Ian Perkins (Page 80)

Chris Hargreaves. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town manager Chris Hargreaves has expressed a lack of ‘killer instinct’ in his side saw ten man Wealdstone hold the Glovers at bay for more than 80 minutes.

Yeovil, who actually extended a mini unbeaten run to three with the 0-0 draw, have been left wondering what might have been after a missed penalty and no fewer than four goal line clearances prevented a second win on the bounce.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the game he said;

They [Wealdstone] played with 10 men on Saturday and beat Gateshead so we knew that they’d be dogged.

I’ve played in those games myself as a player and its sometimes difficult to break a really tight formation down. We just didn’t have that creativity to do that today.

I showed my frustration to the players after the final whistle, but again I said that in the main they’ve done things we’ve asked them to do in facts of physicality and running and pressing and closing but just not quite enough creativity in that final third.”

Hargreaves made a positive changes throughout with Charlie Wakefield introduced at half time with Jake Scrimshaw and Callum Rowe also brought on in attacking roles, but it wasn’t to be.

Charlie’s had a really good start to the season and then been frustrated with injury. It is sometimes difficult to make a mark against a really organised, tight two banks of four, but we didn’t mix the game up enough by drifting in and asking the fullback a question.

That’s the disappointment that we didn’t have that guile to ask them a question with 2 v 1s when that’s the whole reason we changed the shape.”

“The messages at half time were to switch play quickly, hope that someone turns off, which inevitably they do when they’re tired and then you’re either in on goal or able to cross the ball. It didn’t materialise and were disappointed, definitely”

Best chance of all though, fell to the feet of Malachi Linton, who put his penalty into the car park, Hargreaves said he was happy to back his striker from the spot.

I always have in my mind that if you’re the most confident person on that pitch to take a penalty and you believe you’re going to score then you take it.

What I’ve said in the changing room will remain in the changing room, but for Mal he’s scored two fantastic goals already, he wont stop running, he’s brave as a lion and he didn’t mean to miss it.”

“I’ve got no proiblem with him missing chances and missing penalties, he’ll be the most disappointed out of anybody so he doesn’t need reminding of that. If we do score, we win the game but its a point that we reluctantly accept.

There’s been a few words in the changing room from the experienced lads because they want more and im pleased to see that. There’s been a bit of anger in there, no problem, that means they care.”

The Glovers host York City next weekend and will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run to four.

 

 

The first win is on the board for Chris Hargreaves. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t convincing, but who cares?! They all count. Here are Ian’s conclusions from yesterday’s 1-0 win.

We showed that we’ve got defensive resilience. Chris Hargreaves made some changes bringing in Alfie Pond and Ben Richards-Everton and it worked. The second half was an exercise in attack versus defence and marshalled by the impressive Josh Staunton, the Glovers kept free-flowing Dagenham at bay. They defended resolutely against a barrage of of corners. It was talked about in the build up to the game about the importance of seeing matches out and the players delivered for the manager, keeping a clean sheet and getting that all important first three points!

Image courtesy of Mike Kunz

 

It was a captain’s performance from Josh Staunton. With Alfie Pond making his debut, and Ben Richards-Everton returning from injury after three matches out, all eyes were on Josh Staunton to be the rock at the back. His performance was probably the best of the season so far. He saw the danger that Josh Walker was causing in the first half and took it upon himself to make sure Walker wasn’t allowed to do it in the second half. When the Glovers had to defend successive corners, Staunton was in the thick of things, putting his body on the line ensuring that Dagenham didn’t get an equaliser.

We’ve got a player in Alfie Pond. There’s a long way to go in Alfie Pond’s career, and as an 18-year-old he will have bad games at some point, but yesterday he looked the part. He had an early duel against one of the League’s best strikers in Paul McCallum which set the tone for his day. He was calm in possession of the ball, won his battles in the air and looked more than ready for the rigours of the National League. Having kept a clean sheet with Max Hunt dropped and Morgan Williams at wingback, there is plenty of competition for places at Huish Park at the moment.

Alfie Pond. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.


We seemed to show a lack of urgency at times.
I’m not sure if it was our defensive focus, but we certainly sacrificed some of the Harg-Ball in favour of being secure. Before we took the lead through Jamie Reckord, there were groans at the lack of urgency and unwillingness to play forward, but our patience paid off and we got what turned out to be the winner. But in the second half, when we were really under pressure, I felt like we never got going and when we did have the ball we took our time to move it forward. It paid off in the end and we got the win but it would have been a little more comfortable…wouldn’t it?

It’s time to push on. We’ve got the first win in the bank now, on Friday we secured two new signings and we’re at a stage where we’ve got genuine depth and competition in each position. We travel to Wealdstone tomorrow and welcome York to Huish Park this coming Saturday and if we’re going to be a side that flirts with the playoffs, we should be getting six-points from those two games. We’ll have to deal with the absences of Charlie Wakefield, Sam Pearson and possibly Lawson D’Ath, but as we showed today we’ve got options. Hopefully we can get on a bit of run, build some confidence and some convincing victories on the way.

After the first couple of man of the match votes, we’ve upped the ante a bit and added some extra options to get more views.

We have asked you for your first, second and third choice man of the match to give you some options and give credit to players who deserve it. With that in mind, the 1st choice will get five points, the 2nd will get three points and the third will get one point. Come the end of the season we’ll have an actual points total of who has performed the best over the course of the season (take that Morgan Williams’ Twitch mates!). Probably.

Anyway, in first place for the Barnet match on Tuesday 16th August was Sam Pearson with 33% of the vote.  Well done to the joker who voted for three unused subs.

 

Picking up three points for 2nd choice and one point for third place was Mr Matt Worthington – its fair to say that he’s undergoing a bit of a renaissance under Chris Hargreaves.

 

We also asked for general feedback on the team performance and entertainment value and evidently, people were pleased with what they saw in the results below. Looking forward to the Gladiator-esque “Are you not entertained?” from the manager at some point this season.

Thanks for sharing your views and please keep the votes coming in through the season.

The results are in for the man of the match voting from our first two fixtures of the season against Scunthorpe and Wrexham.

For the Scunthorpe match (which we lost 2-1) our goalscorer on the day Jamie Reckord was 1st with 83 votes (59%).  ‘Mal’ Linton in 2nd with 12 votes and Matty Worthington and Grant Smith in joint 3rd with 9 votes.

Our first match at home saw us draw 1-1 with Wrexham with some impressive performances across the team. Matt Worthington  came in first with 55 votes (29%), Sam Pearson had 36 votes and both Sam Perry and Linton had 31 votes.

Well done Jamie and Matt!

If you’ve not filled out the man of the match voting form for Altrincham yet, you can do it here.