Defeat at Brackley and all a bit dismal. Fear not, the Plebs are here to brighten up your Monday morning, possibly.
Dave was there, Ben has watched it back, Ian just let them go.
Thanks for Ed, Tim, Mark and Abby for the voice notes. Onto Aldershot tomorrow night!
Billy Rowley apologised following Yeovil Town’s 2-1 defeat at Brackley. The Glovers conceded two poor goals in the National League Premier clash and the manager disappointed with the performance.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s, Ian Randall, Rowley said: “I know I’m supposed to say this to the fans, but I genuinely mean it: I am very thankful for them coming to support us today. And I’m going to apologise for that performance. I know all the lads will be in there agreeing. Everything we planned for against Brackley kind of was true: the game plan, their threats, how we were going to potentially deal with them. And at no point in this interview am I ever going to pretend like it’s the players – it’s all of us, it’s me. I’ll own that defeat on the chin.”
Rowley referred to his first interview where he said he was going to be ‘learning every game’ and said he was going to ‘figure out’ those of his squad who want to be on the journey.
“I tell you what it does for me is it motivates me a lot. In the first interview I said at this club, I’m going to be learning every game. I’m a very observant person, and I will figure out the players that want to come on this journey and don’t. I’m really disappointed by that performance today in a number of ways.”
The manager did give credit to the hosts, who he knew would provide a tough challenge.
“Brackley are good at home at what they do. They sit in a block, they frustrate you, and they’re very good at that. They deserved the win today. Obviously, scoring early helped them a lot,it means they can drop their line and sit on the edge of their box. Then it’s tricky to play over them because there’s no space in behind; they have tight lines and it’s hard to then feed the players in the front areas of the pitch.”
“Obviously, the two goals, if you watch them back, they’re errors from us, really. It’s a set-piece chance that we’ve not really defended in the correct zones, and it’s a bit of a mix-up with the first goal. It was very much a creation of our own downfall there. But I felt even from when they scored the first goal, probably 15 to 20 minutes after that, I felt really comfortable with how the game was looking.
“We were arriving in their final third so often, and it was just the final choice. We were just a bit loose. We didn’t cross it when we should have crossed it with any quality, we didn’t slip people in when we should have. And then the more you make bad decisions in games, the more psychologically it becomes a really tricky game because you start doubting yourself, you start doubting the plan, and then you tend to make even more bad decisions. And that’s kind of what we did today. I think we started to doubt ourselves and probably overthink a little bit.
“I think there’s two ways to approach that when you’re playing against a block: you can either slow the game out to draw people out and then inject the speed, or you can just move the ball side-to-side really quickly and hopefully they jump out. We kind of did neither of those, which is again—this is a bit of a process we’re going through. We just weren’t very good today. Some of our attacking play, some of our choices weren’t great, so it’s definitely something we’re going to review and improve on.”
Rowley added that getting performances right at home is going to crucial for the remaining matches this season.
“I think one thing that we’re going to try to do in these 19 games remaining in the league is to make sure we’re very good at home. If you get draws away from home, it’s not the end of the world. I think probably a draw today would have been fair, but we’ll wear that loss on the chin.”
Shootout drama in the FA Trophy again.
Mike Hudson joins Ian and Ben to talk through the Alvechurch match and take your GCQs.
Thanks to Stoney and Andrew Foot for the voicenote.
It was yet another FA Trophy shootout win for Yeovil Town, this time against Alvechurch. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from Huish Park.
Thank the lord for Jed Ward. Come the end of the season it will be a coin toss between Ward and Luke McCormick for player of the season. Once again he’s the penalty shootout hero for the Glovers saving three spot kicks. If anyone from Bristol Rovers is reading this, we’re more than happy to take him off your hands.
We struggled to get in a rhythm after the red card. Brett McGavin’s first half red card really seemed to throw us off. Having prepared in a particular way all week with McGavin as the lone centre midfielder (or single pivot as the tactics boffs say) to lose him so early disrupted everything. We made changes which saw Josh Tobin pair with debutant Dakarai Mafico (more on him next…) centrally and it took time for us to figure it out again.
Mafico made a great first impression. The Cardiff loanee made his first start on the left hand side but it was immediately clear that he was going to have license to roam through the midfield as we’ve seen with FCD and Max Joliffe. He had to do some different positions through the afternoon following the red card but looked sharp, direct and fit. I thought he spoke well in his post-match and I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses with us. Speaking of sharp, it was great to see Jacob Maddox back on the pitch after nearly 12 months out and give us a brief preview of what he can do.
Alvechurch battled for the draw. The visitors earned the right to take the game to penalties. We struggled to break through in the second half and they defended resolutely, but we should have killed the game before half time with McCormick’s two chances as gilt-edged as they come. We huffed and puffed, Aaron Jarvis didn’t take the chance to be the flat track bully against lower league opposition, Tahvon Campbell was largely inneffective (other than from the penalty spot 💥) and the red card meant we were quite narrow so didn’t get it to the wings as much as we’d like.
We’re in for some change. It’s been pretty clear for a while that the squad needs reinforcements, probably since we kicked off the season. Danny Webb thought so. Richard Dryden thought so and now we’ve got the clearest indication from Billy Rowley that there will be changes. The manager confirmed Andrew Oluwabori and James Plant would return to Exeter and Port Vale respectively, and that there are a ‘few’ coming in. Fingers crossed see them in the next few days. Rowley talked about how it has been a long process to find who they wanted but clearly the manager know what he wants from his team and now it’s time to put his stamp on it until the end of the season.
It’s FA Trophy action today and the Glovers face a team we’re pretty sure we never have before in Alvechurch. Dave spoke to their Sporting Director Mark Fogarty.
Not a cheerful one folks. We were gutted about the news of Morgan Williams departure. He’s a huge loss, has been a great ambassador for the club and deserves to leave on his terms. But, it leaves one hell of a hole on and off the pitch.
Update: Yeovil Town have signed midfielder Jonathon Page from Walton & Hersham until the end of the season with an option of a further year.
Speaking to YTFC.net, Page said: “I’m really excited to be joining Yeovil Town and to be working with Billy and Darren again. I’ve seen the plans they have for the team and the club, and I’m looking forward to contributing and helping the squad achieve our goals this season.”
Billy Rowley, who has swooped in on another player he knows well, said: “Jonathon is a talented, disciplined defensive midfielder who brings experience and energy to our squad. We’ve seen him develop over the years, and I know he’ll make an immediate impact at Huish Park. We’re delighted to welcome him to Yeovil Town.”
Earlier today the official account of Walton & Hersham posted on X: We can confirm Jonathon Page has left the club to take up an opportunity higher up the pyramid with Yeovil Town. After joining us from Farnborough, he became an important part of our squad and now moves on to the National League.
Page, 24, was a product of the Fulham Academy and spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Farnborough before spells at Aldershot, Hampton and Richmond and Walton.
Welcome to Yeovil Town, Jonathon.
Over the course of the Glovers Past series we’ve been lucky enough to speak to members of Russell Slade’s play off squad who gave us one of, if not the, greatest night of Yeovil Town’s history. That match at the City Ground where those green and white legends won 5-2, a 5-4 win on aggregate after losing 2-0 in the first leg, lives long in the memory of supporters. On this special episode of the Glovers Past, we bring you the memories of Lee Morris, Andy Lindegaard, Craig Alcock, Scott Guyett and Marcus Stewart.
They’ve only gone and done it.
Thanks to Len Copland for the use of his photos from that night at The City Ground and Chris Angulo of Green and White Goals on YouTube for the audio on the intro.
Yeovil kicked off 2026 with three goals, three points and a contract renewal for one of the Alice Band Collective, Luke McCormick. Not a bad start to the year eh?
Ian, Ben and Dave chat about all that and a bit of Eastleigh and take your GCQs.
Huge thanks to Stoney and Andrew Foot, Jimmer, Chris Fox and Tim Hubble for their voicenotes.
It was a cold one at Huish Park but fans turned out in force as Billy Rowley’s Glovers scored three against a poor Braintree side to secure a valuable three points. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions.
We improved. It wasn’t a totally polished performance by any stretch, but it was an improvement on the performance against Eastleigh. I’ve hated the phrase ‘final third entries’ every since Darren Way used it as a point to polish his abysmal team, but for the sake of this conclusion, we got ourselves into the Braintree’s box repeatedly and with plenty of players in the box too. We could have gone into half time ahead with some of our play. Braintree were poor but we’re beginning to see glimpses of what our attacking identity could be/
We got our set pieces right. If Forest Green Rovers was the low point for the set piece delivery, this was definitely the high point. We could probably count ourselves unlucky (I’m not sure many National League assistants would spot the offside) to not be ahead through Kyle Ferguson’s header after a good delivery into the box from Brett McGavin that was flicked on by Williams. The second came from a wicked McGavin delivery that Jake Wannell nearly made perfect with his header that Terry could only divert to Daly who headed home. Finn Cousin-Dawson could have made it a third after another excellent delivery but could only head straight at the keeper. McGavin earned his own celebration before the final whistle with deliberate delivery whipped towards goal hoping for any form of contact to help it on its way.
James Daly had a better night. One of the big takeaways from Billy Rowley’s first few games in charge is his use of inverted wingers. James Daly, all left foot, playing on the right and James Plant, mostly right-footed, on the left. It’s fair to say that against Eastleigh Daly struggled to get involved and like many of his teammates on that night, was sloppy with possession. Against Braintree things clicked more, he managed to cut inside and get shots away, was far more involved in the attacking moments too. It was great to see him finally find the back of the net in a Yeovil shirt and hopefully there’s more to come.
It’s still not instinctive for these players. You can forgive these players for not finding their groove with their fourth manager of the season. You can see them revert back to the old ways and slow things down while Billy Rowley gets frustrated on the sideline. It’ll come and we still need to have patience. But, I get the feeling that the manager will be proactive in the changing the squad if he needs to. The lack of an alternative to Alex Whitte – who seems to be struggling with injuries more frequently now – means we can’t ever shift to a back four (#downwithwingbacks). It was interesting to hear the manager talk about Jacob Maddox and how he’s ‘his type of player’. Everyone will get their chance, and they will have to take it.
It was a great turnout at Huish Park. I didn’t expect more than 3,500 people to turn up to cheer on the Glovers at that awkward kick off time in sub-zero temperatures, but maybe somethings changing. That an increase of approximately 400 compared to Eastleigh and Forest Green Rovers (who both brought more fans with them) and more than 500 compared to Rowley’s first match against Boston United. It was a good night to bring in a crowd and score some goals with the FA Trophy next weekend.
