David Coates (Page 3)

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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.

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Defender Kyle Ferguson did not feel Yeovil Town showed enough of themselves in their 2-0 home defeat to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old, who was named the sponsors’ Man of the Match on a rain-soaked night at Huish Park, agreed with his manager Billy Rowley that the Glovers were not brave enough to take on the visitors who played the final 25 minutes with ten men.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah after the game, Ferguson said: “I don’t think we gave a good showing of ourselves and what we can do especially when you compare it with the last three games, but that is something that is going to happen, there is going to be bumps in the road. It is still a relatively new team, still teething really, but now we just need to bounce back in the next game.

“I think we could keep the ball a bit better, me included, be a bit more calm, be braver. The conditions were not great, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse because it is the same for both teams. Sometimes this happens and as players we just need to have to make sure it does not happen again next week.”

Yeovil fell behind after they were cut apart by Forest Green’s wide players and striker Temi Babalola slotted the opener after just quarter-of-an-hour, before an unfortunate own goal for goalkeeper Jed Ward on the hour mark sealed Rowley’s first defeat in charge.

The visitors had midfielder Harry Bunker dismissed for a second yellow card five minutes after extending their lead, but comfortably saw out the final minutes.

Ferguson added: “Everyone knew at half-time that we had not been good enough, the Gaffer came in and had words with us and that lit a fire under us, and we came out wanting to prove a point. Then they get the second goal and it is a lot harder, once they got a man sent off, I think we could have pushed a bit harder and kept the ball a bit better, but it was just one of those days, we could have played for ages and still struggled to score.”

Kyle Ferguson | Photo by Gary Brown

The Scotsman has been an ever present since Rowley came in as manager having missed the previous two matches after an apparent fall out with the previous manager.

Asked about his return to the side, he said: “When the new Gaffer came in it was a clean slate for everybody which I was happy about because I had missed out previously, but that is football. I just kept my head down and kept working hard and then gone straight back to work to show what I can do and with a few games on the bounce now I am enjoying my football again.”

Yeovil now travel to bottom side Truro City, who had a long trip for a 4-0 defeat at York City on Saturday, before back-to-back league home games against Eastleigh on 30th December and Braintree Town on 3rd January.

Ferguson added: “It is a great chance to bounce back, we are lucky that the games at so close together because everybody just wants to play football when you have just lost. It is a quick turnaround because we can get back in and put things right.“

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Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley said it was “tough to watch” his side fail to put their mark on the game as they went down 2-0 at home to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday night.

The Glovers went down to a first half strike from visitors’ striker Temi Babalola and then goalkeeper Jed Ward scored an unfortunate own goal with an hour gone to hand three points to the visitors, who were reduced to ten men when Harvey Bunker got a second yellow card on 65 minutes.

But, despite playing 25 minutes with a one-man advantage, Yeovil never threatened to reduce the deficit and Rowley admitted their attacking play needs work.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah after the evening kick-off, he said: “It was a tough watch for a lot of it. I was obviously respectful of Forest Green coming in to the game and we focused on us trying to imprint our style on to the game, but I didn’t think we did that. I thought we were poor on the ball, I don’t think we were brave enough in certain moments.

“We value Aaron Jarvis a lot here, he’s tremendous in the air and I think at certain moments it is really important that we do use that strength, but I think at times we over-use that and there are too many bodies around him and it becomes a bit predictable and easy to defend against. Aaron gets three men against him and he battles and gives away fouls and it kills momentum, it kills the rhythm of the game. That is something we are going to have to learn so we use that at certain times. It was a tough game tonight but one I felt we should have played better in.”

Aaron Jarvis | Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

The defeat ended a run of three wins for Rowley since taking over at Huish Park and he identified the lack of attacking threat carried by his side as a weakness – but insists that the answer does not lie in the transfer market.

He said: “I don’t think we can ever doubt the passion and desire of this group of players, they wear their heart on their sleeve and they give everything and you can see that. It is now Darren (Simpson, assistant manager) and my job to try and provide them with the training, ideas and clarity to help them score more goals because that is obviously something we are lacking.

“It would be obvious for people to say ‘sign a centre forward’ but I do not think that is the problem, I think we need to create better chances and use the ball better in certain moments and understand what we are trying to do. I think that is just a bit muddy at the moment, I am not sure we have a lot of clarity in the final third or the opposition’s half and that is something we are going to have to work hard on.”

The Glovers travel to bottom club Truro City on Boxing Day followed by a home match with Eastleigh four days later and then a visit from Braintree Town on 3rd January.

Rowley said he would not allow the defeat to trouble him too much over the festive period, and focus on the upcoming opportunities to pick up points.

He said: “I am not someone who gets too down when we lose or massively up when we win. I have always said ‘when you lose you end up learning a lot about people’ and about styles of play we want to work on, so it gives me a lot of fuel about what this team needs and what we need to work on in training. We will take this one on the chin, we have a busy period coming up and we need to prepare for that, so we are not going to be too down about this result. (Forest Green) are a team which are second in the league, and 20 points ahead of us in the league so it was always going to be a tough test, but I am just disappointed we did not show our qualities.“