David Coates (Page 183)

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Another trip to the seaside is confirmed for Yeovil Town next season following the relegation of Southend United to the National League.

The Shrimpers’ fate was sealed despite winning 2-1 at Barrow today because they needed either Colchester United or Scunthorpe United to lose to stand a chance of staying up.

Our last visit to Roots Hall came at the start of our season in the Championship when a Kevin Dawson strike was the difference in Capital One Cup tie.

Before that you have to go back to April 2010 when a goalless draw in Essex in League One, with the fixture at Huish Park settled by a single Dean Bowditch strike in November 2009.

Those with slightly longer memories will recall Southend being where a late Phil Jevons’ strike all but clinched promotion from League Two with a 1-0 win back in 2005.

Last weekend, Grimsby Town were confirmed as the other side to drop out of the League – that will be a somewhat chillier stroll down the prom, I bet.

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A clean sheet, two nicely-taken goals and a second half to forget is not a bad summary of Yeovil Town’s first trip to Wealdstone in many supporters’ memories.

But, given the background to the past few weeks at Huish Park with the passing of captain Lee Collins, many would agree that a fourth win from the last six is a great result for Darren Sarll’s men.

It moved the Glovers up to the top of the bottom half in 13th place in the National League and this is how it played out…..

FIRST HALF

The Glovers’ starting XI was unchanged from the 3-0 home win over Solihull Moors on Tuesday night, with the only changed coming on the bench where Alex Bradley returned from injury to replace Rhys Murphy, and young keeper Max Evans took the place of Matt Worthington.

It did not take long to figure out why Wealdstone have conceded six and seven in their previous two home games with Billy Sass-Davies heading just wide before Joe Quigley had good chance blocked.

In the 14th minute, a Charlie Lee cross found Chris Dagnall who laid it back to Tom KNOWLES who hammered home a crisp strike to open the scoring.

Quigley had a good chance six minutes later when a quick throw from Knowles found him in the box, he showed a good first touch but put the ball wide with his second.

The in-form striker made amends on 23 minutes when, after a number of shots rained in from the Glovers, the ball landed to QUIGLEY in the box and he coolly slotted in his fourth in two games.

One disappointing thing in the first half was a yellow card for Lee who talked himself in to the book after ex-Glovers’ loanee Connor Smith shoved Tom Knowles in the back.

We’ve spoken on the podcast about the frustration of players getting booked for dissent, and it could have cost Lee shortly after when he put in a feisty tackle. That said, Smith proved himself to be a bit of a plum – to put it politely.

One peculiar thing which those tuning in to the live stream will have noticed, was the number of people who appeared to be inside the ground; perhaps it was the camera angle but it certainly seemed busy on the near side.

When the half-time whistle blew, the biggest disappointment was that it was only 2-0 to the Glovers.

Half time: Wealdstone 0 Yeovil Town 2

SECOND HALF

The start of the second half belonged to Wealdstone’s teenage keeper Jake Askew who pulled off two great saves to deny Sass-Davies‘ header and Lee‘s shot from successive Dickinson corners.

Just before those saves, there were three penalty appeals – two for Yeovil and one for the Wealdstone – none of which given surprisingly considering the referee was not afraid to get his cards out with four bookings apiece.

Quigley had a shot cleared off the line shortly after but, despite their chances, there was not a huge amount of quality on show with the hosts seemingly bringing Yeovil down to their level.

Wealdstone’s finishing proved to be as poor as their defending with Charlie Hughes putting a free header over – albeit the linesman’s flag was up, not that he knew that.

That said, it was the hosts who had the better of possession but could not punish some shaky defending from Yeovil.

Sarll responded by bringing on Emmanuel Sonupe and Reuben Reid to try and push on for more goals in the closing stages.

Sonupe had a great run forward, only to run in to a blind alley, and Neufville had a moment of indecisiveness in the box which saw another opportunity peter out.

Possibly the highlight of the second half was seeing Alex Bradley come on for his first appearance since the middle of March, and in true Yeovil Town versatile fashion the full-back slotted in to midfield.

That said, a second successive clean sheet, a couple of decent goals, a hard-fought second half if lacking in quality will keep us all happy.

Full time: Wealdstone 0 Yeovil Town 2 (Knowles, Quigley)

WEALDSTONE: Askew, Phillips, Olowu, Okimo (c), Wishart, Charles, Smith, Dyer, Green, Mendy, Lewis.
Subs not used: Shelvey, Hughes, Parish, Lo-Everton, Gondoh.
Bookings: Smith, Charles, Phillips, Wishart.

YEOVIL TOWN: A. Smith, Dickinson (c), Kelly, Sass-Davies, Skendi, J.Smith, Lee, Knowles, Neufville, Quigley, Dagnall.
Subs not used: Evans, Sonupe, Hunt, Bradley, Reid.
Bookings: Lee, Quigley, Skendi, Kelly.

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It’s fair to say since Yeovil Town and Wealdstone played out a 2-2 draw in Huish Park’s first competitive match of the season, things have not exactly gone as expected for either side.

For our hosts on Saturday, a bright start saw them win five of their first nine fixtures following promotion from National League South last summer, only to quickly peter out.

After a 1-0 win at Halifax Town in early November, they lost eight of their next 13 matches in all competitions and lost boss Dean Brennan, who guided them to promotion, in acrimonious circumstances.

He left under a cloud accusing chairman Rory Fitzgerald of making his position “untenable” after failing to get a deal he said he was promised when he turned down a chance to leave for an unnamed “very ambitious club.”

Stuart Maynard, who was Brennan’s assistant last season,  took permanent charge and, to add injury to insult, shortly after the club chose to furlough players in a bid to stay solvent.

The result has been a dismal second half of the season which leaves them languishing third from bottom of the table.

They have suffered four consecutive defeats, including a 7-2 defeat against Hartlepool and a 6-0 hammering by Maidenhead United in their last two home games.

FROM THE MANAGER

Speaking after a 2-0 loss at Aldershot Town last weekend, manager Stuart Maynard described his players as “dead on their feet” and said the squad was “down to bare bones”.

He added: “There’s nothing we can do, it’s not that the players are giving up or ‘throwing the towel in’ at all, they are giving everything for the club and don’t have any more left.

“You look at other clubs and they can change it, we don’t have that luxury so we have to keep going with the lads, we will keep working hard as a group.

“We will keep going collectively and we will give our all for the football club from now until the end of the season.”

TEAM NEWS

Wealdstone could see the return of defender Riley Harbottle and goalkeeper George Shelvey, both on loan from Championship side Nottingham Forest, who have both missed the last two games through injury.

Craig Fasanmade, who is on loan from National League South side Hungerford Town, is also likely to return o after completing his three-match suspension.

However defenders Nikola Tavares, George Langston and Josh Meekings are all out and forward Dennon Lewis picked up a knock in Saturday’s defeat to Aldershot which makes him a doubt.