Gloversblog (Page 31)

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Well, it wasn’t pretty, but a hard-earned three points for ten-man Yeovil Town at Woking are the first we’ve got on the board in 2022. Here’s how Coatesie saw it from his vantage point at the Kingfield Stadium….

 

It probably doesn’t bear counting as a conclusion any longer, but this team really is putting everything on the line for points this season.
In a profession where there is a dwindling amount of loyalty, we have a team constructed of those at either ends of their careers who are playing like their lives depend on it.
There’s no experienced heads looking to see out their autumn years on easy street, or youngsters who see this as simply a step on the ladder – or if they do, they are going to kick and fight their way up it.
I cannot help being drawn back to the comparison of the side which took us out of the Football League…..if that side had half the spirit of this one….anyway, that’s a conversation for another day.

Luke Wilkinson.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

How much do we need Luke Wilkinson? The manager described his performance as “great, rubbish and great all in the same game” but even at his most ‘rubbish’ he was inspiring.
Ben Barclay alongside him looks a useful addition and when the kitchen sink came from Woking with us down to ten men, they ran in to a Wilko and Barclay-shaped wall.
The stats in all competitions where he’s featured speak for themselves.
With Wilko: P17 W11 D1 L5.
Without Wilko: P12 W1 D6 L5.
That is if you count the penalty shoot-outs against W*ymouth and Needham Market (both without Wilko) as draws at 90 minutes, and give him a win for his two-minute cameo at the end of the victory at Wrexham.

Whilst you can only beat what’s in front of you, this was a very poor Woking team.
Missing their only decent player in Max Kretzschmar and now without their only goal threat, Tahvon Campbell, who moved back in to the League at the, they were devoid of any quality.
A better side or one with a player able to find a bovine’s behind with a string instrument would surely have put away some of the chances Woking wasted.
Even with ten men for half-an-hour, there was only one occasion where Grant Smith was forced in to serious action.
The effort we put in saw is over the line, but let’s make no mistake this was a poor opponent.

I could complain about the referee, Tom Bishop, who was seemingly intent on sending someone off from the opening moments….oh, I just did a bit!
But, there were too many occasions where we gave the referee an invitation he didn’t need to go to his pocket.
Darren Sarll described Tom Knowles as a “daft bugger” for getting his fifth yellow for delaying play, and it felt like both sides gave away fouls which you can afford to do  against a trigger-happy referee.
When both benches are throwing their hands up in frustration at decisions, you get the impression of the kind of game Mr Bishop had.

Finally, who’s still standing? With Tom Knowles now suspended for Tuesday’s derby with W*ymouth, Jordan Barnett having limped off with a hamstring strain to go with the ankle injury he went in to Saturday with, it’s looking threadbare.
The addition of Barclay was a plus and it was great to see Lawson D’Ath back on the bench – oh how we could do with his skill in midfield – but more reinforcements are needed.

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Wrexham fought back to clinch a 2-1 win at Huish Park yesterday, here are my Five Conclusions from the match.

The supporters have turned. I believe there was a vocal minority of negativity towards Scott Priestnall not so long ago. But it felt different this weekend. The chants were the loudest they’ve been and even found their way to the Screwfix Stand. We can only hope the his statement on Friday was his final toy thrown out of the pram and there’s not more to come. He’s shown his contempt for supporters and from the reaction at Huish Park, that vocal minority isn’t such a minority any more.

Tom Knowles in action for Yeovil Town.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

There were times that our front three looked unplayable. The interplay between Tom Knowles, Charlie Wakefield and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton was the best we’ve looked going forward all season. Knowles’ goal was classic Knowles and I thought Wakefield looked to be back in a decent form. That said, we should have put the game to bed. Wakefield’s miss was a sitter and he won’t need to be told that again. There was a decent chance right at the start of the second half too. If we can get that trio working like that regularly, I think we’ll score more goals. And, a shout out for Sonny – I think that was the best I’ve seen him play for us. Calm on the ball, sharp with his passing and I think he held his own in circumstances he wasn’t when he first joined. He’s such a technically gifted player and I think/hope that’s beginning to show.

I thought Mark Little had a good game. He showed his experience and he showed why Darren Sarll hyped him up so much at the start of the season. He was always talking to his teammates and I felt he had some decent moments in attacking situations. Sarll said he shouldn’t have been on the pitch after 60 minutes, let alone move to centre back. He’s been talked about as a big influence behind the scenes, hopefully he can start having an influence on the pitch, stay fit and help drag us out of this run of form.

We need to get out of this run, soon. This feels a bit familiar, after a decent run of wins we now find ourselves on a run of six without a win. I felt we played well today and we probably could have won it, but the suspect officiating really did break our flow and the loss of Josh Staunton afterwards compounded that. We need to find a way out of this run to keep our season alive or I fear the playoffs will be out of reach. The problem is, our squad is thinning out be that through injury or the owner selling them.

Yeovil Line Up vs Weymouth

The spirit amongst these players is first class. Despite all they’ve had thrown at them in the last couple of weeks, this ever-depleting squad is as close as any other squad I can recall. This young, hungry group work for eachother and for the supporters. We said it early in the season, but the the bond between this group and the Huish Park faithful is wonderful and as Darren Sarll said after the match, they’re so close. They lost a big player, forgive the pun, in Joe Quigley yesterday, Luke Wilkinson has been out, Max Hunt is on crutches and Josh Staunton hobbled off but still they go on with energy and positivity. They are an infectious bunch of lads who the supporters are firmly behind, they are the antithesis of the owner of the football club.

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On Friday night, Yeovil Town chairman Scott Priestnall declared that the sale of top-scorer Joe Quigley to Chesterfield for an undisclosed fee had been necessary to balance the Huish Park books.

In a statement, the owner said that the sale had been made to boost the club’s coffers “at a time when our average attendances are much lower than expected“.

Owner Scott Priestnall speaks alongside manager Darren Sarll in July.

Referring to the “much lower than expected” attendances, he claimed speculation around the ownership of the club was “certainly not helping the club cover lost revenues of playing behind closed doors (last season).”

Rewind to the end of July, Priestnall sat alongside manager Darren Sarll and declared that season ticket sales were “ahead of schedule“, adding this his focus was on ensuring his manager had “the resources to be competitive.”

So, after what no-one can question last season was a financial heart attack for all football clubs, let’s take a look at what we know about where money has come in to the club since the summer:

Sport England loans – £801,538

In two loans, the club borrowed £801,538 from Sport England which the club said were “given to clubs due to lost revenue from last season’s lockdown period” – it says ‘given’ but they do expect them back, incidentally.

The statement in August added: “This means that the loan itself is in relation to the costs and creditors from last season, and that is what the loan will be used for.”

In the very same statement, titled ‘Financial Update’, the club confirmed it had settled its debts with the taxman having taken a ‘payment holiday’ with HM Revenue & Customs during lockdown.

So, probably our most important creditor settled up with and a hefty loan to deal with costs and creditors from a season behind-closed-doors.

FA Cup prize fund and television money – £158,004

The third round of the FA Cup ended in defeat which meant no prize money, but the switch to the game on the BBC Red Button brought in an additional £32,000.

The second round FA Cup tie against Stevenage saw Yeovil Town pick up £34,000 in prize money and £60,000 for the game being broadcast live on BBC television.

Darren Sarll’s side progressed through the FA Cup’s fourth qualifying round (£9,375 in prize money) and the first round proper (£22,629) as well.

FA Trophy prize fund – £6,000

The FA Trophy third round win brought in an additional £4,500 and even losing to Needham Market in the fourth round generated £1,500.

Tally up these things and you reach the princely sum of £965,542. Not to be sniffed at.

But, of course, it is attendances that are the problem.  The lack of games at Huish Park with fans in attendance last season don’t give us a great deal of insight, but in the 2019/20 season, which ended in early March, we averaged crowds of 2,951.

It does beg the question why we budgeted for crowds of 3,000, according to a statement from the chairman, when we haven’t actually managed an average gate of above 3,000 since 2016-17 as a League club, but we’ll let that slide.

This season we’ve topped the 2019/20 average on three occasions – W*ymouth in the FA Trophy (3,354), Torquay on January 2 (3,866) and the FA Cup third round with AFC Bournemouth this month (7,818).

There’s been four occasions when crowds have dipped below 2,000 (five if you include Bridgwater in the Somerset Premier Cup), but that still means 41,926 supporters attended 16 matches at Huish Park this season – giving an average crowd of 2,620.

That is on average 331 people fewer than the 2019/20 season when we went out at the first time of asking in the FA Cup – so is that so different? For context, that puts us comfortably in the top half of the National League attendance table.

Last season, we also picked up undisclosed transfer fees for young striker Alfie Lloyd for “an undisclosed fee plus add ons” to QPR in May 2021, and frontman Courtney Duffus for another undisclosed fee in January 2021, and we’ve heard Sarll talk about his pride at the fees that he has picked up for players.

Myles Hippolyte was another who went for an undisclosed fee to Scunthorpe United in the summer of 2020, peak pandemic time – but that was 18 months ago, so we can’t count that.

On the field, the experienced heads of Rhys Murphy, Charlie Lee, Carl Dickinson and Jimmy Smith, who would have been among the top earners, departed our payroll in May, and off-the-field Sarll spoke yesterday about “staff shortages” – not least his lieutenant, Terry Skiverton.

Yes, we brought in Mark Little, another experienced head, but the majority of arrivals were of the youthful variety – hence having the second-youngest squad in the division.

So, with the thick end of £1m either borrowed or made through prize money, attendances dipping 331 below the levels of two years ago, transfer fees already brought in, a wage bill trimmed – and don’t even get me started on supporters’ donating more than £50,000 to a Crowdfunder when the chips were down in the summer of 2020.

After all that, we’re still in a position where we’re having to fire sale players to clubs we should be competing against for promotion, Mr Priestnall?

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Every week (well, every time we don’t forget!), the Gloverscast pens a column for the Western Gazette giving our views on ongoings at Huish Park, here’s the one which appeared in the edition on January 20:

As we come towards the end of what might be one of the most tumultuous weeks in Yeovil Town’s 125 year history, it has almost gone under the radar that the Glovers have a league game this weekend… a pretty big one at that.

How we’ll all remember Skivo – in a green-and-white shirt.

You’ll have read the tributes to the departing Terry Skiverton this week, you’ll have taken in the fall our to the dramatic and disappointing FA Trophy exit at the hands of Needham Market, but much like what’s left of the Glovers’ management team, the focus had to once again turn to Saturday.

The show, as they say, must go on.

I won’t disagree that the form since Boxing Day has been nothing short of terrible, and the context around the double defeat to Torquay, the losses against Southend, Bournemouth and of course Needham Market need no repeating.

Do you think Darren Sarll has spent the week sulking? Nope, me neither, then maybe we shouldn’t either.
The mind is cast back to the magical win over Wrexham back in November, a result which looks more and more incredible with each subsequent passing game.

I am reminded that on that day, much like now, the build up has been less than perfect. There were only four subs named that night, of which only one was really an option.

Luke Wilkinson wasn’t really available (despite making a cameo late on when he really shouldn’t have done) and much like now, Wrexham were coming off the back of a brilliant run of form.

A week is a long time in football, but you can bet Sarll and his players will be working their hardest to turn our run of form around.

It’s been tough on us all, and the best way to move on, is to send the Huish Park home with a performance to be proud of and three all important points.

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An exit from the FA Trophy at the hands of Needham Market, a team two divisions below us in the football pyramid, had Yeovil Town supporters with their heads in their hands.

Couple this with the exit of Terry Skiverton, whose legendary status needs no further introduction, and the seemingly never-ending wait for a final answer over the club’s off-the-field situation, and you could be left asking – has it ever been this bad?

I’d offer up the suggestion it has and to be exact as to when it was – Tuesday, October 25, 1994.

Three days earlier Yeovil Town had gone out of the FA Cup in the fourth qualifying round at the hands of Walton & Hersham, the ninth consecutive game they had failed to pick up a win.

The infamous fixture which saw Yeovil Town dumped out of the FA Cup at Walton & Hersham. Picture courtesy of Tim Lancaster.

Their opponents that day were actually only a division below them, but such was the significance of the competition to the Glovers, it felt wounded.

Andy Wallace and Neil Cordice were on target that day but a 3-2 defeat saw them go out of the competition, and there were angry exchanges between manager Brian Hall and his players and travelling fans.

Then-chairman Bryan Moore, a former chairman of the Green & White Supporters’ Club and Yeovil Town to the core, described that day as “one of the worst days of my entire life.”

In the midweek fixture that followed, GM Vauxhall Conference relegation rivals Merthyr Tydfil beat Yeovil 3-1 and the atmosphere was beyond toxic.

Fans who had vented their anger at the Cup exit the weekend before gathered outside Huish Park calling for the dismissal of Hall, to the extent that mounted police were called in to disperse the crowd at around 11pm with Chairman Moore ‘speaking’ to them via a megaphone from the Board Room.

As the club’s history, Hendford to Huish Park, recalls: “A beleaguered board stated that they would happily hand over should a consortium with money come along.

“They could not afford to sack Brian Hall but conversely, they could ill afford to see the situation continue.

“There were soon a number of faces mentioned with regards to take over the running of the club, among them Brian Hillier, formerly in charge at Swindon Town.

“John Fry who was already on the board and had recently sold his business interests would be available almost full-time and (former chairman) Gerry Lock who had continued to follow the fortunes of his former club from afar had hot a consortium together who expressed an interest but nothing further was heard from them.”

There were a couple of wins in the weeks which followed, but plenty of defeats including a 5-0 thrashing at Stevenage Borough with the history books reporting that ex-Tottenham player Graham Roberts “ran the show” for them.

Having been told his budget would be cut further, Hall lasted until the first week of 1995 when he was sacked and, after a few games with players Tiv Lowe and Paul Wilson in temporary charge, his replacement would be none other than Roberts, who also counted Chelsea, Rangers and (say it quietly) W*ymouth among his former clubs.

Off the pitch things were changing as well with John Fry coming in as Chief Executive and despite the fact relegation was almost a certainty, there was a sense of optimism about Huish Park not felt in years.

Roberts’ team took it to the final game of the season which ended in a 4-4 draw with Northwich Victoria when their fate was sealed.

But rather than spilling on to the pitch to get angry, Yeovil supporters chanted “we’ll support you ever more” and they did.

In 1997, Graham Roberts led Yeovil Town to promotion to the Conference after two seasons. Picture courtesy of Tim Lancaster.

Two seasons at their lowest ebb, the ICIS League, saw the Glovers challenging for promotion whilst off-the-pitch Fry and his fellow directors, notably Fred Lewis, got things back on to an even keel.

More than a quarter-of-a-century has passed since then, we’re a full-time team now, we’ve had 15 years as a Football League club, and the debts the club is saddled remain a millstone round the club’s neck which (for his many faults) John Fry would never have allowed to happen.

But, we’ve undoubtedly got a more competitive team that back in the mid-1990s, we just all hope that off-the-field there are people willing to put in the hours and the finance.

There’s some similarities between then and now but my point is, the darkest hour is often before the dawn.

As a wiser man than me once said – Keep the faith, bruvvers!

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To try and put into words the impact Terry Skiverton had on Yeovil Town Football Club is really quite a challenge.

For 23 years, London born Terence John Skiverton was a part of the furniture at Huish Park – in fact, he was so much more.

He signed for the Glovers from Welling United back in the Summer of 1999 and departed this past week.

We’ve seen tributes pour in from players and fans and quite frankly we’re not sure just how much more we can add.

But, what we can do is try and reignite some memories.

Skivo, played 383 competitive games for the Glovers, scored 44 goals and would go on to manage 157 more, overseeing two spells in the managerial hot seat.

He was an assistant to Gary Johnson and to Darren Way, lead the Glovers’ academy for a time and did just about every job going at one time or another at Huish Park.

From the bottom of all our hearts, thank you Skivo.

Words might not do your time in Somerset justice, but maybe pictures will.

We are proud to be working hard to save whatever we can from the now defunct Ciderspace archives and are delighted to be able to share these pictures spanning just about every one of the 23-years that Terry Skiverton was part of Yeovil Town Football Club.

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Yeovil whimpered out of the FA Trophy at the hands of Needham Market yesterday. I soaked it all in and fortuitously managed to condense it in five conclusions.

Well, that wasn’t very good was it? It goes without saying that losing to a team in the Southern League Premier Division is unacceptable for Yeovil Town Football Club. The game should not have reached a penalty shootout and we should have had enough about us to put them away. But, as everyone knows and Darren Sarll said, on the day it’s 11 men vs 11 men and Needham Market’s 11 men earned victory. Too many players performed far below the level expected and we were the ‘giants’ that were killed on this occasion.

It’s blindingly obvious but we’re horribly out of form. We’ve gone through this pattern before. A good run of form followed by a rough patch of form. We need to get out of this patch sooner rather than later if we’re going to keep within touching distance of the play offs. How we get it back, who knows? Darren Sarll didn’t seem hopeful of any additions any time soon, which we obviously need. Once again, we’re round to talking correlation between what happens off the pitch and how important it is to what happens on it. We’ve gone from nine subs to four in seven days and the manager needs reinforcements.

Oh, Reuben. This wasn’t a performance of the rejuvenated Reuben Reid we’ve been anticipating. This match was Reid’s return to Yeovil in a nutshell. Loose touches, misplaced passes, a lot effort but a lack of quality. His penalty was disappointing and summed up his afternoon. This isn’t the Reid who was training almost immediately after the 2020/21 season finished. This is an experienced pro, at the latter stages of his career recovering from a serious hamstring injury having to start from square one again and get himself match fit in a side which is on a bad run. And instead of being able to be eased back into it, we’re reliant on him to come back into the team and drag us out of a mess.

There was a feeling of deflation around Huish Park. Perhaps it was the contrast of 8,000 last Saturday versus 1600 yesterday, but the rumours circulating before kick-off about Terry Skiverton’s departure (coupled with his notable absence during the warm up) certainly took the wind out of my sails. To lose a legend like Skivo in the middle of the season, without a proper send off is really sad. It’s not how I thought it would happen and I daresay it’s probably not how he thought it would happen. His departure is sad for supporters and also the players he works with on a daily basis and the staff he’s worked with since joining Yeovil in 1998.

Darren Sarll cut a frustrated figure. It felt like Darren was on the cusp of saying what he really felt about the situation after the match yesterday. That’s not to say he doesn’t normally, he clearly does. But, what must have been a highly emotional week for him has ended in, probably, his worst defeat as Yeovil manager. He’s lost his assistant (and friend), he’s lost his captain to injury and the team he’s worked miracles with so far appear to be in a rut. Next weekend we welcome Wrexham to town which will undoubtedly demonstrate the gulf in resource, but we did ‘em last time didn’t we?!

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Yeovil players celebrate Charlie Wakefield’s FA Cup winner in Round 2

Here’s a conundrum for you.

How do you cope with the injuries and illness that the Glovers have had this mid-season, in ‘COVID World’ whilst having a squad as small as Yeovil Town’s, and yet at the same time have multiple selection headaches with multiple options in different positions?

That’s exactly what manager Darren Sarll has not just up front with Joe Quigley, Reuben Reid and Adi Yussuf seemingly vying for one spot, but also now in goal.

First choice Grant Smith has been nothing short of fantastic between the sticks this season, and his post-match red card at Torquay on Boxing Day threw a spanner in the works for the upcoming games including last weekend’s FA Cup tie against Bournemouth.

With the greatest of respect, the loan keeper from QPR, Dillon Barnes, was far from an adequate replacement. The 87th player to take his place between the posts for us since the end of the Second World War (we think) but not one to stick in the memory.

Dillon Barnes vs Bournemouth

Errors against both Torquay and the Cherries at key moments were killer blows in big matches and the team suffered.

Barnes is not a bad ‘keeper, far from it in fact, he has played plenty of EFL games and a contract at a Championship club is a clear sign that he has qualities.

But he was clearly rusty, thrown into two big games with players he’d barely met and maybe, couldn’t quite get up to speed in time.

The Glovers’ regular back-up keeper Max Evans, with not a lot more than a single FA Trophy game behind him, had the potential to be a rabbit in the headlights in those games too, and I totally understand Sarll’s choice to get in a loan keeper.

Max Evans

Evans will get his chance against Needham Market, but I am sure glad Grant Smith is back. A reliable pair of gloves has been the mainstay of successful Yeovil sides, see Tony Pennock, Chris Weale, Steve Mildenhall and Marek Stech in previous years.

We’ve had some great on loan goalkeepers – Begovic, McCarthy, Henderson, Steer – and some high quality back-up keepers down the years, haven’t we? Gareth Stewart, Ben Roberts, even Wealey himself for a time. Malcolm Rigby, anyone?

Grant Smith might need to keep his composure and his hips slightly less thrusted at times, but his absence has only solidified his value to the group. 

Check out the Gloverscast Column in the Western Gazette every week and come back for more daily Gloversblogs here on Gloverscast.co.uk 

 

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Alex Bradley in conversation with manager Darren Sarll.

Have you seen Alex Bradley?

The former Finland youth International turned a loan deal from Lincoln into a permanent one back in January of 2021.

It’s probably safe to say the next year hasn’t quite been what he imagined.

At the time he said; “My ambitions for the rest of the season are to play as many games as I can to the best of my ability and to help the team achieve what we are all capable of.”

“To reach the play-off spots is doable and it’s up to us as a squad to make that happen. I hope we can have a very successful remainder of the campaign and get this club back to where it belongs.”

Those play off spots of course never materialised, and the reasons for that are complex and in no way, shape or form down to Alex.

In total, the defender/midfielder played 24 times in the 2020/21 season for Yeovil, mostly from the start and mostly at right back.

He was rarely absent through injury and only got sent off once right at the end of the season away at Aldershot.

Alex Bradley is sent off at Aldershot Town

Now, this season feels a very different story.

He has played in nine league games so far.

That’s less than half of the matches, what’s more alarming is that’s he started NONE.

Using Soccerbase as a guide his nine sub appearances in the league have come in the following minutes of matches; 89, 76, 89, 86, 87, 88, 75, 81 & 89.

He did get nearly half an hour vs Yate Town in the FA Cup and started the Trophy game against Woking but was taken off after 73 minutes.

All of this means his last completed match was the defeat to Stockport on the final day of last season.

I’ve been scratching my head as to what’s changed and why Bradley has been left out in the cold so often.

…and before you all start screaming “he’s clearly fallen out with the manager”…

I’m not going to putting that forward as an argument, there’s no evidence to suggest that and there might be more to it.

Yeovil signed Mark Little and then Dan Moss both would have been ahead of him in the pecking order for the right back shirt that he occupied so regularly last season.

But at Lincoln, he was predominantly a midfielder, playing as such in an EFL Cup game against Liverpool shortly before heading to Somerset.

The Glovers have moved to a 4-3-3 system this campaign for the most part and with the success of Gorman, Staunton and Worthington as a trio there means there has been little need to tinker with that – despite the little Mitch Rose experiment of which we shall not mention again.

It was suggested that he might be more suited to a standard right side of midfield position, recent talk of a return to 4-4-2 might have fuelled some excitement in the 22-year old of a potential return, but suggestions after the Southend loss are that a tactical switch might be on the scrap heap already have probably quashed that.

Alex Bradley. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Has he just been unlucky then?

He’s done nothing wrong in his mini cameos, but even then he came on in multiple different roles.

He played left wing at Stockport replacing Tom Knowles, he played on the right of the front three for a few seconds against Stevenage in the cup tasked with just killing time and being a nuisance.

He went into a defensive back line made up of about 7 players at Solihull and at Wrexham too.

Maybe he has just been biding his time, a little like Morgan Williams who had to snaffle a chance as an emergency left back when the opportunity came.

Others, like Matty Worthington have had unexplained time out the side and come back to be a mainstay in the team, so I don’t think his time at the club is coming to an end either.

It’s all a bit confusing and this weekend’s game against Needham Market might show us exactly where he stands in the respect of his involvement.

Despite Darren Sarll suggesting not much will change, he’d likely make a slight alteration or two.

We still expect Max Evans to play in goal (well, we don’t think Dillon Barnes is going to play) and with a potential reshuffle of putting Staunton in defence and with Worthington recovering from illness it might give Bradley some space in midfield.

Or will the early departure of Moss and the slow integration of Little back into the side offer him the chance back on the right side of defence?

What do you think? Has Alex Bradley been unlucky? Will he get a chance this weekend? Let us know!

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It was another defeat for Yeovil Town on Tuesday night as we went down to our fourth loss in a row at Southend United.

Here one-time Gloverscast quiz champion and Glovers’ supporter Ed Turnbull was among the 80 hardy souls in the North Stand at Roots Hall, and here are his five conclusions:

Unfortunately, the most obvious takeaway is the performance level was substantially lower (at least for the first hour) than what we were treated to during our stunning 12-match unbeaten run. The first half in particular, we had very little fluidity in attack and invited Southend onto us, struggling to get anything resembling a foothold in the game. To make matters worse, our defence seemed nowhere near as solid as the backline that stood firm to bombardments from the likes of Solihull, Bromley and Wrexham in previous away games this season – Southend could easily have scored more than two. Various wise heads including Darren Sarll and Ian Perkins have referred to the team looking tired of late, and this was further proof. Mind you, it must be said that Southend seemed a lot better than a team that has spent most of the season battling it out with W*ymuff for 20th place.

Joe Quigley battles for the ball.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Things improved significantly with the introduction of Joe Quigley and Reuben Reid (if you ignore for a second the fact Southend made it 2-0 right after they came on!). Adi Yussuf very rarely, if ever, got the ball to stick to him, and nobody was surprised when the fourth official’s board went up with a red 23 next to a green 10. I think getting the ball under control back-to-goal isn’t one of Quigley’s strengths either, but he’s negated that possible weakness by instead looking to win flick-ons for team-mates to run onto (take his assist for Yussuf’s goal against Eastleigh as a perfect example). Last night I was very impressed how he seemed to win every header against big centre-halfs, and it gave us (often Reuben Reid to be precise) a platform to work off, that saw us become a lot more threatening and gave us a fighting chance of getting something from the game. Quigley was also unlucky not to score himself when he did brilliantly to make space for a shot, which was excellently saved. I’ll be picking Joe ahead of Adi in my next FanHub line-up predictions in the future, for sure (unless Quigley get’s injured, I suppose). 

Luke Wilkinson. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Ordinarily, you’d probably say that the phase of play which ended with us scoring our only goal was the best 15 seconds of the match from a Yeovil point of view. But on this occasion I would argue it was the worst, and that’s because Luke Wilkinson went down innocuously immediately before we scored. I didn’t see whose shot it was from the edge of the box (sounds as though it was Wakefield’s) that wasn’t gathered by Southend keeper Steve Arnold, and Reid nudging in the rebound was only in my peripheral vision, because I was more focused on our captain clutching his leg in obviously severe discomfort. If you look at our record in National League games this season, I make it now W7 D1 L2 when Wilkinson has played the whole match, compared to W2 D3 L6 when he hasn’t – I think that’s enough said about how big a miss he’ll be. If anything, I was relieved to hear Sarll’s prognosis of “a good six weeks“, because I feared it could have been even worse.

Rhys Murphy did not get a welcoming reception from the Yeovil fans, it’s fair to say. Perhaps it’s understandable after his absence at the end of last season which did leave a sour taste in the mouth. Murphy later stated this was “due to some personal issues“, and given we’ll probably never know what he meant by that, one could argue he should be given the benefit of the doubt. Personally, I’d rather remember Rhys for his incredible return of 34 goals in 65 games, and for memories such as Torquay away (the 2-0, not the 6-1, if that wasn’t clear). The bloke literally scored a hattrick against W*ymuff, after all! He certainly showed enough quality last night to remind us what we’re missing.

Lastly, and most importantly, I think it should go without saying we need to stick by these players. Yes, it’s four defeats in a row, but it’s also four defeats in our last 16. I fully agree with Darren Sarll when he says this young group needs to be positively supported rather than have fans on their backs if we want them to perform to the really high bar they’ve set in November and December as frequently as possible. These players seriously care about Yeovil Town FC, and that was shown again last night in the way we kept trying our socks off for an equaliser despite being visibly shattered and ending the game with 10 men after Wilkinson went off. On another day, the ref might not have penalised Max Hunt for a hand ball, Reid’s goal would have been an equaliser rather than a consolation, and the lads would have secured a heroic comeback for which we’d be singing their praises.