Ian Perkins (Page 19)

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The Glovers picked up a brilliant 3-0 win at Solihull Moors on Saturday. Ian and Ben catch up with Dave, who made the trip. We talk about the return of Otis Khan, the departure of Frank Nouble and some lovely football. Plus, your GCQs.

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It was victory in Solihull for Yeovil Town this afternoon. Goals from Josh Sims (maybe?), Ciaran McGuckin and Alex Whittle lifted spirits following the departure of Frank Nouble earlier in the day. Mark Cooper spoke to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins following the match and here’s what he had to say.

Josh Perkins: Mark, it must be said, what a performance from your team.

Mark Cooper: The boys were fantastic. Followed on from a really spirited performance last Saturday. And you know, we asked them for the same endeavor, the same spirit, same commitment, and we showed that again today. And if you do that, you end up sometimes getting a little bit of luck. And we were worthy winners today. And yeah, it feels good.

Josh Perkins: I said on commentary that. I think especially away from home, that’s your best performance of the season. Would you agree?

Mark Cooper: We’ve won some, we’ve won quite a few games away from home, and we won at Wealdstone, we won at Fylde. We’ve won some entertaining games away from home. But in terms of that, we were never really in danger today. There was one at the end, that when you’re 3-0  it up you switch off a little bit. Apart from that, we were really comfortable, and our organisation was really good, and we looked solid. Compact.

Josh Perkins: The pick of three goals, really, is Alex Whittle’s. We’ll get to his. The first goal. Josh Sims will, will claim it, I’m sure goes down as an own goal. But just your thoughts on that Josh Sims/ own goal and Ciaran McGuckins goal as well, because that was taken well.

Yeovil Town celebrate Ciaran McGuckin’s goal.

Mark Cooper:  We’ve had to change the way we play because we haven’t got how we worked all preseason to play. We’ve got most of those players missing. So we’ve had to change to a 4-3-3, and that’s then about getting the ball to your wide players. And the work has been me screaming at the two wide players every time they get it to take people on. Simsy [Josh Sims], the last couple of games has been good. We’ve needed that from him, because he’s had a slow start for us, and I spoke to him about it, and he’s got so much ability. But, if he can keep that going and get better and better then we’ve got a real player there. But his goal was great, and then a great move for Ciaran’s goal. He needed that. Like I said to you before the game, if in January, Frank had gone and I’d have said we were bringing Ciaran in to replace Frank, everyone would have been cock-a-hoop, but because he’s had a stop-start time since he came back, it’s, ‘why have we done this? Why have we done that?’ So I’m really pleased for him. He got horrendous tackle in the first half, had to go off for that.

Josh Perkins: Good finish from him. And Alex Whittle, what a finish from him. I immediately saw him wheel away in celebration to the technical area and to you just talk me through that.

Mark Cooper: “The best clearance I’ve ever seen. I’m pleased. He’s a good character, and that’s a great finish for him. It’s one of them that either flies in or ends up on the runway at the airport down the road. But no, really pleased. I’m really pleased for fans. 240 proper fans, again, travel three hours, and they cheer the team on from start to finish. No negativity. And it’s really good. Maybe it’s a coincidence, when the fans get behind you, you can win a game.

Josh Perkins: Well, I noticed Khan as well, and his his reintroduction to Yeovil. I thought he played really well today.

Mark Cooper: Yeah, he’s a good footballer. Understands the game. He knows where to be, with the ball, without the ball, and, yeah, really pleased.

Josh Perkins: Just away from this game and in terms of injuries, I know you’re probably sick of hearing this, but any any closer to seeing the likes of McGavin and Wannell?

Mark Cooper: Brett McGavin, I don’t think we’ll play again this season. Horrendous tackle last Saturday against York. So Brett, that’s another key starter we’re missing, but we’re not allowed to mention that. Are we? One thing I have learned is that at Yeovil it doesn’t matter what you’ve got to be available. If you had eight under 12 players, you’d still be expected to win, and that’s the deal. So I’d just like to say thank you to the Chairman. He’s been steadfast in the support for players and staff. A proper Chairman, that’s what you need. He lets us get on with the job. He understands the situation we’re in.

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Frank Nouble has signed for Gateshead until the end of 2025/26 season, finally departing Huish Park nearly two weeks after Mark Cooper confirmed Nouble’s intention to leave.

The forward’s departure was confirmed in a statement by Yeovil Town posted at 12pm on Saturday ahead of the 3-0 win at Solihull Moors, which said: “Yeovil Town Football Club can confirm that Frank Nouble has been approached by Gateshead and has expressed his intention to pursue this move. While we are disappointed with his decision, we respect his right to make it. The club would like to make it clear that it has always prioritised the best interests of the team and its supporters.

“Nouble’s departure comes at a time when we are focused on strengthening our squad and continuing to build a competitive side for the remainder of the season. We thank Frank for his contributions during his time with the club, but our priority is to continue striving for success and to ensure the best interests of Yeovil Town Football Club and its loyal supporters.”

In response, the 33-year-old posted on his own Twitter/X account posted at 7.32pm on Saturday, saying: “There are some great people at YTFC, to the supporters, home and away for the last 2 years unreal!! thank you so much. A trophy in the cabinet too. Unfortunately my desire to stay at the club wasn’t reciprocated so on to the next. Take care.“

The contradictions between the two statements clearly underline a difference of opinion in the reasons behind the departure of the former West Ham United and Wolves forward, who played the full 90 minutes for his new club in a 2-0 defeat at home to Tamworth.

Frank Nouble. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Rumours about Gateshead’s interest and an impending takeover were confirmed by Cooper before the 3-0 defeat to Boston United on the 11th of March. Cooper said: “Apparently it is a potential new owner that is coming in to Gateshead that has agreed a deal with Frank, the deal has not gone through because of that. We were told (on Monday) it was agreed and I think from what we have heard now the deal has fallen through. Frank’s made his wishes clear, he wanted to move on and that is fine, he has done well for us and been a big part of what we are trying to do. But his future is elsewhere.”

Frank was part of the Glovers National League South winning side, and leaves Huish Park having scored 14 times in 80 appearances in green and white, including three crucial goals against Tamworth, Maidenhead and Southend United last month.

We’d like to say a huge thanks to Frank for his commitment whilst in the Yeovil shirt and his efforts in the community with his academy that has made a huge impact to youngsters in Yeovil.

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Mark Cooper has said that he is hopeful that he will be able to call upon four or five of his most experienced players in the coming weeks after injury,.

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset’s Josh Perkins ahead of the game this weekend, he said he was grateful to how the younger, newer players were adapting to life in Green and White, but that he hopes more players will be available soon.

“Well, I spoke about this, [the new recruits ] are all young lads that bring something different, so they’re trying to make their way in the game. So for us to try and replace Jake Wannell, Aaron Jarvis, Morgan Williams. Michael Smith, James Plant, Sean McGurk, to try and replace those players like for like, is impossible at this stage of the season in terms of experience. So the only other route is to try and get younger players that are making their way in the game, desperate to get some game time, and they bring something different, but at the moment, they’re learning the game, so they will make mistakes, and sometimes they’ll be better coming off the bench.

Through circumstance, they more or less all that to play last week against Boston and and it was a tough environment for them to play in, not a nice nice environment, and that knocks their confidence.
Then Boston go to a team in the playoffs and score three there. So it’s a tough environment. So we have to be careful with them, but until we get more frontline players back, we have to give them all the  support we can and trying to put them in the right position, in the right times, so they can really help too.”

Jake Wannell. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

As for when we might expect players to return, we are now into waiting “weeks” rather than “months” before we get players back from the physio room.

“It’s day to day, really, where you know, every time the physio rings me, I’m frightened to death to answer it, because you know somebody else is going to be up for six weeks. This is just a moment in time. It happens at certain teams, in certain seasons that you look at Tottenham all of their top players were injured. And that affects, it really affects and we just got to ride it out, and hopefully Wannell and Smith may be back in the next few days. Then we’ve been looking at Jarvis and Williams probably within a couple of weeks. So yeah, so hopefully there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

On Solihull,  who the Glovers come up against on Saturday, Mark Cooper said that they, like us, had been through plenty of change this season and that it is guaranteed to be a tough fixture.

“They’ve had lots of change, obviously, change of the Manager [who] went to the EFL to Barrow, done a great job.
They brought in Matty [Taylor] from Wealdstone. It’s always tough, when you go into a team that are used to a manager’s way, you have to try and change and adapt to the way you want it.
They’ve had a turn around of players, they’ve had some injuries, so it’s been tough, but they’ve had a little run, I think, three unbeaten. Like I always say, there’s never any easy games at this level, never. And we’re expecting a really tough game, but I’m sure they would have watched us against York, and they’ll be expecting a really tough encounter as well.”

Dan Burn scores at Wembley (pic Mike Kunz)

This Saturday marks Non-League day in the UK and few managers have had the level of success outside the EFL than Mark Cooper and he said that it represents the ‘lifeblood’ of the game in this country.

“If I give my experience, Dan Burn was a non-league player at Darlington, when I was a manager, I gave him his debut at 16, and I actually did an interview saying that he would play for England one day. I didn’t actually probably mean it at the time, but we were trying to raise his fee for when we sold him.
But that the game is littered with stories like that, of how many players have gone into non league to get some experience or have started in on me? So it’s vital that that it is celebrated. It’s just a shame that there’s not, there’s not as much funding coming down the pyramid as probably there should be, when you see how much money there is at the top end of the game with the Premier League and the wages.
I know once you’re once you’re in there, turkeys are not going to vote for Christmas are they? You know, they’re not going to vote to drip down more money down the pyramid. But I think we have to look at it and say, you realise where the actual lot of talent does come from. I give you actually.”

 

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It’s time the March edition of the YeoGov Survey (here’s a reminder of the results from February) and once again we want your thoughts about the four weeks that have just been.

In those four weeks, the Glovers turned form around to beat Tamworth, Maidenhead and draw with Southend before defeats against Barnet, Halifax, Boston United and York City this past weekend.

It’s the usual questions around performance around the club and the optional matchday experience one and this month we want to know if the club are performing as you expected for the first season in the National League. 

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The results of February’s YeoGov survey are in. Thanks to the 252 supporters who shared their thoughts.

As always we have the usual questions with the scores out of 7 below..

How do you think Mark Cooper is doing? 2.80
How do you think the players have performed? 3.04
What would you score the ownership/board? 3.15
What would you score the communication from the club? 3.54
What would you score the match day experience this month? 3.42

We also asked the question,  How important is it to you that Yeovil Town FC owns the land at Huish Park? to which the result was overwhelming with a score of 6.37 out of 7. The land has always been seen as a key unlock to secure the long term future of the football club and, clearly, it remains of vital importance to supporters.