Another 6-0 win for Billy Rowley’s historic green and whites.
Fresh off the back of his BBC Somerset debut, Seb White joins Ian and Dave to discuss the win at Wealdstone.
Thanks to Dan Franklyn and Tim Hubble for the voicenotes and thanks to Craigo for singing us out…
In this episode of The Glovers Past, we dive deep into one of the most memorable and turbulent periods in Yeovil Town’s history. Joined by Mike West from the YTFC Heritage Society and former player and manager Steve Rutter, we reflect on the late 1980s and early 1990s when the club faced immense challenges, nearly folded, and experienced dramatic highs and lows.
Dave, Mike and Steve cover:
Image courtesy of Tim Lancaster
Ed Turnbull and Andy Craig are back to join Ian on this episode to bask in the glory of the 6-0 victory against Boston United. We cover the match, the signing of Owen Dean and take your questions.
Thanks to Dylan, Tim and Stoney and Andrew Foot for their voice notes.
Huish Park was a special place yesterday as Billy Rowley’s Yeovil Town side blistered through Boston United scoring six goals. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…
That was emphatic. Once Ryan Jones put Yeovil ahead, the Glovers tore through Boston United like they weren’t even there. Brett McGavin’s goal was sensational, expertly assisted by Slavi Spasov. It took just three passes for the third with McGavin to Jones to Daly who rifled home. Johl Powell beat the haphazard offside trap to make it four goals in 13 first half minutes and game over before the break. Mason Obeng bust a gut to get the Glovers fifth before Powell coolly slotted a penalty away after being felled in the box. Each goal was different, it could have been even more but it was a marker laid down by a team full of confidence.
It did take time. Yeovil were relatively in control from the opening whistle without being cut throat. Ryan Jones was doubled up every time he got the ball and struggled to get into his free flowing best up until he’d scored. Boston offered next-to-no threat although they did force Jos Barker into a good safe low to his left before the onslaught began.
Everyone played their part. We’ve talked about ad nauseam this season, the depth is great, the squad is great and yesterday was another example of every single player playing their part. The subs all came in and made an impact. This has to be the most complete squad we’ve had, maybe ever? When we’ve been successful before we’ve had a good core 11 with players you’d definitely consider bench players, that is not the case this season.
More firepower has arrived. Prior to kick off the club unveiled is new signing, Owen Dean. It feels absurd to say this after a 6-0 win, but Dean will add something different to the front line giving us a bit more variation up top as well as adding more pressure to Ste Walker and Slavi Spasov. He sounds like a forward who will send from the front – chasing things down and one whos consistently scored goals. Exciting
It was an historic day. It’s not very often your team wins 6-0. It’s a spooky turn of fate that on the same weekend 24 years ago Yeovil tore through Southport 6-0 with an Abdoulai Demba first half hat trick in a season that went on to be historic. That game lives long in the memory and this one will too. Will we repeat history? Who knows, but let’s enjoy the ride.
A thrilling encounter at Huish Park saw Yeovil Town and Worthing share the spoils in a 1-1 draw. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…
We didn’t take our chances. There was some blistering football on display at HP. Both teams went toe to toe in a proper football match but I felt Yeovil had the better of the opportunities. Johl Powell had two good chances in the first half and I lost count at the amount of times Ryan Jones got into spaces where he is capable of doing damage. Just as the Glovers seemed to be on the verge of breaking the door down, Jos Barker- who made a big safe on the first minute – let a soft effort slip through his gloves and Worthing went ahead. Brett McGavin’s chaos theory free kick got the Glovers back level early in the second half, but Yeovil were unable to find the winner.
Johl Powell looked the part. After scoring three goals in two substitute appearances Johl Powell earned his starting spot and I felt he looked comfortable and confident. If you can be critical of his early performances you can maybe say he’s been too safe, but last night there were flicks, tricks and efforts at goal and a confidence that comes off the back of a nice scoring run.
We’re using the squad. One of these conclusions could have been around how we missed a certain box crasher in moments last night, but what were seeing is the quality in depth. While the subs didn’t necessarily make the desired impact last night, Hayden Muller, Johl Powell, Jack Kingdon and James Daly looked worthy of spots in the starting line up. Ben Radcliffe has been in and out. Spasov toiled while Ste Walker returns to fitness. Zain Westbrooke, Charlie Lennon and Mason Obeng were all utilised. Before the depth was a bit of an unknown but now we’re seeing contributions at a level that there is expectation.
Both teams left it out on the pitch. By the time the final whistle went both teams were flat out after an intense (and entertaining) match. Billy Rowley called it a good advert for the league and you’d have to agree. Even going in behind at half time, the supporters at Huish Park applauded and that appreciation was there at the end too. It was a tactical battle but one where both sides wanted to go for it and find the winner and in doing so, left open spaces which made for an entertaining match.
The start has surpassed my expectations. The Green Day rule has been in effect at GCHQ and with September ending, the start to the season has been impressive. At the time of writing the Glovers sit in 6th after 11 games and everyone at the club has to be pleased with that. A new team, new relationships (not without it’s bumps in the road) and the team have put together some great results, some good performances and – you’d hope – we’re only going to get better. We’re just under a quarter through the season and it’s been a start to build on.
A big 4-1 victory on Friday night, but conspicuous by his absence was captain Luke McCormick. Chris Fox joins Ian and Ben to discuss the win and the absentee skipper and everything in between.
Thanks to the Essex Glovers Dan and Charlie, Tim Hubble and Stoney and Andrew Foot for the voice notes.
Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley praised his squad’s defensive organisation and teamwork following the 1-1 draw at Aldershot that saw the Glovers play with ten men for an hour after Loick Ayina’s first half red card.
Yeovil went ahead through Slavi Spasov after a good team move and looked in the mood following a run of two defeats. Yeovil were denied a late winner and penalty and Rowley expressed his disappointment with some of the officiating on the night.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah, Rowley said: “It’s bitterly disappointing, especially as I’ve just heard – maybe shouldn’t say this, but it’s the truth – I’ve just heard whispers of, you know, a referee assessor in the stadium sort of saying, ‘well, you know, it was a penalty, and it was a foul on JD’. So we’ve had some really, really strange decisions against us tonight. But that is what it is, I hope they are swings and roundabouts. It seems like it’s not at the moment for us, but we hope that changes.
“Sometimes you win a game, and you feel like you’ve lost, for emotional reasons and quality reasons, but I feel the performance tonight and the connection with the supporters and the heart and the grit that we showed, it feels like a win. It feels like a win from an emotional standpoint and a progress standpoint. We’ve lost out on two points that we probably should have had. I think we defended incredibly well, even when obviously we went to ten men pretty early. I felt like the boys rolled up their sleeves, they stuck their chest out a little bit and I felt like it was just a proper team performance.
“So, I’ll say it again, sometimes you play great and you lose a game, and I’ll praise the lads for that, and sometimes we win and we’re not so great, and I’ll also talk about that as often as I can, but tonight, like I say, it feels like a win from a team bonding perspective but equally [I’m] really disappointed to not win the game.”
The Glovers combined brilliantly to open the scoring through Spasov and the manager praised several of his team for the build up in the goal, which started with a ball from Joe Gubbins: “[It was] brilliant from Gubbins. I thought he was superb tonight, and we spoke a little bit to him yesterday in training about opening up that pass. It’s a really wide pitch here, they defend in a back four. I felt like if we ran the slot between their full-back and centre-back, we could free up [Ryan] Jonesy quite often, which Archie does really well. Gubbo’s picked it out incredibly and I think it was Zain [with the] good run. I thought Zain was superb as well, and I’m really, really happy for Slavi to score. He’s the model pro. He’s such a good lad. I love watching him train, and we’ve not seen the best of him yet, so I’m really happy that he’s off the mark.”
The game turned in the 29th minute when Ayina followed up his loose touch with a high, rash tackle giving the referee little choice other than a red card.
Speaking on the Salford loanee’s sending off Rowley said: “Look, naturally, I can’t praise and speak highly enough of Loick as a lad. He’s such a good character in the changing room. All of the players absolutely love him. I’m naturally frustrated with him. He’s obviously kicking himself inside, but sometimes when you’ve sat on the bench for the last five weeks and you don’t get on, and you travel to Barrow and you don’t get on, you have so much built-up adrenaline, and you want to prove yourself, and – I haven’t seen the tackle, so I don’t know what that looks like – but I kind of feel for him in a sense, because he just obviously wants to impress and show what he’s about, and I love that aggression as well, like I want defenders that want to defend and defend for their team, so I’ve got no bad words to say about Loick on that. It’s obviously a frustrating one, but that is what it is.”
The Glovers could (should?) have won it late on following Michee Efete’s equaliser with James Daly penalised for a foul after assisting Luke McCormick and a cynical trip on Ryan Jones as he entered the penalty area. On those moments, Rowley said: “Well, again, I’ll have to watch these things back to give a clear view on it. My gut feeling and my emotional feeling, being Yeovil manager, I thought it was a penalty, and I’m hearing from the bench it was a penalty, and I’ve heard the referee assessor whisper that in the stand as well, so a bit early disappointed with that. We just can’t control that now, so we just move on from that.”
Following defeat at the weekend and the spirited draw, Yeovil head into Friday against Solihull Moors tired but buoyed by ‘incredible’ support.
“While I’m so annoyed with the ref, it sort of killed us and at least if you come out of this game with three points, it feels a little bit sweeter. We are fully aware that we have to play again on Friday.
“The boys are in a good spot. There’s going to be a few tired bodies out there, a few tired legs, and a few tired minds probably, but it’s going to be down to us as a staff now to recover properly. Solihull is going to be a really tough game. I think they’re really unlucky to be where they are, um, looking at a lot of the data and metrics in the league. For all the nerds out there, there is a stat called expected points, and if you base it on that, they should be in the playoffs. So, it’s going to be a really difficult fixture for us, and we’re going to have to recover properly and make sure we’re right for that game.
“I actually had goosebumps again at the end, and I can’t thank them enough for that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is not going to be a linear process for us with signing 15 players. We’re going to have our ups and downs. We’ve got a lot of young players in that changing room that, you know, a fair amount of them have come from a level below this, if not two levels below this. I appreciate, we’re a big club, we want to win every match – we will come good. I was really happy with a lot of aspects of our performance tonight, and I can’t thank [the travelling supporters] enough,” Rowley added.
Well, that wasn’t the plan. Yeovil were humbled by AFC Fylde on Saturday in a 4-1 defeat. Foxy is back with Ian and Ben to chat about the defeat and a look ahead to Aldershot on Tuesday.
Thanks to Andrew Foot and Michael Stone and Tim Hubble for their thoughts!
AFC Fylde came to town yesterday put Yeovil Town to the sword in a 1-4 defeat at Huish Park. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…
A bump back to reality. If last week was a ‘well Southend are pretty good’ sort of reaction, this result was a massive bump back to reality. The Glovers were second best from the coin toss and Fylde controlled the game from the moment they turned Yeovil around. They may have only had four shots on goal, but I thought they nullified most of play, unless we went long for Archie Davies.
It could have been so different. At 0-1 in the 44th minute Archie Davies found himself with a golden opportunity and hit the post when he looked sure to repeat last weekend at Southend. Moments later Fylde got the second and totally killed our momentum. It was a real sucker punch but shows the fine margins in the National League this season.
I think we need more options up top. Another game of two halves for each of our strikers and it’s fair to say neither of them set the world alight yesterday. Walker was hooked at half time so that Yeovil could “change the press” with Slavi. Both have their strengths but neither could provide the solution yesterday. Could the answer be James Daly? Charlie Lennon? Or are we waiting for Joe Haigh? I think we’re lacking a nippy Adam Stansfield-esque striker.
Fylde were impressive. I think they were the best team I’ve seen at Huish Park this season. Well-organised with an effective press, we really struggled to play out from the back. The visitors were also able to get into that shape which seems to make everyone stand still and do nothing which Joy Mukena seemed to fall victim to when he had the ball. They moved the ball nicely and took their chances when they came. You can they’re a side with momentum following a domination of the National League North last season.
We’re still a work in progress. The early results and brief flirt with top spot saw a lot of rational thinking go out the window and the Green Day rule (no league table discussion until September ends) left in tatters. But the last two games have shown how much of a work in progress we still are, and given us a reminder that this group is still in its infancy as a team. Injuries to Ben Radcliffe and Joy Mukena only disrupted things further. There’s no time to dwell on it though, with Aldershot and Solihull around the corner in yet another busy week and a chance to get back on form.
All photography courtesy of Andy Preston – AP Photography
Welcome to another Mini Matchday edition of the Gloverscast! This week, the opposition focus turns to AFC Fylde as they make the long journey down from Lancashire to South Somerset to face the Glovers.
We’re delighted to be joined by Jack Connor to get the inside track on the opposition camp and how things are shaping up for the visitors.
In this episode, we discuss:
