On this month’s Gloverspast we roll back the years to a man who knew where the back of the net was. Andy Williams played 80 matches for Yeovil, scoring 25 goals in the process. Join Dave and Ollie Marsh as they travel down memory lane with Andy.
Chris Fox joins Dave and Ben to talk about the Gateshead loss and look ahead to Southend.
Thanks to Tim Hubble and James Drew for their voicenotes.
Ryan Jones was on post-match interview duties and he spoke to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman. Here’s every word of the winger’s interview.
Mark Stillman: Ryan, tough afternoon here in Gateshead. Your thoughts on today’s game, please?
Ryan Jones: Yeah, you know, they’re a well organised team, sort of especially in possession, they’ve got good rotations. I think we dealt with it quite well for the majority of the game, maybe just two moments where they sort of broke through a line and created a few problems for us which obviously led to a goal. The ref’s given a penalty which I think is a little bit soft, but they’re the decisions that get made on the day. [we] Can’t change them now. Yeah, I thought on the whole it was fairly even as a 90 minutes goes.
Mark Stillman: In the first half Gateshead started quite well. Yeovil really got back into it. So what sort of messages did Billy give you at the break?
Ryan Jones: We changed shape at halftime just to try to deal with their rotations a little bit better. I think that worked, and it allowed us to sort of counter-attack on them a little bit quicker and get higher up the pitch. And then once we got into the final third, if initially there’s no pass or there’s nothing on, it’s about coming back out, recycling it, and creating another attack from another angle.
Mark Stillman: You played in both of these games, played on Wednesday with 10 men, so it was hard at the closing stages. What was it like then coming all the way up here sort of tiredness point of view for you and the team?
Ryan Jones: Yeah, you know, it’s obviously going to be tiring for us for what, 35 minutes or so with 10 men on Wednesday, which the boys were excellent then. And then traveling up here, it’s a long journey, but that’s football, that’s the league, you’ve got to deal with it and recover as best you can to go again when the next game is.
Mark Stillman: You played regularly sort of last few weeks, this time shifted over to the right with Alex Whittle coming back in. What did you make of playing sort of obviously not on your natural side?
Ryan Jones: Yeah, it’s something obviously I need to get used to. I can do a job, it’s just something that with more repetitions, where you need to be, knowing what you need to do, it can only get better. So yeah, it’s just one of those things. You know, Whits is a good player that side as well. So if I can do a job and help the team in any position then that’s what I need to do really.
Mark Stillman: And finally, a couple of days’ resting up before you’ve another long old journey on Tuesday night of course to Southend United.
Ryan Jones: Yeah, all the boys need to recover right which I’m sure everyone will do. We’ve got a good group. It’s not going to be an easy game, as everyone knows Southend are a big club, good team, they’re pushing for playoffs, so it’s not going to be easy but we’ll go there and give everything.
Yeovil boss Billy Rowley spoke to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman following the Glovers 2-1 defeat at Gateshead. Here’s every word of the manager’s post-match thoughts.
Mark Stillman: Billy, your thoughts on this afternoon’s game please?
Billy Rowley: Initially, disappointing and a bit frustrating. There’s two sides of me here. I want to sort of, lose my temper a little bit, but also the other side of me understands we’ve had a really tough run and we’ve had some good results and wins in the last two games in particular. Leading into this game, we looked into Gateshead since Rob’s come back, he’s done a great job. They obviously beat York here the game before, I think their last previous game to that, they beat Wealdstone here. This is a tough ground to come [to]. They are definitely in a false league position really. It could have been worse today. I think we probably would have taken a draw before the game. We’ve given away a bit of a silly penalty really which has sort of changed the game. But yeah look, disappointed by the result. You never, want to lose games of football but we’ll take it on the chin and we’ll move on to Tuesday.
Mark Stillman: It always felt tough like we said before that Gateshead had the extra day’s rest that play a little bit of a part, you know you had a really good win on Wednesday at Wealdstone but they had an extra day’s recovery.
Billy Rowley: Yeah, [it] definitely does play a part. I’ll keep beating the drum that we’ve got a very, very small squad. Another red card today which is unbelievably frustrating which leaves us another body light. I’m not one to really talk about the referees but I felt like he didn’t really have great control of it for a long period which then led to a lot of players from our team, and Gateshead, blood boiling and just diving into silly tackles and doing some stupid and reckless things, but sometimes these things can be eradicated if the ref’s a little bit firmer and a little bit more consistent really from an early period which he wasn’t. It is what it is.
Mark Stillman: First half, obviously gave Miller Matthews Lewis his first start then he came off midway through the first half was that tactical?
Billy Rowley: He obviously come in Miller through not playing football since January. We haven’t trained loads because of our schedule. So just yeah lacking match fitness, we needed to try to change our press a little bit and get more pressure on the ball. So yeah, feel for him but it was, it was a tactical decision really.
Mark Stillman: I thought Will Merry did well when he came on.
Billy Rowley: Yeah, very good exciting talent. He’s only met the lads yesterday at the hotel. So he’s not trained with us, not really familiar with how we want to play or or anything. So in terms of his individual talent and ability I think it’s there for everyone to see. So I think he’s going to prove to be a decent signing for us,
Mark Stillman Now, suddenly you’re back on the road again doing a thousand or so miles in the last couple of days off to Southend on Tuesday.
Billy Rowley: Yeah back tonight probably one in the morning or so. Rest tomorrow, prepare Monday and then we’ll be at Southend away Tuesday which we’ll be just looking to to go there with you know, decent spirits after the last week or two and and try and get at least a point out of that game.
Mark Stillman: Amazing support I think over a hundred I think Yeovil fans and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of them in Essex on Tuesday night.
Billy Rowley: Yeah, I thought they were excellent today and it goes without saying how much we value their support. We could hear them having a bit of back and forth with with the Gateshead supporters. I want to thank them massively. It’s obviously always devastating and frustrating when you when you come this far and you see traveling supporters and you can’t get at least a point for them. We thank them for their support and hopefully see them Tuesday.
It’s the longest trip today. The Glovers head to Gateshead, a place that has not been a happy hunting ground since the 90s. Dave caught up with our friend Dave from the Heed Army to get the latest from today’s hosts.
Dave, Ben and Ian are back after back-to-back victories. The 2-0 win over Wealdstone was a gigantic step in mathematically securing National League status. The plebs chat about the match and more…
Ian is joined by Chris Fox and Andy Craig to chat through Saturday’s huge win over Morecambe. It was a must-win and the Glovers did just that.
Thanks to Tim Hubble, Dexter Tyson and Gloverscast Chief Scout Luca Many for their voicenotes.
New boy Delano McCoy-Splatt has hailed the impact of Yeovil Town boss after he impressed on his debut in a crucial 3-2 home win over Morecambe on Saturday.
The 21-year-old joined on loan from League One AFC Wimbledon, where he has been under the eye of Dons’ assistant manager and Glovers’ legend Terry Skiverton, and was introduced as a 53rd minute substitute and had a hand in his new side’s second and third goals.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the game, he said: “Billy just filled me with confidence. Since I got here, the gaffer’s been very good with me, speaking to me a lot, just telling me that I’ve got the ability and telling me that when I got on the pitch I needed to show it. When you’ve got a gaffer like that who believes in you, it’s easy to go play.
“I’ve been kind of linked (with a loan move) for a little while, but it’s just about the right time. In football sometimes timing’s key, so I think it’s just got over the line now. A lot of people that I know also know Billy, so that is going to make me want to go. I just feel comfortable.”
He replaced fellow loanee midfielder Troy Perrett with the game tied at 1-1 and worked well with Terrell Works to tee up James Daly for the second before Ryan Jones added a third to put Yeovil 3-1 up shortly after the hour mark. Jack Nolan added a penalty with 15 minutes left to play and set up a nervous finish at Huish Park.
The debutant said: “At 1-1, it’s easy to go 2-1 down, so the next goal is important. I just tried to come on and change the game for the team and then even when it went 3-2 from a controversial penalty, I feel like we did well to just stay at it.
“When I got on the pitch, I knew I just got to make sure that he’s working hard, I’m working hard. The link-up with Terrell (Works, who he played alongside in Fulham’s academy) I feel like it just came to life again.”
McCoy-Splatt has featured in a number of cup competitions for his parent club this season and just a couple of weeks ago Wimbledon boss Johnnie Jackson said the midfielder was “back in the reckoning“ for his first-team having returned from injury. The youngster admitted that he had not had long to get to know his new team-mates having linked up with them on Friday.
He said: “I think I had about 40 minutes of training with the team, so I was blowing! I feel like obviously I’ve still been training at Wimbledon, but the drive down was long. I think when I got in, I was just ready to train, I had a matchday minus-one session with the team, so we gelled very well, done a bit of shape. It didn’t really feel that different today, everyone’s just good people, so it was just easy to kind of fit in.“
Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley said the club deserved the vital 3-2 home win over Morecambe after a difficult few weeks which left them staring the National League relegation places in the face.
Goals from midfielders Brett McGavin, James Daly and Ryan Jones saw them pick up three points which leaves them seven points adrift of the dreaded dotted line on Saturday night with almost all of the teams around them failing to pick up wins.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the game, the manager said: “I am really supporters, really happy for the lads, everybody associated with the club in terms of staff. It’s nice to turn up today on a beautiful sunny day when the pitch is looking good and deliver a win. Everybody can enjoy this win and we can just breathe a little bit and move onto the next one.
“It’s just nice, it’s relief to get a win. I just said to the boys inside we’ve been through some tough weeks, we’ve had some really hard fixtures, playing midweek, playing weekend, non-stop, hard training, small squad, all that stuff and some of our performances, not all of them, some of them have been decent and we probably haven’t got the rewards we’ve earned.
“I feel like today we weren’t perfect, but we were good enough with the ball and we were good enough without the ball to deserve the win, so I was happy with that.”
McGavin gave the Glovers the lead after just ten minutes when his long range effort took a fortunate deflection off the post and visiting keeper Jamal Blackman on its way in to the net in front of the Thatcher’s Stand, before Gwion Edwards rifled the visitors level ten minutes before half-time.
Two stunning strikes from Daly and Jones gave a Yeovil side which has struggled in front of goal this season a two-goal advantage shortly after the hour mark before a late Jack Nolan penalty for the visitors set up a nervy finish.
Rowley was full of praise for all three goal-scorers, saying: “Brett’s was obviously a tiny bit of luck, but he’s an unbelievable striker of the ball. He might be one of the best ball strikers I’ve ever seen with both feet and when he’s lining up to shoot from there like I never really doubt it, but it’s obviously hit the post and come off the keeper’s back I think, so bit of fortune there, but we need that in these positions.
“Jonesy does what he does, he’s a little wizard. I think aiming for the near post, it’s always a risk doing that, but he’s snuck it in and his ball striking again is really good. Then JD’s like the Swiss Army Knife of Yeovil, he’s does every job, can play on the left, right, midfield, striker, at the back, like does everything, just a great athlete, top lad and I’m really happy for him. He just shows at the end what it means to him, slide tackling the goalie.”
There was also praise for young midfielder Delano McCoy-Splatt, who signed on loan from AFC Wimbledon in the week, and appeared as a substitute at the start of the second half and impressed. The 21-year-old, who has been under the guidance of former Yeovil legend Terry Skiverton at the South London club, and was instrumental in the goals for Daly and Jones.
Rowley said: “I think we’re very lucky and fortunate to get Delano. He’s had a few injuries this season that have kept him out of the Wimbledon team, but all of my friends that have worked with him (in the academy at) Fulham and all the staff at Wimbledon are convinced he should be playing for (Wimbledon) really. We’re very lucky to have received a Football League player on loan really for nine games and he makes football look easy. He’s physically so good, he can hold people off and then he’s actually got skill and tricks to like get facing forward and put people in on goal.”
The performance was a complete turnaround from the 1-0 defeat at Woking on Tuesday night when Rowley was left fuming after seeing his side fail to show up for the opening 45 minutes. He was pleased with the performance of his side in both halves against a Morecambe side which had lost just once in their previous six matches – and that was a last minute winner at home to high-flying York City.
Rowley said: “If you play one half a seven and the other half a four it doesn’t always end in your favour. Irwas really good and that was the message today, win the half,we drew it, win the second half, we won it, so we’ll keep with that message and try and strip it back and make things easier for the lads. I felt tactically we were good today, the pitch helped, I thought we made some decent enough passes and, and we had good ideas of how we were going to hurt them and we did enough to win.”
Next up Yeovil travel to Wealdstone who lost 2-0 at Forest Green Rovers on Saturday on Wednesday night, three days before their FA Trophy semi-final date with Marine next Saturday.
Asked about his next opponents, Rowley added: “I’ve seen a fair bit of them, they’ve got some really good athletes, some exceptional one-v-one players, a lot of talent in their team, like all teams at this level. They’re still doing well in the Trophy. so they’re doing well, they’ve had a change in manager, and their form’s on the up, so they have got some talent, got some ability. We’ll start reviewing them in the next 24 hours and go there and and try and get more points on the board.“
