Five Conclusions

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After 10 days off, it was not a happy return to Huish Park for Yeovil Town. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from a miserable night under the lights.

Where was the intent? From the kick off Wealdstone seemed to show all the intent, energy and desire. They controlled the ball – albeit it was Cooperball-esque – but we were never able to keep it and build our own pressure. Every scrap of something we had was a ball out to Oluwabori or Plant and hoping they could make something happen. All over the pitch we were sloppy with our passing and I thought, tactically, we had no answer to the visitors. Even if you take the conditions into account, Wealdstone had no problems and we cannot use it as an excuse. Wealdstone looked the like the home team last night [insert jab about training in Bristol] and that’s pretty damning.

Aaron Jarvis’ effort goes inches wide. Picture courtesy of Debs Curtis.

One step forward, two steps backwards. The improved performance against Carlisle United gave supporters a nugget of hope. We appeared to have turned a corner and the hope was to build some momentum. Maybe get some players back in and fit. Sadly, Sims and McGavin weren’t ready and yet again we still looked leggy. Oluwabori had little impact, Morais made no difference from the bench and Jarvis and Campbell were feeding off scraps. Even the Efete and Nurse, who I though looked good in the last outing, barely completed a pass to a teammate. Maybe the Carlisle draw (only our second all season) papered over the cracks, but our next two are even more difficult against Scunthorpe and Southend.

Goals goal goals. Nine matches at home this season, nine goals, three of which came against Gateshead. 25 goals at home last season, 18 at home in 22/23, 20 in 21/22.  Bar the National League South season (46), we’ve not had many chances to cheer during League matches. It feels like a tale as old as time in the National League, we struggle to created chances for our strikers. Last night was no different, Jarvis nearly got on the end of a cross in the 2nd half, but he and Campbell spent so much time coming deep to get the ball and bring others into the game but they get zero service. Oh for a Sonny Blu…

Mussa ran the midfield. Wealdstone’s number four seems to love Huish Park. Back in October 2021 he pulled the strings for W*ymouth in Yeovil’s 1-1 FA Cup draw and he did it again last night. Cool on the ball, fancy feet get out of tight spots – which set them on their way to a second goal – and read the game expertly. With McGavin and Maddox to return from injury to add to Joliffe and McCormick in the midfield, I really hope we can see some of that in our midfield. Or maybe, we can sign him in January? It’s not always raining sideways Omar.

What’s left this season? We’ve not even reached firework night and I feel like the reasons to believe this season are ebbing away. The minor momentum and good-will from Carlisle vanished last night with boos ringing around Huish Park on full time. Hopefully the FA Trophy draw is kind to us and we get can get a decent run in that. But, I’ve not seen enough consistency to think we can achieve anything more than mid-table this season. I hope I’m wrong on that and hope that preparation for 2026/27 is going on in parallel because, if the attendance is going to stay over 2,000, we need something to believe in.

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Have we all taken a breath and calmed down a little bit? Nope, Gloverscast Ben hasn’t either. It wasn’t Yeovil’s finest hour and a half of the season up at Spotland, Ben was on BBC duty, here are his Five Conclusions.

It was just too easy.

Not sure I need to say any more do I? It’s just not acceptable to allow the best team in the league to have the time and space we did on Saturday afternoon.

In too many key areas, too many of their key players had the freedom of Lancashire to pick their pass and dominate from start to finish. 

A couple of crunching tackles from the likes of Ferguson and FCD and a little hustle and bustle from Aaron Jarvis up front pretty much all the Glovers had going for them. You can’t stand off the best in the league, and expect anything other than a rout. 

I’m not entirely sure how much of a gulf in quality there is between the two sides – and I mean that – but the gulf in confidence, direction and plenty more intangible qualities was there for all to see. It could have been a cricket score. 

In a midfield muddle.

So, what are we doing in the middle of midfield then? FC-D, a central defender with all the effort and desire in the world. But he’s not a midfielder. I like FC-D, I think he’s way better than the universal square peg role. 

But he got pulled out of position by his far more dynamic opposite numbers, and that gave the likes of Devante Rodney so much space and time. It shouldn’t be on him to play that role, it’s not fair anymore.

Luke McCormick has probably got the most class and quality on the ball in the side, but his head looked to drop. He didn’t chase the play for the second goal, and was desperately looking for help around him. A free-to-roam McCormick is one of the best we have, we just cannot give him that security.

So, will Jacob Maddox fill that void? Probably not. It’s not worth rushing Brett McGavin back from a back problem that’s clearly causing more problems than first thought? Definitely not. Then there’s the Charlie Cooper shaped elephant in the room doesn’t seem to have an end point either.

We need a Matt Worthington/Charlie Lee/Dale Gorman/Paul Wotton [delete as appropriate]. A proper breaker upper that will allow those around him to be at their best. 

Confusing calls.

Anyone else surprised to see the new left back, George Nurse given the nod over Alex “79 YTFC Appearances and very, very few poor ones” Whittle? I was. 

“Welcome to Yeovil, mate, here are some of the finest attacking wing backs the league has to offer.” – For what it’s worth I thought he grew into the game and will be an asset for the next month or so, but give the guy a chance to get his feet in the door. 

I think Josh Sims has, overall, had a positive season, but on body language and early misplaced passes alone, I was surprised at the fact that he wasn’t sacrificed at the break as opposed to Oluwabori. 

I don’t know why Kyle Ferguson was the central defender sacrificed with 20 to go, I think he possibly thought similar as he begrudgingly sat down. He at least stuck his head in where it hurt a few times and clearly had his heart on his sleeve throughout.

New signing George Nurse talks to Josh from BBC Somerset.

Unused and unrequited?

We only used three subs again and I think we should note that in Junior Morias and Tahvon Campbell, two of the summer’s more ‘high profile’ signings didn’t get a look in. 

Would their relative experience have offered something a bit different in the front line? The ability to get within the same post code as Aaron Jarvis? Maybe, we don’t know – but like the Whittle thing, (who himself only got 12 minutes) – that’s a lot of ‘been there and done it’ not getting game time whilst new lads, young lads and out of position lads look a bit lost.

Surely time is up on Ben Wodskou too, nothing against him but since scoring against Brackley he’s played just about as many minutes for Birmingham Under 21s (170ish) than Yeovil (200ish). He’s taking up a loan spot and that’s something we need to use effectively with a thin squad. 

Which direction are we going?

I think the one thing that came out of it was I just didn’t understand what the idea is right now on the pitch. We look rudderless. I wasn’t sure of the game plan or even how we were looking to make an impact on the game after the goals. 

There were times that players even looked like the message wasn’t getting out there. When Whittle came on he passed on a word or two and both Luke McCormick and George Nurse looked a bit… “Who, me? Where? In there? Errr….okay“.

Byron Pendleton was our furthest man forward at points, and I couldn’t help but feel like it was all getting a bit too complicated.

I hate the fact that I’ve named names in these conclusions, because I actually don’t think we have a bad squad – in fact, I know we don’t – but something has to change to restore some confidence, belief and direction.

I think a return to some simple football, some simple tactics, (4-4-2, anyone?) is a way to resolve the current chaos.

We could be competitive with top six sides, but right now, simplicity is key. It might take some tough calls – three central defenders into two doesn’t go, for example – but we’re 6-0 down across the last two league games without really landing a punch and we’ve been dumped out the FA Cup by 10 part timers.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Plenty of the 107 fans at Spotland would be forgiven for thinking they’d gone insane on Saturday.

Jed Ward about to save another Rochdale attack.

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Yeovil Town’s FA Cup dream came to a premature end at the first hurdle for the second successive season yesterday. The Glovers were beaten by a Hemel Hempstead Town side which played for more than an hour with ten men. Dave was among the travelling contingent and here are his conclusions.

 

Out fought. Out thought. Out. We were simply second best in every department and I have to say right off the bat that Hemel deserved their win. From the opening whistle, they simply wanted it more and we never seemed to have a plan to counter them. You can put a misplaced pass or a scuffed shot down to the surface, but time and again we were pulled apart and gave them time and space to run. At the risk of sounding like the old man (I know, I am), but I miss us the Cup giving our players the hunger and desire I saw from Hemel. 

How it was not 2-0 at half-time I will never know!

Are we sure they had ten men? An extension on Conclusion #1, but two occasions in the second half I had to count Hemel’s players to be sure. Aside from a few moments around the time we scored, they never looked like they were a man down. You can see why they are in the form they are in the National League South. Defensively they were outstanding and we simply could not find a way through. 

Where did our desire to attack go? If I had not seen highlights of the games at Aldershot and Sutton, I would have believed they were AI inventions. In the first half, it was only when Andrew Oluwabori got on the ball that we ever had any purpose going forward and in the second only when Byron Pendleton came on did we look to get balls in from wide positions. There is quality going forward in this team, but we simply did not show it.

What are we doing here? Hearing Richard Dryden say we had tried and failed to attract players to strengthen the squad is a major red flag. But should we be surprised? We’ve heard about ‘The 3 Cs’ from our owners -calmness, competitiveness, community, in case you forgot. But it’s not easy to stay calm with no obvious plan about how we’re going to be competitive. A manager who feels stop gap no matter how much we’re told he’s not, players signing on 12-month deals, what are we selling people here? It feels like we’re living hand to mouth waiting for……what? 

Rochdale next. Gulp. Next up, top of the league Rochdale away from home. That one speaks for itself. Another clear week, another chance to take a breath and I hope the pain we all feel – and yes I include the team, they must feel it – gets a reaction.

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It was a big old bump back to reality yesterday as Boreham Wood put Yeovil Town to the sword in a 3-0 defeat for the Glovers. Mike Hudson was at Huish Park and here are his Five Conclusions.

It was always going to be a tough one. Boreham Wood have readjusted to this level as if they never left, with Luke Garrard’s side scoring plenty of goals and winning plenty of games since returning to the National League. Meanwhile, we’ve been recovering from a turbulent start to the season with impressive wins against struggling Sutton, Altrincham, and Aldershot. This recent form has rightly created a lot of positivity over the last ten days. However, Saturday was always going to be a much bigger test, and give us a much clearer picture of where we are as a club. The answer was humbling. In truth, at times it looked like we were playing a club a level higher than us, rather than a few places in the table at the start of play. There was plenty of fast flowing, attractive and attacking football at Huish Park on Saturday, but it was coming from the away team.

Jed Ward
Pic Gary Brown

We had our backs to the wall from the outset. The warning signs came fast and early as we struggled to deal with the Boreham Wood press and attack. The boys in Green and White struggled to keep hold of the ball for any length of time, and we spent a lot of the game penned in our own half as a result. While there is much to say for not changing a winning formula, after the shift these players have put in of late, this game was probably the time to add some freshness. Of course hindsight is 20-20, but in a game in which we were always likely to spend large periods without the ball, legs were going to be important and unfortunately I think we were lacking them. As we neared half time, the huge positive was that we had somehow stayed in the game, but as the stormy conditions continued, their second goal on the stroke of half time knocked the wind out of our sails completely.

Too many players were off it. I’ll say it again… Boreham Wood are a good side. They are playing the type of football I dream that we one day might. But we won’t get anywhere by just admiring them as a superior team. We have to reflect on our own performance, and the reality was too many players weren’t at it. There were mistakes and poor decision a-plenty. It would have been a tall task with everyone firing at 100%, but with a lot of players below par and a few really struggling it was mission impossible. That’s not a criticism of this squad, who have been unreal of late. It was an almost an inevitable outcome of lots of games, lots of turmoil, a small squad, and two teams with seemingly different ambitions. They kept battling to the end, and we arguably had our best period in the last quarter of the match.

Jed Ward is ridiculous. I know it’s nothing new, but what a keeper we have between the sticks. It’s rare that you lose 3-0 and your keeper wins Man of the Match, but he deserved the accolade. Three goals did not flatter Boreham Wood at all, and without some brilliant stops and quick thinking, it could easily have been six. We were humbled at home, but Jed stopped it being an humiliation.

Jed Ward
Pic Gary Brown

This team need help from above. The games are going to keep coming thick and fast, and if we have any intentions of a much needed cup run, alongside remaining competitive in the League, this team will need some help. Charlie Cooper, Jacob Maddox and James Daly getting closer to a return, may just feel like new signings. The board tried to dampen the fan noise after Danny Webb’s departure by promising increased funds, but so far we haven’t seen that turn into scarf based social media posts. It would be good to see some fresh bodies through the door soon, especially with bookings piling up, and a couple of players picking up knocks on Saturday. We saw how quickly a season can ebb away in the second half of our last campaign, and we are going to be asking a lot of our paper thin squad to keep going through a busy winter period. More than that, it would be good to see some sign of intent from this new ownership, and plans that extend beyond the end of the season. Huish Park crowds are not growing back to the 3000 number at the moment, although they were in fine voice considering. Also I do have this nagging feeling of discomfort …  Yes, context is very important, and there is lots of that, but personally I don’t want this club to get too used to being content with home losses to ‘better teams’ at a level we should aspire to be getting out of. Not for long anyway.

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Two Three wins on the bounce for Yeovil Town. Tom was there for Green and White Radio on Tuesday, here’s what he saw from behind the mic.

Andrew Oluwabori. Wow. Wow wow wow. What a player we’ve got on our hands, even if he isn’t actually ours. The birthday boy ran riot on Tuesday, dancing past players like they were nothing. He reminds me of that kid at school who was so obviously better than everyone else cos he played outside of school too… he’s just mint! If I’m being super critical, his end product still needs a bit of work, but at just 23, there’s still a lot of time for that to develop. Late birthday wishes to you Andrew, and topping it off with a tidy finish was the best way to celebrate!

It’s early days, but we may have been wrong about Dryden. It’s three wins on the spin for the former assistant-come-interim-come-assistant-come-interim coach now, and I’ll be honest, I scoffed when I heard the words “attacking style of football” on the webpage of the statement following Danny Webb’s departure and Dryden’s subsequent appointment. I’m eating my words now, he has managed to turn the ship around very quickly, and employ a brand of football that Yeovil fans will actually want to come and watch! Of course we’re still early into this experiment, but I’m beginning to believe again!

We need to talk about Finn Cousin-Dawson. I want to start this point by stressing that Finn is a fantastic player, I’ve really enjoyed watching him settle into his spell here, and leading the backline last season through an injury crisis was admirable at such a young age. That being said… the “can FCD play in midfield” experiment has run its course for me. I lost count of the amount of times he was caught flat footed and out of position, and he just doesn’t have the awareness to play in that position for me, following a clumsy performance in which he worked his way into the referee’s book. Swap him and Wannell if you’re going to experiment again, but Finn is definitely a defender in my books.

Three in a row! It’s the first time we’ve won three National League games in a row since March 2022 (0-2 vs Dover, 2-1 vs Bromley, 2-0 vs Southend) – that’s a mind-boggling stat for a club the size of Yeovil, and now it’s time to try and make it four on the spin for the first time since September 2019. The performances are beginning to match the results, and I’m starting to feel that familiar tinge of excitement in my belly!

Let’s dare to dream… I know, I know – don’t get too far ahead of yourself Tom. But I think I can safely say that Yeovil fans are tired of not looking forward to anything. Let’s dare to dream, let’s look up the table and feel some kind of optimism now – we’ve got a talented, albeit thin, squad that will surely be strengthened in the coming weeks, a coaching setup packed with experience and new ideas, and a fanbase capable of powering the squad through any situation. Roll on Boreham Wood, it’s gonna be a tough one, but let’s dream of those three points…

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Two wins on the bounce for Yeovil Town. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions after a breathless afternoon at Huish Park.

There’s something about Richard Dryden. Clearly it helps winning back to back matches (and let’s not forget the Woking win too) but there’s something about Richard Dryden that I’m finding quite endearing. He talks plainly, there’s a touch a humour to him and I think – alongside the stress – he’s enjoying it. There was a moment towards the end of the match, when we were backs to the wall where he turned around to the supporters behind them and urged them to up the noise and the crowd responded to it. He may not have been anyone’s first choice, but in a short time he’s built a spirit amongst a squad that crumbled against Gateshead, and picked up four wins from six.

Andrew Oluwarbori was the spark. He’s probably the first player we’ve had that gets people on their feet the second he gets the ball since…himself. You could sense the fear in the Altrincham defence every time Oluwabori got the ball yesterday. His direct running kept the visitors backpedaling and it was a matter of time until he made an impact. His super strike cannoned of the bar (and was so close to sneaking under the bar) and he should have doubled the lead when he was through on goal. But, his deft cross after standing up an Altrincham defender was perfect for Morgan Williams to nod the Glovers ahead. A constant threat and he’s getting closer to scoring each time.

We defended for our lives. After a really exciting end to end first half, the second was very different. After Junior Morias and Josh Sims spurned chances to make it 2-0, Altrincham upped the tempo and started to knock the ball around as we know they can. Richard Dryden had to make changes with tiring legs and the players showed unbelievable spirit to dig in and repel wave after wave of attack by Altrincham. With the supporters roaring every clearance and singing in unison, when that final whistle finally blew the sense of relief was huge.

We still need reinforcements. These two wins have shown the quality of this group, but for the last half an hour yesterday there was only one team with the legs to attack. We looked dead on our feet by the final whistle even with the subs entering the fray. We had a genuinely strong bench yesterday and with Cooper and Maddox still to come back there’s will be even more available eventually, but we still need more. I still worry about our lack of depth at fullback/wingback. If there’s few suspensions or another run of injuries we could quickly be very light again.

You can feel the spirit in this team. After the most ridiculous of weeks, this group of players and staff has shown unity and character in spades. They have a point to prove after this week and appear to have really galvanised around Richard Dryden and Jerry Gill. With Sutton, down amongst the relegation zone, on Tuesday there’s a great chance to take another three points with this momentum.

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Yeovil Town pulled off a scintillating performance at Aldershot Town last night to pick up a vital three points just over 48 hours after the club was rocked by the news now former manager Danny Webb had quit after just 11 days in the hot seat. Here are Gloverscast Ben’s conclusions on a magical evening at The Recreation Ground. 

Where did that come from?

If ever there was a game the team could be excused for having a stinker this was it. The carnage of this week (see month, year or decade) would have seen lesser people throw the towel in and just write off a performance with a more than fair reasoning to go with it.

We could probably write 100 conclusions on the last week, but I really don’t think we should understate just how impressive it was for that group of professional footballers to put it aside and cut an Aldershot side open time and time again and do it with a massive smile on their faces. You’re a credit to yourselves, the football club and those who follow it. Thanks lads, we needed that.

Andrew Oluwabori during his first spell on loan at Yeovil Town. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Oluwabori has grown up

He is a different lad this time around isn’t he? We spoke on the podcast about how he was exciting and energetic but in the two boxes he lacked that extra bit of quality in his first stint, but with plenty of National League games and a few in the EFL under his belt, it does feel like we have got a slightly different player this time around.

He is making better decisions in key areas and has retained that eye catching ability to turn the edge of our box into the edge of theirs in a flash. He looks desperate for his first goal of his second stint and I feel like its not far away.

Penalty options

Remember when Yeovil getting a penalty meant fearing we wouldn’t have anyone capable of slotting a ball home from 12 yards?

Well, yesterday, with Messrs McGavin and Morias off the pitch, I was delighted to see not one, but two players race to grab a ball and march towards the spot.  Tahvon Campbell eventually got the nod after a little mediation from Luke McCormick to Oluwabori who looked just as eager to take it. 

Campbell scored, to make it 4-0 and put even the most tiniest Gateshead-based PTSD to bed. I like knowing we have spot kick options. 

Kyle Ferguson. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The Kyle Ferguson conundrum

The simple act of showing Aldershot fans the four fingers as he waits on the sidelines, might have just tipped me over into DFILWF territory.  But here’s the thing, just about no Yeovil fan likes having a back three. So, how do you navigate this?

You can’t drop or shift either Williams or Wannell to a full back to accommodate, and you sure as anything can’t drop Ferguson right now. He’s playing as well as anyone in the team at the moment. Maybe… maybe we like wing backs now? *shudders* 

Avoiding an after the Lord Mayor’s Show

It’s been a frankly ridiculous (and yet somehow relatively normal) week and that response was absolutely brilliant. 

The 200 Yeovil fans there (and the rest watching on via the DAZN stream) are going to go home and tell people it’s excellent again. That might put some more bums on seats for the visit of Altrincham to Huish Park on Saturday, but whilst I’m reluctant to ask even more of this group, a home win to back that up would feel like it counts double.

We’ve done a bit of win one-lose one a bit recently, turning one of those into a positive run of form would do so much to alleviate some of the anxiety and worry the fan base has right now. 

We don’t do normal, do we?

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A stuttering start to the Danny Webb era for Yeovil Town, a scrappy 1-0 defeat at the hands of Tamworth.
Our resident artist, Alex “Distant Glover” Russell was in the ground for the game, here are his Five Conclusions.

Set-piece Fest
Maybe I have seen games where the opposition got more corners or throw-ins in the final third, but I don’t remember them.

However good you are at defending set-pieces, if you concede that many, the opposition will take advantage of one. And they did.

At the other end, our ability to make good passes seemed to diminish the nearer we got to Tamworth goal. Their defence seemed fairly comfortable dealing with long balls, but when we picked up the pace, hit an easy-on-the-eye shorter pass or took a player or two on, they looked more wobbly. Oh, and this isn’t just Yeovil, but older fans may remember a thing called crosses. They’re a bit like a set piece, but you don’t have to wait for the ball to go out of play, the defence don’t get time to turn the box into a mosh-pit and every now and then a goal happens.

Patience
As a famous man once said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end”. And let’s face it folks, it’s just the beginning of the beginning. (That last sentence might not be word-for-word.)

Much as we’d all love it if Danny Webb could flip a switch and make everything Championship again by next week, Prabhu’s team are playing the long game and the appointment of Webb is part of that. There is lots of unwelcome stuff that needs changing: training near Birmingham, not owning Huish Park, maybe the crossed-out names and numbers on the back of the home kit. The proof will be in the pudding, but it looks like there’s a far more open approach to communication in place. Being open and honest with fans on a regular basis will make it so much easier to understand why we should be patient. Although we may be stuck with the ropey graphics.

What’s the story? (Nearly)
To paraphrase a slightly less famous man, that was nearly the best ten seconds of my life. Andrew Oluwabori’s previous stint with us wasn’t all that notable, but he fell into the category of “got a load better after he left us”. Webb has faith in him, and his return was nearly marked by what might have been a goal of the season contender. Nearly. Yes, he looked like a player who was having to find his way in a new squad in an actual match. But there was a mazy run past nearly 400 Tamworth players that hinted at the sort of quality that can change games. Nearly.

Them and us
Tamworth may not play pretty football and they have a terrible excuse for a pitch, but ten games in, they’re in the play-offs and ten places above us. Their rise has been remarkable and it’s all down to Andy Peaks, a manager who’s eked out something really special out of very limited resources. It was interesting to hear their fan Stuart on yesterday’s “Foot in the Opposition Camp” (look Ben – a plug).

The Tamworth model is to stay part time, and use their middle-of-the-country location to attract the cream of the want-to-keep-another-job crop of players. We’re not in the middle of the country and we’re full-time (thanks, Webb Senior), but we get waaaaay more than 1,199 (at least a quarter of whom were in green). This might sound like some dreadful corporate away-day workshop cliché, but I’d like to have a clear vision of what our model is now. Why are we special? What makes us unique? (Apart, you know, from all loving cider and the Wurzels.)

Weighing up walls
Webb is obviously assessing what he’s got to work with, and from his post-match interview, is going to shed players as well as bring them in. Time will tell if the small squad he’s inherited will favour the latter rather than the former, but he’s going to have to make some hard decisions as well as some canny signings.

(Can someone have a word, though, and tell him never to use the “worked their socks off” phrase again?) I always struggled with Cooper’s seemingly disposable approach to squad building.

Good teams are always more than the sum of their parts, characters who want to run through walls not just for the gaffer, but for each other and the club. Yes, there’s a balance – you can’t wait forever to see if the lummox actually is David Silva – but it’s hard to build that with a revolving door policy. If you want Huish Park to be a fortress, build a squad of regulars who make it impossible not to get behind. We won’t even mind if they demolish a few of the fortress walls.

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Yeovil grabbed their second home win of the season against Woking yesterday. Here are Ian’s conclusions from the Huish Park press box.

Huish Park needed that. After all the turbulence of the last few weeks the unveiling of Danny Webb before the match set the tone for what (eventually) ended up being a memorable afternoon at Huish Park. Richard Dryden said it in his post-match interview, and he’s right, the whole club needed that win. The players ran themselves into the ground and they earned it. The coaching staff who’ve been able to steady the ship and maintain morale amongst players earned it. The supporters who, especially at Huish Park, have been starved of moments. Luke McCormick’s late winner was one of those moments that will live long in my memory and can hopefully be the catalyst for this season under Danny Webb.

Trialist Luke McCormick runs past a Bristol Rovers player in a pre-season friendly match.
Luke McCormick on the move. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

Don’t fall in love with footballers. It’s a risky business having a favourite, they inevitably leave and break your heart. The performances of Luke McCormick in recent weeks have been the kind that make you catch feels. He had another good game yesterday and his stoppage-time goal was well-deserved for those recent performances. He’s built a great partnership with Brett McGavin in midfield and, to me, comes across as a real organiser on the pitch, looking for runs, making runs and playing positively with intent. After the match he said how he ‘loves the club’ and if he continues to play like this, we’ll love him too.

The first half was poor. It was, as the cliche goes, a game of two halves. Woking had the best of a very poor first half. I didn’t think either side was particularly brilliant but the visitors had a bit more control albeit with chances from outside the box. Woking couldn’t handle the second half reaction from the Glovers who, by the full time whistle, we were well worth the win. I thought the subs made an impact on the game, Tahvon Campbell could have got the winner himself, Aaron Jarvis was the disrupter-in-chief making the Woking defence (and keeper) as uncomfortable as possible.

Thanks to Richard Dryden. In the last couple of weeks I feel like we’ve got to see more of Richard Dryden and get a sense of what he’s about. He and Chris Todd have kept this group motivated, happy and working hard. Off the back of Mark Cooper’s departure I think it was generally expected that Dryden would follow, but he’s kept morale high and while results haven’t been amazing, you can’t say the players have downed tools while the managerial situation has been in limbo. There was a sense of relief with Dryden yesterday with Danny Webb taking the reins now and you have to give him  some credit for keeping things steady.  He deserved the win yesterday.

That was a great result going into the new era. This squad of players, united in victory, goes into a full week of training with a new manager with new ideas. There is a feeling of freshness, optimism and energy about the club and, I think, a manager that everyone will unite behind. Danny Webb got a good ovation before the game, was scribbling notes throughout the match and was in the tunnel waiting for his new players after the game. It’s exciting to see what’s next and it all starts with Tamworth next weekend.

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Better late than never as they say. Ian was at Huish Park on Saturday and here are his Five Conclusions from a difficult afternoon in the sun.

We were outclassed. The gulf between two sides couldn’t have been more obvious. York’s squad has been very expensively assembled and the way they controlled the game was impressive. The way they passed at pace with one and two touch passes is everything we should aspire to be. We had no response for their runners as they methodically pulled green and white shirts out of position.

James Plant needed help. I get the back three with our current availability, but poor James Plant was left on toast by Joe Felix all day. It wasn’t until it was probably too late that Josh Sims moved over to the left to offer more protection than Junior Morias. Felix had the better of Plant repeatedly and Plant’s afternoon was summed up with the conceding of the penalty. Would we have been better as a back four with a left midfielder to double up on Felix? Probably. Would that have taken an attacking threat away? Probably. Would it have made any difference? Probably not.

James Plant
Pic – Gary Brown

We look tired. Clearly having a small squad with injuries to key players increases the work load on these players and its showing. I thought our substitutes looked like they’d played the full 90 when they were on the pitch. With no back up in the fullback positions we’re asking a centre-back to come in do a job at right wing back, we’re asking Josh Sims – our most impressive attacking player this season – to cover off defensively when we need his impact higher up. Without Alex Whittle, Charlie Cooper and James Daly, this small squad of quality needs a top up sharpish.

Luke McCormick is quickly becoming my favourite. Since moving to centre midfield we’ve seen what a player we have in McCormick. Energy, running with the ball and a brilliant finish on Saturday shows he has goals in his game too….ahem. We need to protect him though, because if he has to come out of the team our midfield really is weakened. With Charlie Cooper still out and Finn Cousin-Dawson in the unenviable position of utility man, there is a lot of pressure on McMidfield to play the full 90 if matches are in the balance.

Luke McCormick scrambles the ball home against York
Pic – Gary Brown

We need to get this appointment sorted. I am all for patience. Hell, I was waiting two and half years for us to produce the kind of football we saw undo us on Saturday. But these players need direction, new ways or working and a bit of a rocket to get out of this funk. The next three matches are what I would consider winnable. We won’t just these players on York and Forest Green Rovers but if we’re going to be looking up rather than over our shoulders, Woking, Tamworth and Aldershot are the teams we must be competitive against.