this is already his 9th match as the senior official, of the previous eight, only one has come in the National League, a 3-0 Sutton United win over Woking.

In eight games, he’s dished out 31 yellows, three reds and two penalties – both of which came in the same Premier League 2 game.

Incredibly, his Transfermarkt records have this as the 313th match of his refereeing career.

Seven times he’s refereed Yeovil games – the Glovers have won NONE of those.

But, we’ve only lost one! Yes, we’ve drawn six of the seven games looked after by Mr Massey-Ellis.

Most recently, he took charge of the 0-0 draw with Halifax at the back end of last season, Harvey Greenslade saw yellow that day.

He will be assisted by Samuel Fudge and Mark Senior with Steven Swan on fourth official duties.

Referee, Rob Massey-Ellis,
Pre Match Photoshoot with Referee Rob Massey-Ellis

Yeovil Town FC (First Team) v Boston United FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Massey-Ellis, Robert
Assistant Referee: Fudge, Samuel
Assistant Referee: Senior, Mark
Fourth Official: Swan, Steven

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Yeovil Town’s youngsters have fallen at the first hurdle in the FA Youth Cup.

Defeat to Street’s Under 18s ends the FA adventure at the second qualifying round.

Yeovil were 4-1 down at half time, and it didn’t get much better after the break.

The Full Time score was 8-1 to the Street U18s – details of the Yeovil scorer has not been identified at time of writing.

Roy O’Brien’s Under 19s get their league season underway against Weston-super-Mare on October 7th.

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Worthing make the trip across from the South Coast for a Tuesday night under the lights and so does the son of a familiar face at Huish Park.

The referee for the game is Sunny Gill Singh, son of Jarnail Singh.

For those who may not know the context, Jarnail Singh was given a standing ovation on his final game after bowing out of his career at Huish Park when hanging up his whistle in 2010. Jarnail refereed the Glovers nine times in the EFL – and now has two sons, Bhupsy and Sunny who are both qualified officials.

Back to Sunny, we haven’t had the pleasure of his company for a few years now, it was back in 2021, when he took charge of the Glovers 2-1 home defeat to Wrexham. Darren Sarll called his performance “1 out of 100” after he failed to stop the game for a head injury, in the build up to the equalising goal.

He also took charge of a 3-0 away win against W*ymouth behind closed doors during the Covid season – sending off Jake McCarthy for the seagull botherers.

Gill Singh hasn’t taken charge of that many National League games in recent seasons, he’s been far higher up the pecking order with EFL Play-off games, England U20s fixtures and even Palace vs Luton in the Premier League in 2024 all on his CV.

This season, he’s looked after six games, booking 21 players, sending one off and awarding just the one penalty to Swindon Town.

He’ll be assisted by Bailey Walker and Grzegorz Kornasiewicz, with Richard J. Morris on the dug outs.

Welcome back to Huish Park, Sunny, say hello to your dad for us!

Yeovil Town FC (First Team) v Worthing FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Singh Gill, Sunny
Assistant Referee: Walker, Bailey
Assistant Referee: Kornasiewicz, Grzegorz
Fourth Official: Morris, Richard J.

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It is back-to-back wins for Yeovil Town after a hard-fought win at Kidderminster Harriers yesterday and, whisper it quitely, but as September comes to an end, we’re inside the play-off places at the top of the National League Premier Division table.

Abby Carter was among the almost 500 Glovers fans at Aggborough and here are her conclusions on the performance.

It’s nice to add a new away day

21 years since we’ve been to Kidderminster and Aggborough is a very welcome addition back to the National League, that felt like proper away day with a great atmosphere in the away end. We travelled well with 481 Glovers’ fans in attendance, and and for those of you wondering if the tea bar is still good after all these years – you will have to ask Dave and Foxy!

We still have one game left in September, but I’m calling the Green Day Rule early

Two months of football and we’ve barely left the play-off places in the National League Premier Division table and even had ten minutes at the top of the league earlier this month. With performances like these, it’s easy to forget this is a two-year project.

You will struggle to see a team playing more attractive football than us in the National League this season, or many more exciting players to watch than Ryan Jones.

Yet again he was a cut above in the first half, he ran the show at Aldershot a few weeks ago and he was in great form at Kiddy yesterday, but after the last week we have to remember – don’t fall in love with footballers.

Brett McGavin and Hayden Muller celebrate with goal-scorer Johl Powell. Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography.

This team is special.

It’s hard not to feel excited about this season and this team and yesterday was yet another complete team performance. The football is a joy to watch and they are playing like a team that have been together for years, even though the majority were not together last season.

In previous seasons we’ve struggled for leaders and what’s clear is Billy and Darren are building a team of them. This side is full of character and accountability, togetherness, communication, friendship and fight. The relationship between fans and players feels as strong as I can remember and wounds of seasons past are healing.

Johl ‘Goal’ Powell

Ryan Jones, Zain Westbrooke and Brett McGavin all could have seen their name on the scoresheet yesterday (not score board because Kiddy don’t have one), but the job fell to super sub Johl Powell who made it look easy. If this is the sort of player you sign in nightclubs Billy and Jamie, you best get yourselves on a few more nights out because that finish was absolutely fearless.

Johl Powell slots home at Kidderminster.  Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography

We probably need a bit more upfront

Whatever has happened between the manager and Luke McCormick, only they will know the truth, but one thing is clear, with our top-scorer rumoured to be on the transfer list, we are going to need to replace those goals.

Impact subs are important and the response since the home defeat to AFC Fylde has been everything we could have asked for – the midfield is magic, Jos Barker has been outstanding in goal, the defence feel like they’ve found themselves and now we need our strikers to join the party

After all defences might win leagues, but goals are going to be needed for the play-offs and now we’re here, it would be really nice to stay there.

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Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley praised his side’s ability to win in a physical battle after seeing them inflict the first home defeat of a the season on Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday.

The Glovers were made to work for their three points which came courtesy of a cool finish from substitute Johl Powell with 16 minutes remaining to seal a 1-0 win.

The result was the first home defeat inside 90 minutes for the hosts, who are managed by former Glovers’ midfielder Paul Wotton, since November 2025, and that fact was not lost on Rowley after the match.

Speaking to BBC Somerset reporter Ian Randall after the game, he said: “They were really tough opponent and we knew it was going to be that way. I think they’ve got the fourth highest average attendance, so I thought the crowd made for a really intense affair. It was difficult to get information onto the lads, hence why I’ve lost my voice a little bit, but it was a game of one or two moments that have that have decided the outcome. I’m so proud of the boys to win in this fashion.

“It was by no means our prettiest performance and there is a lot of stuff that that we’re going to review and try and improve on. There were moments from our goalkeeper, there’s last-ditch blocks, Johl Powell coming again on for the second week in a row with a late a late winner, so like loads of positives to take from it.”

Johl Powell fires the winner at Kidderminster. Picture courtesy of Jayden Tate/Tate’s Photography

It was another moment for Powell who came off the bench to score two late goals to put the gloss on a 4-1 home win over Solihull Moors last weekend. This time the midfielder came on with 67 minutes gone and seven minutes later he ran on to a through ball from striker Slavi Spasov, shrugged off Kidderminster defender Angus MacDonald and coolly slotted the winner.

Rowley was full of praise for the player who he brought in from his former club Walton & Hersham in the summer, saying: “I’ve seen Johl do that since he was 12-years-old. He’s so hungry for a goal and when he can sniff a moment where he could go one-on-one with the goalie, there was no way he’s going down under pressure from the defender. He is a superb finisher. He was playing two leagues below this last season (at Walton & Hersham) but he got 22 goals and that finish today shows what he can do in front of goal. There is a lot to digest from that game, but I think essentially it goes down to a good performance from Jos Barker in toal, a really resilient defensive display, and one really top finishing moment.”

There were moments in the first half where Yeovil had opportunities to find a break through, but they found themselves up against a resilient Kidderminster side who had the best home record in the division ahead of kick-off.

Rowley added: “I think Kidderminster’s game plan was probably to (frustrate us). They changed shape to a degree today and tried to press us man-for-man a little bit. I think at times we included Jos (Barker) in our build-up pretty well and when we did that we looked quite calm and composed, but when we forgot to do that, it was more difficult to build. It was a really ‘bitty’ game, there was a lot of stop-and-starts. They’re a really physical team, a difficult team to play against, but I think we dealt with it well.

“At half-time I told them that I believed in them, but asked them to do the small things that no-one dreams of doing as a kid like organising throw-ins and quick restarts. That is what top teams do to win games and if we can improve those small nuts and bolts, we can be a top side.”

The matches keep coming thick and fast with another newly-promoted side, Worthing, who were champions of the National League South last season, visiting Huish Park on Tuesday night followed by Boston United who come to Somerset next Saturday.

Worthing picked up a 2-1 home win over FC Halifax Town on Saturday and are unbeaten in their last five matches whilst Boston went down 1-0 at home to AFC Fylde.

Rowley said: “They are two teams that I think are going to be again really tough opponents. Worthing have been flying this season and have a top class manager in Adam Hinshelwood. That will be our first focus and then we’ll move on to Boston after that. But those will be two games that we’ll be ready for and start preparing for as soon as we get on the coach today.”

Luke McCormick Update Corner:

Ian Randall:  Do you think the McCormick situation will have unravelled and resolved itself by Tuesday?

​Billy Rowley: Potentially. Like I said, I’ll update everyone in due course when we have some like real transparency for you and an answer for you.

IR: For those of us who have never been in a dressing room, if there is a disagreement between a player and a manager, how does that not impact on the team?

BR: I do not know what the rumour is because that is not really what has been said. But, like I say, we will deal with this internally and we will give the supporters the clear answers that they deserve when we have them.