David Coates (Page 2)

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Yeovil Town played out a draw at home to Eastleigh in their final fixture of 2025 on a cold night at Huish Park.

The Glovers took advantage of a slip by visiting defender Temi Eweka to open the scoring when Luke McCormick fired in his seventh goal of the season just before the half-hour mark, but it was sloppy defending which gifted Eastleigh an equaliser.

Having failed to clear the danger, Morgan Williams, returning to the side after three matches out through suspension, tripped a visiting player inside the area and Aaron Blair stepped up to fire home the resulting penalty.

First half

Defender Morgan Williams returned to the starting XI having missed the past three matches through suspension and was one of four changes for the Glovers. Striker Aaron Jarvis replaced Tahvon Campbell with Josh Sims and Max Jolliffe in for Josh Tobin and Michee Efete, whilst Finn Cousin-Dawson made way for Williams.
The game came to a standstill within just five minutes when Eastleigh defender Richard Brindley went down in a seemingly innocuous incident involving James Plant in the corner in front of the away end. The experienced full-back was replaced by James Waite, who is on loan from Weston-super-Mare, following a long delay.

The first opportunity fell to the visitors after 15 minutes when Sam Pearson, who was weirdly booed by some in the home support, was released by Waite down the right side and found Aaron Blair at the near post, who put his effort in to the Thatcher’s Stand. The striker will be disappointed with the finish and Yeovil manager Billy Rowley will be as upset with the defending.

Jarvis collapsed in the centre circle four minutes later following an off-the-ball clash with visiting defender Aaron Pierre. The pair continued their contest with some verbals after the incident and got a booking each from their troubles.

Josh Lundstram put one over the bar shortly after and Yeovil are looking either a bit rattled by a feisty start to the game or a little unsure as to their roles.  But, the first attack of the game for Yeovil led to an opening goal. A slip from the visitors Temi Eweka allowed Jolliffe’s ball to release Josh Sims, who burst in to the box and fired a pass in to Luke McCORMICK who side footed it in to the net.
Yeovil Town celebrate Luke McCormick’s opener.

But with eight minutes of first half injury time put up due to the earlier stoppage time, Yeovil conceded a penalty. A lack of ownership from anyone in the Glovers’ defence saw Jed Ward sprawl underneath Blair to clear the ball as far as Saunders who went down under a clumsy tackle from Williams. Aaron BLAIR stepped up and fired it home.

You can’t say Eastleigh do not deserve it, they have not had too many opportunities but they have certainly been in the ascendency since they went behind. There were two or three opportunities to clear the ball before it got in to the danger area. That’s another sloppy goal we have conceded. Ugh.

Hopefully attacking the Thatcher’s Stand can bring some of the energy going forward which Billy Rowley spoke about ahead of the game.

Half time: Yeovil Town 1 Eastleigh 1

Second half

The visitors started the second half as they finished the first in the ascendency. On 51 minutes, a corner was not dealt with by the Yeovil defence and Lloyd Humphries was given time to do keepy uppies inside the area before hooking a shot which fortunately went in to the hands of Jed Ward. We were so passive inside the box again which is what cost us at Truro on Boxing Day.

Shortly after Luke McCormick flashed an effort just past the post after good play by Jarvis and then Plant played a great pass to set McCormick free to fire a ball in to the box but Eastleigh were there to defend. That’s more like it, moving the ball quickly and the Thatcher’s is responding. Not rocket science, is it?

On 56 minutes, Michee Efete replaced Max Jolliffe and the defender, who played as part of a back three in the defeat at Truro, took a position on the right.

There was a heart in mouth moment when a terrible pass from Josh Sims went straight to Blair who thundered forward and Yeovil were grateful to some cool defending from Efete, who did not jump in with a tackle when he could have. Sims owes Efete a spud if he’s got any left!

Just after the hour there was another great opportunity when Pierre won a header at the back post from a corner, before Yeovil had two on one as McCormick thundered away down the left side, he squared it to James Daly whose shot was turned aside by Nick Townsend in the visitors’ goal.

With 73 minutes played, Yeovil made two changes with Josh Tobin and Andrew Oluwabori replacing Josh Sims and James Daly, and six minutes later Tahvon Campbell replaced Jarvis whilst Finn Cousin-Dawson coming on for Kyle Ferguson.

There was a minute of normal time remaining when an opportunity came Yeovil’s way with when Wannell’s ball in from the left went in to a crowded area when Tobin could only prod it wide.

We huffed and puffed in the second half but the quality in the final ball in the final third was still missing against an Eastleigh side which defended well. All in all, a draw was a fair result, but we are finishing 2025 the same way we started it – struggling to score.

Full time: Yeovil Town 1 Eastleigh 1

Match Details

Venue: Huish Park
Date: Tuesday 30th December, 7.45pm kick-off

Competition: Enterprise National League Premier League

Scorers: Luke McCormick 28 (1-0), Aaron Blair pen 45+2 (1-1)

Pitch: Looking okay, a few slippy spots.
Conditions: Cold. Very cold.

Attendance: 3,102 (238 away supporters)

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Aaron Jarvis 19, James Plant 45+6, Morgan Williams 56, Jake Wannell 62
Eastleigh: Aaron Pierre 19, Aaron Blair 62, Josh Lundstram 83, Kieron Evans 90+5

Referee: Harrison Blair

Yeovil Town (3-4-3)

Substitutes: Michee Efete (for Max Jollifee, 57), Josh Tobin (for Josh Sims, 73), Andrew Oluwabori (for James Daly, 73), Finn Cousin-Dawson (for Kyle Ferguson, 79), Tahvon Campbell (for Aaron Jarvis, 79), Harvey Greenslade (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Eastleigh: Nick Townsend, Richard Brindley (for James Waite, 10, for Angel Wariuh, 88)), Lloyds Humphries, Temi Eweka, Kieron Evans, Aaron Blair (for Paul McCallum, 88), Harvey Saunders (for Tommy Whitehead, 90+2), Aaron Pierre, Josh Lundstram, Sam Pearson (for Luis Fernandez, 88), Archie Harris.

Substitutes (not used): Josh McNamara, Niall Maher.

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Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said he has gone back to basics on the training ground ahead of tonight’s home match with Eastleigh.

The Glovers picked up three wins in the boss’s first three matches in charge, but have lost their last two National League Premier Division matches including a 1-0 defeat at bottom club Truro City on Boxing Day.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman ahead of the Eastleigh match, Rowley said: “I feel the messages against Boston and Hartlepool were really simple and we worked on some really clear ideas and patterns of how to make that happen and the boys executed it brilliantly. I think potentially me and Darren (Simpson, assistant manager), I’m not going to say we overcomplicated things in the last two or three games, but I am really mindful the players have had four managers this season and have heard multiple different ideas.

“We maybe should have slowed down a little bit because footballers are eager to impress a new manager and if you ask them to do one thing they will do that, so we should have stayed on course to be a bit more front foot and attack instead of slowing games down at certain moments, but I feel that is still going to be a massive part of how we attack teams. It is knowing what they are giving us and how we expose it, but we want to put Eastleigh on the back foot and play over them.”

Defender Morgan Williams, who has missed the last three games through suspension following his red card in the win at Hartlepool United, returns to the starting line-up against Eastleigh.

Rowley revealed he suffered an injury in training in the past 48 hours, but said he was pleased to have Williams available for selection again.

He said: “I was really worried he was not going to feature, but credit to him and the medical team, they have worked wonders in the last 48 hours not only with the injury but dealing with him mentally. He got a slight knock in training which he was worried about and it looks like he is going to play, so that is great.”

Morgan Williams has been missing for the past three matches through suspension. Picture courtesy of Frank Reid.

Williams is one of four changes from the side which started at Truro with striker Aaron Jarvis and midfielders Max Jolliffe and Josh Sims all returning. Defender Finn Cousin-Dawson and Michee Efete, midfielder Josh Tobin and striker Tahvon Campbell, all drop to the substitutes’ bench.

The boss said: “We have freshened things up, but it is all based on merit and how we think we can score and create, it is not just going to be someone’s turn to play. I think Max and Simsy will come in to the team and that is based on what we think they can bring to the game.

“I want us to be really united in getting after teams and I am going to urge all of us connected to Yeovil to support the players, there is going to be ups and downs along this road. The boys are learning new ideas every day and it is not always going to be a smooth process all the time, but if we show good character and determination we can score some goals.“

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Defender Morgan Williams makes an immediate return to the Yeovil Town starting XI following suspension to face Eastleigh at Huish Park (7.45pm kick-off).

The centre half has missed the last three games following his sending off after the final whistle in the 2-0 win at Hartlepool United earlier this month.

He is one of four changes from the 1-0 defeat at Truro City on Boxing Day with striker Aaron Jarvis and midfielders Josh Sims and Max Jolliffe, who is on loan from Colchester United, named from the start. Striker Tahvon Campbell, defender Finn Cousin-Dawson and midfielders Josh Tobin and Michee Efete, who all started in Cornwall, all drop to the substitutes’ bench.

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Defender Dan Ellison has joined National League South promotion hopefuls Weston-super-Mare on loan until the end of February.

The 20-year-old has made just two substitute appearances since joining from Bristol Rovers at the end of October, totaling less than an hour of football in a green-and-white shirt.

He could make his debut for the Seagulls against Salisbury on Tuesday night.

Dan Ellison seen here in a Bristol Rovers shirt during a pre-season friendly because there’s not been many opportunities to photograph him in a Yeovil Town one. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

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Boxing Day football never seems to offer much in the way of the spirit of the season for Yeovil Town and 2025 was no exception with a 1-0 defeat against a Truro City side sitting bottom of the table. Dave was among the 568 – plus more than a few in the home end – who made the trip to Cornwall and here are his conclusions.

 

We never troubled them: With the exception of Jake Wannell’s header right at the very end, we did nothing to show whether Truro keeper Aidan Stone was any better than the player many in the away end told him they remembered him being. The statistics show that we had ten efforts on goal – just three on target – but I cannot honestly say I remember us having that many. You do need to give some credit to Truro for their dogged defending, but we offered virtually nothing against a side which has conceded 44 goals in 24 matches so far this season. Only James Plant showed any real intent to try and work a way through a Truro side which clearly knew what their plan was.

Another crap goal conceded: The goal that we conceded was awful – worse than both goals against Forest Green and about as bad as the one we conceded against Maidstone. Firstly Tahvon Campbell heads it up in the air rather than away from danger and then we have at least two defenders in close proximity of Tyler Harvey but he’s the only one who appears to want to win it. Michee Efete seems to be watching it go in as much as 568 of us behind the goal were. If it wasn’t for the brilliance of Jed Ward we might have conceded a couple of good goals, but luckily he managed to tip both Dom Johnson-Fisher’s chance just before the goal and Lirak Hasani’s second half shot over the bar.

Yeovil captain Jake Wannell raises a hand in apology as he leaves the pitch at Truro.

Did anyone ask for a striker for Christmas?: Billy Rowley said after the defeat to Forest Green that he did not feel we needed a new striker, we just needed to create better chances for them. Having seen Tahvon Campbell, Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade have a go over this 90 minute spell (see previous conclusions about Truro’s defensive abilities), I’m not so sure. Campbell offered nothing yesterday, I didn’t really notice Harvey at all when he came on, Jarvis had a couple of shots from outside the box, but none of them seemed to offer much. Very few of the opportunities I can recall us having came from any of our strikers and whilst the service they received was not up to much, I expected more.

Are we just asking players to do things they simply can’t do?: There is talent in this squad, there really is. Jed Ward’s is there for all to see, James Plant (not our player, I know) is a player I really enjoy watching, Luke McCormick has shown us what he’s got, but are we asking many of these players to do things they simply cannot do? I understand possession football (I might not like it, but I understand the intent), but surely no-one has sent them out and say ‘ponderously pass the ball between each other with no-one making a forward run’. There were times where I thought Michee Efete had been told not to cross the halfway line without stopping and checking back when we have seen what he can achieve when he just thunders forward. The amount of times I was thinking ‘do that, just do it quicker’ was untrue.

Jed Ward. Where would we be without him?| Pic by Gary Brown

We’re not too disheartened: There were 568 travelling supporters in the away end – and more than a few more in the home areas as well – and despite witnessing a below par performance, there was no-one losing their heads. At half-time as the players departed right in front of the away end, there were supportive chants from a fair percentage of those who had not departed for a half-time drink. not that there were many of those on offer. At the final whistle, there was the same response which felt very different to the final whistle I witnessed at Morecambe a few weeks ago when Richard Dryden was in charge. A whimper of a performance and a defeat against a team bottom of the league would normally constitute a few exploding heads*, but many felt calm – we just need some competitiveness for the community!

* – you could be forgiven for thinking Conclusions 1-4 constitutes my head exploding, but it really doesn’t. I like that Rowley’s post-match comments against both Forest Green and Truro recognise our inadequacies and set a clear desire to set them right. As has been stated, he’s not a magician and losing our heads so early will not help. I’m not and we shouldn’t.

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Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley admitted his side were “beaten fair and square” by bottom club Truro City as they went down to a 1-0 defeat on Boxing Day.

The Glovers managed just three shots of target despite dominating large periods of possession as they were unable to break down their dogged hosts on their first visit to the Truro Sports Hub.

An 18th minute goal from Tinners’ striker Tyler Harvey was the difference between the two sides with captain Jake Wannell coming closest to finding an equaliser when his 89th-minute header was tipped on to the bar by former Yeovil goalkeeper Aidan Stone.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Chris Spittles after the mattch, Rowley said: “Credit to Truro, they set up the way they do and got an early set-piece goal which is what they are famous for and then we are on the back foot away from home against a team which is going to fight for everything and drain the clock when they need to and fair play to them for that.

“We had some decent moments in the game but not enough. Our job as a management team is to iron out what we want to see more of and what we want to see less of and that is going to be our job for the next 48 hours. It is hard to digest all of that right now, but my gut feeling was that we were maybe slightly the better team but did not test the opposition goalie enough which is something we need to work on.”

Yeovil started with Tahvon Campbell up front supported by James Daly and brought on attackers Aaron Jarvis, Harvey Greenslade and Andrew Oluwabori in the second half, but Wannell’s header was as close as they came to testing Stone in the Truro goal.

For the second match in a row, Rowley said it would be the job of him and his assistant Darren Simpson to help the forward players to create more opportunities.

He said: “We felt (Truro) were tiring and with the athleticism of Harvey and Andrew we could run them in to the box or get some carries from deeper positions. I thought Andrew did well when he came on, he had three men on him and get us closer to the box, so credit to him, Harv found it difficult to receive it in the pocket and Jarv was good when he came on, he occupies defenders and got us higher up the pitch. But I think we need to come up with some clearer ideas for these boys about how we are going to score some goals.”

He added: “Our job is to help the forward players with more ideas of how we are going to work shots and I felt we did that today to a certain extent, I felt we entered the final third a fair amount of times, but the final pass or cross (was not there). We had one or two people shooting from outside the box with their weak foot and those go in once a season, but we need to work better opportunities, get closer to the goal and make runs from certain people which we did not do enough of today. We will own that performance, we lost fair and square and we will just move on.”

Yeovil captain Jake Wannell raises a hand in apology as he leaves the pitch at Truro.

On Wannell’s chance, the manager said: “I thought Jake defended well today, he got beaten up today like a lot of the lads did, it was a very physical game and they dealt with it well. It is a shame it did not drop in as that would have made the night a little bit sweeter for our fans who I thought were incredible today, they were our best player for sure. We started well with good results against Boston and Hartlepool, then we have had two poor defeats in these last two games and it is obvious we are going to have to go back to the drawing board and keep working hard before the next game.”

The Glovers have three days to recover before they take on Eastleigh at Huish Park on Tuesday night and then Braintree Town travel to Somerset on January 3rd. Rowley admitted he was pleased to have a busy schedule coming up to right the wrongs he witnessed in Cornwall.

He said: “It is a cliche, but you just want to erase this result and get back out there and I am sure the boys do as well. There were a few heated discussions but that is part of football and it shows a lot of passion and care for the badge and we just have to channel that and use it with the right energy.“

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Yeovil Town fell to a humbling defeat at bottom club Truro City as they were sunk by a first half goal from striker Tyler Harvey on Boxing Day.

In front of 568 away supporters, the game’s only goal came after goalkeeper Jed Ward had kept out Truro’s Connor Riley-Lowe’s header with a fine stop, only for calamitous defending to allow Harvey to grab what would prove to be the winner from the resulting corner on 18 minutes.

The Glovers failed to offer much to test former goalkeeper Aidan Stone in the home side’s goal as they dominated possession for large periods of the game but offered very little going forward.

The nearest Yeovil came to a breakthrough when Jake Wannell’s header came back off the bar with a minute of normal time remaining.

First half

Manager Billy Rowley made two changes from last weekend’s 2-0 home defeat to Forest Green Rovers with Port Vale loaneee James Plant and striker Tahvon Campbell replacing Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade, who both started the first encounter between the two sides in Cornwall on the bench.

It was quite clear from the start that Truro were going to look to hold Yeovil inside their own half as much as possible and look to grab opportunities as they game. The Glovers seemed keen to keep possession and draw their hosts on to them, but this was not a trap which the Tinners were falling for.

The game’s first opportunity fell to the home side after just four minutes when a high ball over the top beat the Yeovil offside trap (assuming there was one) and fell to Dom Johnson-Fisher who laid it off to Tyler Harvey and his shot was well blocked by Jed Ward and Kyle Ferguson.

Two minutes later, Brett McGavin put a free-.kuck in to the box which dropped to Finn Cousin-Dawson whose effort was deflected well.

Those two opening chances aside, there was not much to separate the two sides in the opening 15 minutes. We played our usual ‘keep ball’ but again without the kind of speed or accuracy necessary to be too effective.

With 18 minutes gone, more nervous defending allowed Truro to put the pressure on and Ward had to pull off a great save to keep out a header from Connor Riley-Lowe. The second corner was headed up at the near post by Tahvon Campbell and a scramble inside the box landed to Tyler HARVEY who turned it home. An absolute shocker of a goal to concede.
Just after the half-hour mark, Campbell held the ball up and laid it off to James Plant whose effort went over the bar before the home side had an effort with six minutes remaining until half-time. Daly lost out to Johnson-Fisher who broke to the edge of the box and fired a shot which comes off the outside of the post.
Yassine En-Neya put a chance over the bar with two minutes of the half remaining before Campbell fired a tame effort in to the hands of Stone on the stroke of half-time.
The possession stats will have looked impressive for the visitors, but we did very little with it due in part to a lack of bravery to press for any kind of advantage and Truro’s happiness to stick to their game plan of keeping us where they wanted us.

Half time: Truro City 1 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

There were no personnel changes from either side at half-time and the game settled in to a very similar pattern to that which we had seen in the first half.

On 51 minutes, a rare moment of desire going forward saw James Plant get away down the left, beat his man and got a cross in which found Josh Tobin in the middle but his header was over the bar. Then four minutes later it was Plant again cutting in from the left and firing in a shot which was deflected over the bar. All the threat was coming through the Port Vale loanee.

Quick play saw McCormick find Tobin who tried to play in Campbell inside the box, but his effort was deflected wide before Johnson-Fisher put a shot in to the gloves of Ward after an hour.

On 65 minutes, Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade replaced Tahvon Campbell and Josh Tobin. Four minutes later Andrew Oluwabori replaced Plant and moments after coming on he was released down the left and got a ball in only for Stone to claim it easily.

With the game drawing to a close, Jarvis had two opportunities flashing one wide of the post for a corner from which he did well to hold off a Truro defender and try a low shot which took a deflection and go out for another corner. At best these were half chances, but still better than we had been offering up until that point.

At the other end, we were (again) indebted to the reflexes of Jed Ward who did superbly to keep out a volley from Lirak Hasani with nine minutes remaining before a minute from time a corner found Jake Wannell at the back of the box and his header came back off the crossbar and was scrambled away.
When the final whistle sounded, Stone, who had been reminded about his less than impressive spell at Huish Park by the travelling fans, celebrated with added fervor to add a final indignity on a miserable Boxing Day for the Glovers.

Full time: Truro City 1 Yeovil Town 0

Match Details

Venue: Truro Sports Hub
Date: Friday 26th December, 3pm kick-off

Competition: Enterprise National League Premier League

Scorers: Tyler Harvey 18 (0-1)

Pitch: In pretty good condition for this point of the season

Conditions: Absolutely freezing

Attendance: 3148 (568 away supporters)

Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Andrew Oluwabori 84
Truro City: None

Referee: Ross Martin

Yeovil Town (3-5-2)

Substitutes: Aaron Jarvis (for Tahvon Campbell, 65), Harvey Greenslade (for Josh Tobin, 65), Andrew Oluwabori (for James Plant, 69), Josh Sims (not used), Max Jolliffe (not used), Dan Ellison (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Truro City: Aidan Stone, Connor Riley-Lowe, Will Dean, Tom Harrison, Yassine En-Neya, Tyler Harvey, Dom Johnson-Fisher, Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lirak Hasani, Ryan Law, Shaun Donnellan.

Substitutes (not used): Dan Lavercombe, Zac Bell, Billy Palfrey, Luke Jephcott, Max Kinsey, Aidan Marsh, Cole Deeming.

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UPDATE – 4.45pm – 23/12/25 – It appears all the AWAY standing and seated tickets for this fixture have SOLD OUT. The option on the ticket portal will no longer allow you to purchase tickets for the away supporters’ area.

Screenshot

Yeovil Town’s Boxing Day visit to Truro City has been designated an all-ticket affair with just 250 tickets available for the fixture.

The Cornish side announced on 23rd December that all seated tickets had sold out for the game and there were now just 250 tickets available in the entire stadium. You will need to buy a ticket for attending the fixture.

For full details on how to buy tickets for the day, visit our article – HERE.

For all other details relating to the Boxing Day match, check our Huish Hugh Ciderspace Away Travel Guide to Truro – HERE.