Manager (Page 5)

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On-loan Yeovil Town players Dylan Morgan and Jordan Thomas are using their spells away from Huish Park to recover from injuries, manager Mark Cooper has confirmed.

Morgan, who started the Glovers’ opening league fixture, joined National League South side Weston-super-Mare for three months at the end of August whilst defender Thomas, a summer signing from Hampton & Richmond, joined Salisbury on a one-month deal at the start of September.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the weekend’s trip to Oldham Athletic, the boss was asked by reporter Tom Bailey whether he would consider bringing players back to bolsyer his first team squad.

Cooper said: “That is something we will look at if we get to that point, if we are that short of bodies we need to bring people back. You have to weigh up is it better for Dyl to be there playing every week, scoring goals than coming off the bench for us and playing 20 minutes.

“The injury rocked Dyl in pre-season and he is in a good place at the moment, the same with Jordan Thomas who picked up an injury and missed three weeks (of pre-season training) and he was behind the group.

“So when we have enough bodies in we will try and send certain players out on loan that we are trying to top up their minutes and get them up to full speed.”

Out-of-favour goalkeeper Will Buse joined National League South strugglers W*ymouth last week and Under-18s’ defender Corey Koerner has been turning out for Plymouth Parkway, although he is on dual registration terms which meant he was able to link up with Yeovil’s first-team squad for the recent win at AFC Fylde.

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Manager Mark Cooper praised the work-rate of his Yeovil Town team as they were held to a goalless draw at home to Altrincham this afternoon.

The hosts came closest to breaking the deadlock at Huish Park when full-back Michael Smith saw his chip come back off the underside of the crossbar in the second half, but it was a fourth blank in front of goal for the Glovers.

Following a disappointing performance in the 1-0 defeat against Solihull Moors four days earlier where Cooper questioned the commitment of his players, the boss was far happier with their endeavour against Altrincham.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Chris Spittles after the game, the boss said: “I thought we looked solid, aggressive, I think that is the best all-round performance we have given this season. I asked for a performance and I thought first half we were really good, we controlled large parts of the game and picked the right times to play forward. The only bit that was missing was a little bit of quality when we got one-v-one in the wide areas to create that chance on goal.

“As a team we defended really well, but that output and effort has to be a minimum for us. If we had played like that against Solihull the other night we would have won the game. It is pretty sobering for the boys, they can see that if they do give everything, we can more than match an Altrincham side which was in the play-offs in this division last season.

“The work-rate, the effort was just incredible, the boys covered 13-14k today and that has to be the minimum for us and if we can do that every game we will be a match for a lot of teams.”

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton. {Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton was handed his first start of the new season and came close to opening the scoring early in the first half when he warmed the palms of visiting keeper Ethan Ross, and Cooper was pleased with the mobility of his midfield.

He said: “We set up a little differently with three midfield players. We wanted mobility in the middle of the pitch and we one a lot of those one-v-one duels.

“We wanted energy and mobility today, we knew it was going to be a running game today and the midfield players all brought that. It is important we have that in them midfield.

“The players have given everything, covered a lot of distance, won a few duels and looked really solid and that is a start for us. We have lost four, won three and drawn one now and that is a really good clean sheet for us and we just have to add that bit of quality now. I thought we played forward well at times and picked the right times to break forward.”

A fantastic run and chip from Smith with 76 minutes gone was the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock and Cooper was full of praise for the Northern Irishman who he described as “a fantastic professional.”

He revealed the full-back, who turned 36 earlier this month, had been suffering with dizziness at half-time which eventually led to him being substituted with a minute of normal time remaining.

The manager said: “He was a bit dizzy at half-time but he wanted to stay on and I think that run and shot finished him off! It was just a shame it did not drop under the crossbar, that would have given us a deserved three points.”

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Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper is hoping three changes to his starting XI will freshen up his side to turn in a performance following the disappointment in midweek against Solihull Moors.

The boss has brought defender Morgan Williams and midfielders Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Josh Sims back in to the line-up for the visit of Altrincham to Huish Park, with Dom Bernard, Brett McGavin and Frank Nouble dropping to the bench.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Chris Spittles ahead of kick-off, he said: “We played a really tough, emotional, dramatic game last Saturday (in a 4-3 win at AFC Fylde) and then we were flat on Tuesday night (against Solihull Moors), so we are just trying to freshen it up.

“Frank has played 100-odd minutes in both of those games, so he will need to be ready for 25-30 minutes today, the same with Brett. We have five outfield players there and there is an opportunity to change it.”

Glovers’ goalkeeping coach Matt Gould, who is named on the substitutes’ bench at Huish Park, faces his old employers for the first time since swapping Greater Manchester for South Somerset in the summer.

Asked whether he had brought any inside knowledge of the opposition, Cooper added: “He knows how they play and what they might do, but we have to concentrate on us and what we do. If we play like we did the other night, we would not beat a team in a local park! So we have to be on the front foot, we need to turn in a performance today.“

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has challenged his Yeovil Town players to show their desire to win when they face Altrincham in front of a home crowd this weekend.

The Glovers suffered their third 1-0 home defeat in the National League Premier Division when they went down by that scoreline against Solihull Moors on Tuesday night, having grabbed a dramatic 4-3 victory at AFC Fylde just three days earlier.

Speaking on Thursday, the boss said: “I can put up with mistakes, but we have to have the commitment and desire to win a game of football and sometimes those things are enough to get you a point or three.

“It was too much ‘after the Lord Mayor’s Show’ on Tuesday after the euphoria of winning fantastically with a brilliant performance at Fylde. The message before the game was ‘whichever team turns up with the best attitude and commitment will win, it won’t be about tactics or ability, it comes down to desire and they had more than us.

“That’s the really frustrating thing and that is what has frustrated us the most, they just did not turn up – let’s hope it was a one-off.”

Following the midweek defeat, Cooper questioned his forward players saying they could have stayed out on the Huish Park until the following day and still not found the net.

Aaron Jarvis. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Frontman Aaron Jarvis, who netted his second of the season in the win at Fylde last weekend, was joined by Frank Nouble and Sam Pearson against Solihull.

Cooper said: “We scored seven goals in two games before that, so I don’t think it is anything we are not doing in training. It comes down to personal pride. Our forward players were incredible on Saturday (at Fylde) but on Tuesday night they were just not at it. It is really hard as a side if your front players do not spark, it is really hard to get up the pitch.

Asked whether he was still looking to bolster his squad, he added: “That team was good enough to win at Fylde and Boston, but you cannot carry players. In any game of football you have to have seven or eight players who are at it and if you have just two or three you will get beaten.

“We have enough players to field a team, we are still looking, we have some money to still bring players in but we want to bring the right ones in. I have said before I can go and sign 100 players on loan, but I want to try and get the right type.”

Central defender Morgan Williams returned on the bench against Solihull having missed the away wins at Boston United and AFC Fylde with concussion. He replaced new signing Dom Bernard, whose slip led to Connor Wilkinson’s first-half goal, on Tuesday night.

Cooper said: “Morgs has had a couple of days training. Tuesday was probably a bit too early for him, and we are trying to look after him. But he is back and he looked really good today in training.”

Morgan Williams. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown

On-loan Bristol City defender Raphael Araoye has had a second scan on a dead leg suffered at Boston, but the Glovers are still waiting to hear back from his parent club about the severity of the injury. However, Cooper confirmed that he expects Harvey Greenslade to be out for “another three to four weeks.”

Araoye we are still waiting to get a definitive answer on his second scan and how long he is going to be.
Harvey we think will be another three to four weeks. That is football, you are going to get injuries, we just have to deal with it.

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has said that he felt that his side could have taken a point from the game against Solihull Moors on Tuesday night.

The boss said his side’s a lack of quality in forward areas, and a questionable offside call, cost his side from getting anything from the match.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman after the game, he was audibly frustrated at how easily the Glovers allowed their visitors to dictate the game.

He said: “We gave a team that wanted to counter attack and sit in, the perfect fillip with the goal, which means they can sit even deeper and catch us on the break and that makes us really tense and erratic.

“We huffed and we puffed, but we never really looked like scoring. We did score a great goal, a free kick that’s not offside, [I’ve] just seen it, it’s miles onside and a draw would have been a fair result.”

Speaking on the Glovers’ form at Huish Park, which has seen three 1-0 losses in their four home games since of the season so far, Cooper suggested there was probably more to it that the final scorelines.

He said: “We played really well against Rochdale for 70 minutes and deservedly lost, didn’t deserve to lose against Hartlepool and I didn’t think we deserved to lose tonight. 

“The second half, all the play was in their half, but we didn’t have any quality, our forward players produced zero quality, we had a really good attacking performance where all our forward player contributed on Saturday and tonight, apart from the free kick where we ‘scored’ the header, I don’t think from open play we’d have scored if we’d have been there until tomorrow night.”

“I don’t think from open play we’d have scored if we’d have been there until tomorrow night.”

The manager confirmed that his half-time substitutions were made with the fitness of both defenders Dom Bernard and Morgan Williams in mind saying that they both needed the minutes as they both work towards full fitness.

He did not want to evaluate the season’s start as a whole just yet, focusing on picking apart Tuesday’s showing instead.

“I’m just evaluating tonight, now we’ve got to look at why were so good on Saturday – really good offensively – and tonight, in the forward areas we were really, really poor.”

As for Saturday, Cooper said that it was full focus on their own actions, particularly in the final third.

“We want to win the game, it doesn’t matter what the opposition do, if we’re that toothless and we don’t ask enough questions in and around the penalty area, it’s not going to work.” 

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Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper said his side’s defensive injury crisis meant they had no choice other than to try and outscore AFC Fylde in a see-saw 4-3 win in Lancashire this afternoon.

The Glovers found themselves 2-0 down at half-time before goals from Sam Pearson, Aaron Jarvis, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and then a late winner from debutante Dom Bernard earned the three points.

Cooper’s men started the game with five substitutes on the bench with central defensive pairing Jake Wannell (suspension) and Morgan Williams (concussion) missing along with forward Harvey Greenslade (shoulder injury).

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins after the game, the manager said: “Everybody knows we are depleted defensively, so we had to try and make it an open game to give us the best chance of winning but we had some brilliant chances in the first half. We could have scored three or four goals.

“It should not really be 2-0 at half-time, but we had to make it an open game because of our physical presence at the back.

“At half-time we made some changes and gambled and we knew that if we scored first, we would win the game. We just went for it and the players were outstanding today, even when we were 2-0 down I thought we were really good considering we only had Finn (Cousin-Dawson) at centre half.”

He added: “We had to make it an end-to-end game, we had to leave the defence isolated because we thought our best form of defence was attack. We had to try and score more goals than them, that was the only way we could do it and luckily it has come off.”

Aaron Jarvis celebrates his equaliser.

Cooper reserved special praise for striker Aaron Jarvis who scored his second for the club since signing in the summer from Torquay United, and his manager described the frontman as “unplayable.”

He said: “If he plays like that he has to be one of the best number nines in the league. That gives us another option because we can play off the front a bit quicker when you have a real targetman like that. We played it in to Jarv, he battered the centre-halves and that is where all our play came from.”

But the highest praise was reserved for Yeovil medical man, Tony Boreham, who raced in to the away end at the final whistle to deliver medical treatment to a supporter who Cooper confirmed was the grandfather of substitute, Corey Koerner.

The manager said he had suffered a heart attack at the final whistle but was responsive following treatment and taken to a nearby hospital.

Cooper said: “Our medical team were unbelievable, Tony (Boreham) and our physio Joe (Stacey) got him round which is good news. That is brilliant from our medical team, that is the best part of the day.

“Full credit to the whole club today. The supporters were fantastic, to come this far North. It was an amazing effort from the players with only five substitutes on the bench, staff were incredible and the biggest star of the day is Tony.”

Koerner, who was making his first appearance on the bench for the first-team, had been understandably distressed by the situation, and Cooper promised his team-mates would be rallying around him following the incident. 

He added: “(Corey) is in bits right now, he is a young boy, making his first trip with us, but the good news is Tony has got (his grandfather) round and let’s hope he is in good hands in hospital.

“(His grandfather) will be in good hands, I am sure, and we have to look after our young boy, Corey, and we just have to make sure he is looked after and we get him back home.”

From us here at the Gloverscast, we are sure we speak for every Yeovil Town supporter and all those who attended today’s match when we wish Corey’s grandfather a full and speedy recovery.

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Manager Mark Cooper has said he is willing to wait for “a couple of bits of real quality” to become available in the transfer market as he looks to strengthen his Yeovil Town squad.

The Glovers’ boss will definitely be without suspended central defender Jake Wannell and injured forward Harvey Greenslade for this weekend’s trip to AFC Fylde, seems likely to be without Wannell’s defensive partner Morgan Williams who missed the last game with concussion.

He expects left-back Alex Whittle to be available to face one of his former clubs in Lancashire, but is waiting for on-loan Bristol City defender Raphael Araoye to have a scan on a dead leg picked up in the 3-1 win at Boston United last weekend.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the trip, Cooper said he had been looking at the transfer market this week but was said he did not want to bring in loan players for just one game.

He said: “If you had told me ten days ago we’d lose Morgan Williams, Jake Wannell, Alex Whittle, Raph Araoye, and Harvey Greenslade, I would have said ‘wow, we are in a bit of a pickle there.’ But I have faith in the boys we have got, and if we have to shuffle things about, we can, we have Michael Smith and Charlie Cooper who can play centre-half, Matt Worthington can play right-back, so there is plenty of flexibility in the squad.”

Jake Wannell will sit out the trip to AFC Fylde after his red card for two bookings at Boston United last weekend.

On his efforts in the transfer market, the boss added: “We are trying. I could probably have brought 100 players in on loan, but we will get Wannell back on Tuesday night (at home to Solihull Moors), we will probably get Raph (Araoye) back, so I do not want to go and bring the wrong person in for one game. If I do bring somebody in, they have to be the right type of person, the right character and the right fit for what we do.

“There are some players that are out of contract before the window shut, so they are still a free agent, and they are still exploring the Football League market because they can still sign for (League) clubs because they were out of contract before the window closed.

“So, we are waiting on a couple of those boys who we think we would get real value for money for and would really help and improve us, rather than going for quick loan fixes who have not played many games. We are prepared to wait in that market and hopefully in the next week there will be a couple of real bits of quality that come available.”

Whittle has missed the past two matches – the win at Boston and the 1-0 home defeat to Rochdale on August Bank Holiday Monday – but has trained this week. Cooper said: “We are confident Whitts will be there or thereabouts for Saturday. He’s had a good week’s training, I am sure knowing him he will put his hand up to play.”

Yeovil take on a Fylde side who did not play last weekend after Southend United were unable to fulfil the fixture after their train from the South East to the North West was cancelled last Saturday morning. Fylde have not won since the opening day of the season and suffered a 1-0 defeat at Wealdstone and a 0-0 draw at home to Maidenhead United in their Bank Holiday weekend schedule.

However, Cooper is expecting them to be a test, he said: “They will be really organised, they will be ultra fit, a real process to what they do and they will have something up their sleeve. They have some good players, (midfielder Nick) Haughton is an exceptional player for the level who should be playing League football and they have one or two others.

“So we will have to be really good at what we do. I have had a look at the weather forecast – the South is rain, the North is 23 degrees – so we are taking our buckets, spades and our money ready for the donkey rides, so we are looking forward to a Friday afternoon and a night in Blackpool and getting ready for the game on Saturday.”

The Glovers’ manager described his side’s opening six matches of the new season – which have yielded three wins and three defeats – as “solid, but frustrating“, adding that he was starting to see “a swagger” come back to the team’s play which served them well in National League South last season.

He said: “We could easily have conceded more (at Boston United) last weekend, but we managed to get blocks in at the right times. If we continue with our spirit and keep believing, I think we will be alright. We are happy with where we are, but we know we have an awful lot more to give.

“I am constantly trying to push the players in to a mentality that they deserve to be here. We are starting to get a bit of an arrogant swagger about us, which you have to have when you play the way we do on the pitch. I am starting to see that and the quicker we get that as a group, which we did last year, the better we will be.”

This week saw the departure of Jordan Maguire-Drew, who left the club after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract.

Asked about the departure, Cooper said: “Jordan made it clear towards the end of last season that he wanted to move back towards the South East. His wife had got a job towards Crawley way, he didn’t want to be travelling and be in Yeovil. So it was purely about location.”

The day after his departure, Maguire-Drew signed for National League South bottom club W*ymouth. Perhaps he needs to download Google Maps to figure out where they are located.

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has praised his sides’ character after getting a 3-1 win over Boston United on Saturday.

Two goals from midfielder Brett McGavin and a second half strike from substitute Jordan Young secured the points for the Cooper’s side, in game with two red cards and plenty of talking points.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins the manager said how the game was more interesting than it needed to be.

“It was a dramatic, it shouldn’t have been like that, we should have controlled [it] once their man got sent off, we were comfortable, we should have just controlled the game, we just move the ball about the pitch, but we just made so many wrong decisions today and players making poor decisions with the ball and turning it over and giving the ball away cheaply, we don’t need to.

“Probably because we’ve lost a couple of games and the whole world is going to end, that anxiousness creeps in, they just want to try and bash the door down straight away and it’s not on and we play into their hands with ten men and make it interesting.”

On the goal-scoring exploits of McGavin, the boss said how the former Torquay man offers his side something different to what the Glovers previously had.

“His record is that he scores goals, that’s why we brought him in, he’s got that gift, you have to have a bit of everything, you can’t have all top, top technical players in the midfield, you have to have one who can dog about and upset things and keep things ticking along and you have to have one who can contribute like that and we’ve got that now with Brett – two great goals from him.”

Onto the red cards, Cooper has said Boston could – in his opinion should – have had more than just Jordan Richards’ dismissed on 16 minutes for a reckless tackle on Charlie Cooper after in an ill disciplined affair, which also saw visiting defender Jake Wannell sent off late in the second half.


“It’s a horrific tackle [on Cooper], there’s an even worse one straight after, for me it was even worse. I don’t think the referee protected the players today, I thought he let some dangerous tackles go and I was a little bit worried to be honest.

“Once we got to 2-1, we saw the first half out comfortably, but the second half, we made so many poor decisions with the ball and we made it interesting, when it should have been really comfortable.”

“Ridiculous decision [from Wannell], we’re winning 3-1, he can kick the ball up to Frank (Nouble), we’ve got four against four at the top of the pitch and he tries a Cruyff turn, when we’re 3-1 up and then brings him down. He’s just got a flea in his ear for that, because he’s better than that. 

“It’s just compounded our issues, because we’re struggling for centre backs and we lose him for next week.”

With Morgan Williams already missing with a concussion picked up in the Bank Holiday Monday defeat against Rochdale and left-back Alex Whittle out with a hamstring injury, a bruising encounter was not what Cooper needed – but he gave a round-up of his walking wounded following the game in Lincolnshire.

The boss said: “Harvey Greenslade has dislocated his shoulder, that’ll be him not available for a few weeks. Alex Whittle will be back for (the trip to AFC Fylde on) Saturday, Wannell is out, Morgan Williams is out because of the concussion protocols, (Raphael) Araoye got a dead leg in the first minute, he had to come off, so it was a bruising day but we managed to get through it.

“The most pleasing thing is we showed character to get it done and get the three points.”

Ahead of the trip to Boston, former Glovers’ defender Tom Bradbury, now with League Two Cheltenham Town, was linked with a return to Huish Park. The centre-half was not in the Robins’ squad for their 2-1 defeat at Walsall on Saturday.

Asked if he could comment on the speculation, Cooper said:“No”, but did follow up saying: “We are trying to sign a centre back, we’re trying, but we’ve got to get the right one in, now the [EFL} window is shut and things are settled down, we will see which players are available who can’t go into the league, but can come to the National League.”

Here’s hoping for defensive reinforcements at some point before next weekend’s trip to AFC Fylde.

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Manager Mark Cooper is looking to bring some experience in to his Yeovil Town side after they were beaten by an injury time goal from Rochdale on Bank Holiday Monday.

A strike from winger Connor McBride in the first minute of second half stoppage time meant the Glovers finished the long weekend with no points from their two National League Premier Division fixtures.

They travel to Boston United this weekend with the Lincolnshire outfit buoyed by an impressive win away at big-spending York City, a result which has left Cooper convinced that it will be “an open league” this season.

Speaking after the game, he said: “We need to do a bit of work in the transfer market. I have had a good luck at things now and we need to bring a couple in with a little bit of experience and we need to move a couple along, the lads who have not been playing much. We need to bring some real characters in.”

The Glovers, who were already without left-back Alex Whittle, saw defenders Morgan Williams and Michael Smith both go off in the second half on Monday.

Alex Whittle, who was missing with a hamstring injury. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Cooper said Williams had “a sore face after a whack off the ball“, but said Smith “just ran out of steam” when he was replaced after 69 minutes having played 72 minutes up at Gateshead just 48 hours earlier.

Asked whether the punishing schedule had contributed to the performance, the boss said: “The EFL and Premier League spend so much money on sports science and focus on recovery and the boys who do not have so much access to that get asked to play twice in 48 hours. It seems crazy to me, but that is the National League.”

Overall, Cooper said he felt his side made a contest of the match for the first hour and did not deserve to finish the match empty handed – but they were undone by an individual error.

He said: “For 60 minutes we played really well, controlled the opposition and we should have been comfortably ahead, but when you do not do that you have to be completely faultless in your defending.

“We did that except for one action when one of our lads has run out of a great position and their lad gets a free shot from 20 yards out and we get punished for it. No way did we deserve to lose.”

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Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper said the four changes he has made to his side’s starting line-up will freshen them up as they take on Rochdale at Huish Park this afternoon.

The Glovers’ boss has brought in on loan Bristol City defender Raphael Araoye, midfielder Charlie Cooper and forwards Jordan Young and Frank Nouble from the side which started the 3-1 defeat at Gateshead on Saturday with full-back Jordan Thomas, captain Matt Worthington and Sam Pearson and Harvey Greenslade, making way.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman ahead of the game, the manager said: “We had a big game on Tuesday night and then  another one on Saturday, it seems ridiculous playing another 48 hours late, so we have had to monitor one or two players’ loads and there are one or two who are at risk of injury, so we have freshened things up.

“Matt Worthington will have a little bit of a breather today, but he will probably play the last half-an-hour, and Raph Araoye comes in as the left-sided defender, I felt we needed more of a natural defender there.

“We have been monitoring players throughout this first part of the season until we get this batch of games out of the way, we do not want to risk too many injuries so we have to manage the players’ workloads without weakening the team.”

Matt Worthington is on the bench. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Full-back Alex Whittle is missing from the squad with a hamstring injury he picked up in the first half of last Tuesday night’s 3-2 home win over Ebbsfleet United, and Cooper is hoping he will be fit for the trip to newly-promoted Boston United on Saturday. He said: “He’s not quite made it today and with hamstring injuries you have to be careful.”

Rochdale, who have made a four-hour trip (probably more with Bank Holiday traffic) down from Greater Manchester, picked up a point from a goalless draw at home to big-spending Forest Green Rovers on Saturday.

Cooper said: “They are a good football team and they try and play football and pass the ball across the pitch, so they will be a dangerous opposition. They are a big club, a Football League club up until the last couple of years, so we are expecting a really tough game.“