Well, that was an unbelievable afternoon at Huish Park. Our man Gary Brown was at Huish Park for us today and captured the event.
As ever, if you would like to use any of Gary’s images, please ask Gary’s permission before using.
An incredible game at Huish Park saw a second half horror show pile pressure on Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper as his side capitulated to defeat against Gateshead.
The Glovers turned in a scintillating first half performance and goals from Josh Sims, Junior Morias and Harvey Greenslade put them 3-0 ahead and seemingly cruising towards three points at half-time.
But when the visitors’ Kyle Hurst pulled one back just a minute after the restart, Yeovil started to crumble. The inevitable goal from former Glovers’ favourite Frank Nouble followed before substitute Kain Adom pulled the visitors’ level as chants of “We want Cooper out” rang around the stadium.
Then in the eighth minute of stoppage time, Adom struck the winner as Cooper disappeared down the tunnel with many supporters following him out of the stadium.
An first half which was unbelievable and showed what Yeovil can be, a second half which was unacceptable and showed what we all too often have been.
The highlight of the team news was a Glovers’ side with a genuine back four in defence for the first time in living memory – if you were born in the past couple of years at least! Alex Whittle returned at left back with loanee Byron Pendleton on the right and Jake Wannell and Morgan Williams in the centre of defence ahead of Jed Ward.
For the visitors, a very familiar face lined up in the forward line as Frank Nouble made his first return to Huish Park – in a playing capacity at least – leading the line for Gateshead.
In the fourth minute, Yeovil broke forward with James Plant bursting in to the box and went down under pressure from a Gateshead defender. No real appeals from the Yeovil players and nothing given by the referee Harry Wager.
There was a worrying moment shortly after when Josh Sims went down in the middle of the pitch with no-one around him, but the midfielder who collected his ceremonial sack of potatoes for being the club’s first scorer of the season ahead of the match was quickly back on his feet.
The attacking intent which was present for periods of the defeat at Braintree was consistently there with Yeovil suffocating the visitors at every opportunity.
A back pass to visiting keeper Harvey Shelvey saw him attempt to pass it out and Junior Morias intercepted and powered in to the box before laying it across to Josh SIMS who smashed home from close range. At Braintree on Saturday, gilt edged chances were not taken by Yeovil, at Huish Park they took the first one which came their way.
The pressure continued with Greenslade getting away down the right side after 27 minutes. He flashed one over the bar with Sims and Morias arriving inside the area.
Gateshead did not seem to know what to do about Yeovil and amazingly given how this season had gone, it was the home side who looked more likely to score and just before the half-hour mark they did.
Great play by Brett McGavin in the middle of the park saw him release Greenslade who laid it off to Junior MORIAS on the left side of the box. The stocky frontman beat his defender and leathered it in to the net. Ruthless.
Two goals to the good and seemingly cruising, there was no sign of Yeovil sitting back and on 42 minutes they added a third. A move which started with a great interception by Luke McCormick allowed McGavin to set Sims away down the right, he beat his defender and fired in a shot which Shelvey stopped but could not hold and it broke to Harvey GREENSLADE who smashed it home.
Wow, just wow. Where has this Yeovil Town been this season?! Who cares, more of the same, please. A genuine joy to watch going forward and that back four has not looked troubled at all.
Gateshead made two changes at half-time with goalkeeper Harvey Shelvey replaced by Tiernan Brooks and Kain Adom replacing Josh Home.
The visitors got the best start they could as they pulled a goal back within three minutes of the restart. Kyle HURST was picked out in acres of space on the edge of the box and he curled a superb shot in to the far corner past a stranded Jed Ward.
Ten minutes after the restart, loan striker Ben Wodskou, who got the winner last time out at Huish Park, replaced James Plant.
On 58 minutes, the most inevitable part of the afternoon happened as Frank NOUBLE got a goal against his old side. A corner whipped in to the near post was met by a Gateshead head, and the attempted clearance landed at the feet of Nouble who rifled it home. There were words exchanged with Yeovil manager Mark Cooper and his former frontman as he ran back for the restart.
There were further changes for the home side with Finn Cousin-Dawson replacing McGavin and Tahvon Campbell replacing Morias.
A great opportunity for Yeovil to grow their advantage fell to McCormick on the hour mark. Morias and Sims both tried to bring a bouncing ball under control inside the box, the Gateshead clearance went as far as McCormick whose shot was stopped by Brooks. Great chance to ease the nerves.
Yeovil were indebted to goalkeeper Jed Ward who denied the visitors an opportunity to get an equaliser with a close range finish after 63 minutes. In the 70th minute, Adom flicked one just wide after another goal mouth scramble and there are a lot of nervous voices inside Huish Park.
Then in the 73rd minute, the equaliser came. A ball hooked in to the box was not dealt with by the Yeovil defence, Ward came to the edge of his box to try and meet it and Kain ADOM lifted it deftly over the keeper and Morgan Williams could not get it off the line.
The first chants of “We want Cooper out” come out of the Thatcher’s Stand. The mood has gone as sour as the performance from Yeovil.
With five minutes remaining, Wodskou had a golden opportunity to put Yeovil ahead again after Campbell threaded him in to the box but the Birmingham City youngster did not get a clean connection on it. A great opportunity spurned and two minutes later, visiting substitute Max Sheaf had an equally glorious one but he headed Adom’s cross straight at Ward who was able to parry it.
Moments later it was Greenslade who Yeovil were indebted to as Sheaf’s effort on goal deflected off Williams, looped over Ward and was headed in to the far corner before the forward got back to head it away.
The difference for Yeovil in these two halves have been night and day. The early goal from Gateshead left us completely shell-shocked and we have disappeared inside ourselves in exactly the same way that the visitors were in the first half. As good as the opening 45 minutes were, the second 45 minutes were worst.
But, just when you thought it could not get worse, it did. Eight minutes in to second half stoppage time another ball in the box broke to Nouble and then the substitute Kain ADOM who lashed home the winner. Mark Cooper has gone straight down the tunnel and a huge percentage of the Huish Park crowd and joining him in departing. I wonder if we’ll see either of them back anytime soon.
Honestly, I am lost for words. Unforgivable. Unacceptable. Something has got to change – and I think even the most ardent ‘Cooper in’ supporter will struggle to defend that.
Venue: Huish Park
Date: Monday 24th August, 3pm kick-off
Competition: National League Premier Division
Scorers: Josh Sims 17 (1-0), Junior Morias 29 (2-0), Harvey Greenslade 42 (3-0), Kyle Hurst 46 (3-1), Frank Nouble 58 (3-2), Kain Adom 73 (3-3), Kain Adom 90+8 (3-4)
Pitch: Looking magnificent
Conditions: Hot and sunny
Attendance: 2,799 (45 away supporters)
Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Unnamed 62, Unnamed 71, Kyle Ferguson 83
Gateshead: Frank Nouble 66, Callum Johnson 83, Kenton Richardson 90+5
Referee: Harry Wager
Yeovil Town (4-2-3-1)
Substitutes: Ben Wodskou (for James Plant, 55), Finn Cousin-Dawson (for Brett McGavin, 65), Tahvon Campbell (for Junior Morias, 65), Kyle Ferguson (for Josh Sims, 79), Charlie Cooper (not used), Aaron Jarvis (not used), Matt Gould (not used).
Gateshead: George Shelvey (for Tiernan Brooks, 46), Connor Pani, Kenton Richardson, David Ferguson, Kyle Hurst, Max Melbourne (for Callum Johnson, 25), Josh Home (for Kain Adom, 46), Will Flint, Harry Chapman, Fenton John, Frank Nouble.
Substitutes (not used): Max Sheaf, Ethan Fitzhugh, Ben Williams, Callum Bone.
Defeat at Braintree, today’s match with Gateshead and your GCQs are on the agenda on today’s podcast. Ian and Dave are back with Ben to chat about it all.
Many thanks to Dexter Tyson, Ed Turnbull and Andy Cleave for the voicenotes. Keep em coming!
Yeovil skipper Jake Wannell said the defeat to Braintree was a tough one to take, but that he wouldn’t put it on the forward in the team.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins he said: “Yeah, tough one to take, obviously. After dominating the first half like we did, it was disappointing not to come away with a point, at least I feel like we had enough chances to win the game, [by] 2, 3, 4, [goals].
Ultimately, we win lose or draw as a team, so not going to push it on to the forwards at all. We’ve obviously conceded the goal, so we’ll look back at that and see where we could have done better there. Obviously, we know, the forwards know that we had plenty of chances to win the game, so we dust ourselves down and go again Monday.”
For the second match in a row, the Glovers conceded plenty of chances and Wannell put it down to the lack of the control of the ball.
“Too many turnovers, especially today, turnovers leads to chances most of the time, so we cut out the turnovers, the less chances that the opposition will have. But that’s full focus now on Monday. We’ll put that one to the side.
“It could have been a 5-4, 5-5, type of game, which we didn’t want, almost a game of basketball, like, which is not us. We want to start controlling a bit more. That’s where we’re really good, but just didn’t work today.
Mark Cooper cut a very frustrated figure following the Glovers 1-0 defeat at Braintree on Saturday. Yeovil fell to a 1-0 defeat, but had their chances to put away and the Yeovil boss put the pressure on his forwards to find the back of the net.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins, Cooper said: “It’s a game we should never, ever lose. We’ve got 15 really big chances, we don’t convert one. And they [Braintree] have a couple of chances in the first half, but it’s virtually impossible to lose that game with the amount of chances we had. I mean the first half. I mean we’re clean through on the goal, we’ve hit the goalie in the face, where we just need to to roll it in the goal, put one past the post, on the six yard line, and we’ve hit the cross bar, when it’s a roll into an empty net, and then the second half we’ve just missed multiple chances. We have to score.
“The pleasing thing is, we’ve created loads of chances. Had large spells of the game. Do we want to open up to create loads of chances? Then we leave a little bit open at the back, so it becomes end to end. But with that many chances, we have to score. Simple as that is, can’t dress it up any way. You have to score whether you’re a forward, midfield player, yeah, you’ve got score.”
When asked what it’s down to, and if Yeovil needed lady luck on their side, Cooper demanded ruthlessness in front of goal.
“It’s not luck. You have to be ruthless. When you get that chance, just put it in the back of the net. Take the back of the net out. We give the keeper a chance. We hit him in the face with a ball when the whole goal is gaping. You know we we have three chances at the end where our forwards kick each other and miss the ball, and it’s on the goal line. It’s it’s frustrating because the performance is good in terms of our attacking play. And the pleasing thing is, we create lots of chances, but we’ve got to be ruthless.”
Perkins offered a bit of praise for the performance of Tahvon Campbell, but Cooper shot back: “[It] Doesn’t matter about forwards being good. No one’s going to look in the paper tomorrow and go, ‘ooh he was good’. They can look and say ‘they didn’t score’. So I’m putting the pressure on the forwards, all of them. We’ve got enough of them. You have to score. It’s not like we’re asking you to play a style of football where you’re not getting [chances], you’re getting you’re getting loads of chances. We’re playing really attacking. Try to change a little bit. If we create that many chances in the game, we should score at least three goals, which should be enough to win a game of football.
Ahead of the visit of Gateshead on Bank Holiday Monday, Cooper said he hoped to welcome back Whittle and Cooper and that his selection headache was having “to pick the right forwards that are going to score.”
The Glovers got their first three points of the season with the 2-1 victory over Brackley Town at Huish Park last night. Ian was back at Huish Park and here are his first five conclusions of the season.
It was important to get off the mark. The pressure was really on last night following the opening two matches and ultimately, the Glovers responded. A confidence-boosting goal for Josh Sims and a memorable first for Ben Wodskou in-front of the Thatchers was exactly what the supporters, players and manager needed to ease the pressure. With a weekend trip to Braintree, who got an impressive 3-0 win over Halifax at home on the opening day, but have since lost two on the bounce with red cards in both of those defeats, Yeovil have a chance to build a bit of momentum now.
We have Jed Ward to thank. The goalkeeper was certainly the busier of the two over the course of the evening, making a series of saves as Brackley Town peppered the glovers goal. Three matches in and Ward is proving to be an impressive bit of recruitment. Aside from the ropey short goal kicks, he didn’t put a foot wrong in between the sticks last night and without him, it probably would have been a different story.
Credit to Brackley. Pre-match, I wondered if we’d see the visitors dig in and frustrate but the opposite was true. They got on the ball and played some nice football, carving Yeovil apart at times. In the first half in particular, we struggled to deal with their direct running. I was really impressed with Morgan Roberts (their number 10) in the attacking midfield. He only had one thing on his mind every time he picked up the ball, get forward and cause problems, and he did from the first minute. Maybe it was the pressure, but in that first half, they looked like the team playing at home.
Rotation paid off. There were four changes from Saturday’s dismal day at Forest Green and it showed. Harvey Greenslade was given the nod up front and his relentless running meant he was constantly putting pressure on the Brackley defenders. It was a shame he put his one chance over the bar when it fell to him, but I’d love to see more of Harvey. Kyle Ferguson stepped in for Jake Wannell and put in the type of performance we saw from him last season. The return of Brett McGavin from the start also meant we had a progressive midfielder with the ability to get us forward rather than the defensively-minded pairing of Charlie Cooper and Finn Cousin-Dawson. With games on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday, we’re sure to see most of the squad this weekend.
We have to talk about the style. As brilliant as it was to get the three points (and stop talking about those cursed potatoes), it wasn’t the most inspiring night of football. That opening thirty minutes or so was dire. That is not a criticism of the players either, and clearly when Jed Ward realised it was working, he took responsibility on the pitch and sacked off the short goal kicks to cheers from the supporters. I don’t think we’re particularly dynamic in midfield and find it so frustrating when a visiting team comes to town and plays through us easily while we knock it about and struggle to make any meaningful openings. We’ve gone through change and brought in new players so some of that lack of cohesion is understandable, but we’re not an anomaly for that in the league. After all, what is pre-season for? I struggle to see an identity or attractive style of play, but hopefully the win will give us that confidence boost to play with a bit more freedom.
On today’s episode of the Gloverscast we talked at length about the future of Mark Cooper following the defeat at Forest Green Rovers. It’s only two games into the season, but the mood is so sour Rowntrees wish they could bag it up and sell it. It’s unusual to have this level of feeling this early and we know that it’s not just Garybunchofnumbers on X.
We were inundated with questions about the future of the manager and whether it was time for a change. One of the GCQs that came through was to put a poll out. So, here we are. Fence-dwellers, you have a not sure option if you need it.
Do you think Mark Cooper should remain Yeovil manager?
Total Voters: 1,075
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Andy Craig returns to the Gloverscast to dissect the 2-0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers. |t’s not pretty but there we are. Brackley on Wednesday to put it right…right?
Huge thanks to Abby Carter, Dexter Tyson, Seb White, Don Gibson, Benji Williams and Jack Wall for their voice notes.
The season is back and Yeovil have a point on the board after an opening day 0-0 draw with Hartlepool. Ben and Dave were on the stream, Mike Hudson was at Huish Park and Ian’s asking the questions.
Thanks to Dexter, Ed Turnbull, Foxy, FGQC Rob Manley ,Stoney and Andrew Foot and Gloverscast Chief Scout, Luca Manley.
