Daly out for ‘six to eight weeks’
2025-08-25
New signing James Daly is out for six to eight weeks after a scan on an injury sustained early in his Yeovil Town career, according to manager Mark Cooper.
The winger, who moved to Somerset following his release by Harrogate Town in the summer, has been missing for the past two games having played the second half in the 2-0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers.
Cooper has made four changes to the starting XI which lost 1-0 at Braintree Town on Saturday with a changed forward line featuring new recruit Junior Morias and Harvey Greenslade as the Glovers look to be more ruthless in front of goal.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins ahead of kick-off, the Glovers’ boss said: “It is very hot and we have two teams who have played not very long ago, so I think the weather is going to play a big part, we are expecting a tough game today.
“It is not just the forwards, central midfield players are allowed to score, defenders are allowed to score, so we have just got to be more ruthless. As a team we are creating a lot of chances and that is what fans want to see, chances and goalmouth incidents, and we created a lot of those on Saturday, so if we do the same again and we are ruthless then we should be alright. We want to be on the front foot, get after them and take the ball off them in and around their penalty area and create chances.”
Team News – Gateshead (home)
2025-08-25
Yeovil Town have made four changes to their starting XI from the weekend’s defeat at Braintree Town as they take on Gateshead at Huish Park on Bank Holiday Monday (3pm kick-off).
Coming in to the side are Alex Whittle, Luke McCormick, Junior Morias and Harvey Greenslade with Kyle Ferguson, Finn Cousin-Dawson, Aaron Jarvis and Tahvon Campbell all dropping to the substitutes’ bench.
According to BBC Somerset reporter Josh Perkins has said that “it is a back four” – we will wait to see how that transpires when we get underway.
Former Glovers’ forward Frank Nouble starts the game for the visitors, making his first return to Huish Park since departing for the North East in March.
National League Wrap Up – Matchday 4
2025-08-24
It was defeat for Yeovil Town on Saturday, as Braintree Town got the only goal of the game in a 1-0 scoreline (which if you do want to read about, you can click here) – let’s see what else happened on Saturday in the National League.
We begin in the Midlands, where Aldershot Town were emphatic 5-1 winners on their travels to Solihull Moors, securing their first points of the season. Ryan Hill and former Glover Tristan Abrahams hit a quick-fire double to send the visitors into the lead before half time, but just after the second half got underway, Szhem Whyte-Hall pulled one back for the Moors. On the hour, Ryan Hill got his second with a penalty, before Kwame Thomas and Jed Meerholz put the finishing touches on a great day out for the Shots!
Scunthorpe United ensured they were the only team to remain with a 100% record in the National League, as they battled from a goal down to beat Sutton United away from home. The Iron took the lead through Declan Howe, but ten minutes before the break, Jack Taylor equalised for Sutton. Brandon Njoku gave the hosts the lead just after the break, before Oli Rose and Danny Whitehall scored within seven minutes of each other to take the lead back for their side. Sutton finished the game with 10 men, following a red card to Liam Vincent.
Woking’s miserable start to the campaign continued with a heavy 3-0 defeat at Hartlepool United; goals from Jermaine Francis, Cameron John and Alex Reid ensured a comfortable afternoon for the Stags, who sit joint top of the table after four games. There were four 2-1 wins, three of them for home sides; Morecambe secured a triumphant return to action in front of over 3.,500 fans against Altrincham, with Ben Tollitt opening the scoring early into the game for the Shrimpers – Jimmy Knowles equalised for the visitors, but a 98th minute winner from Dan Ogwuru sent the home end into raptures. Wednesday’s visitors Brackley Town caused an upset as they beat Rochdale thanks to goals from Ryan Haynes and Connor Hall, they came either side of a Connor McBride strike for the Dale, and Monday’s visitors Gateshead defeated Tamworth at home, Will Flint grabbing a brace, and Harvey Sayer grabbed a consolation for the Lambs.
The remaining 2-1 scoreline came at FC Halifax Town, who fell to Forest Green Rovers; Yahya Bamba opened the scoring for the visitors, before Jay Turner-Cooke equalised just before half-time for the Shaymen. Kairo Mitchell bagged the winner in the 77th minute to continue a good start to the season for the away side. An Aaron Blair double for Eastleigh send Boston United home empty handed, while there were slender victories for Southend United and Carlisle United away to Truro City and Wealdstone respectively; Sam Austin bagged for Southend, continuing Truro’s pointless start to the season, while Luke Armstrong ended Wealdstone’s 100% record. York City and Boreham Wood had their fixture postponed due to the Women’s Rugby World Cup using York’s stadium.
National League results – in full
Morecambe 2-1 Altrincham
Brackley Town 2-1 Rochdale
Braintree Town 1-0 Yeovil Town
Eastleigh 2-0 Boston United
FC Halifax Town 1-2 Forest Green Rovers
Gateshead 2-1 Tamworth
Hartlepool United 3-0 Woking
Solihull Moors 1-5 Aldershot Town
Sutton United 2-3 Scunthorpe United
Truro City 0-1 Southend United
Wealdstone 0-1 Carlisle United
Five Conclusions: Braintree Town 1 Yeovil Town 0
2025-08-24
After an eight-hour round trip to Essex and back, Dave gives his thoughts on the Yeovil Town performance at Braintree Town yesterday. Now all eyes turn to Huish Park tomorrow…
We could still be there now and not score: There were opportunities and you cannot fault the attacking intent there was at times, but the finishing was abysmal. Aaron Jarvis, Tahvon Campbell, Josh Sims, Junior Morias, Ben Wodskou, Harvey Greenslade, they all tried and they all failed. 12 shots (five on target, seven off target) and some of those off target ones were woeful. “We have to be more clinical,” says Mark Cooper – but how many times have we heard that? Alex Fisher, Reo Griffiths, Jordan Young, Malachi Linton, Ollie Hulbert, Jake Scrimshaw, Louis Britton, Seb Palmer-Houlden, Jake Hyde, Rhys Murphy, Frank Nouble, Jahmari Clarke, Sonny Cox, Olly Thomas, Ciaran McGuckin, Harvey Greenslade, Aaron Jarvis. I think that’s all the strikers we have had under this manager and how many have got in to double figures? Murphy, Young, Nouble in the 2023-24 season in National League South, I think. Yes, some were loans. Yes, there has been injuries. Yes, there’s a couple of duffers in there. But can it ALL be down to the fact that they are ALL really not clinical? I have my doubts. I’ve not even mentioned quite a few others who could have been on the ‘someone who can get goals’ list.
It was an improvement: My frame of reference this is only small with the opening day draw against Hartlepool (via the DAZN stream) the only other match I have seen in full, but many on the terrace at Braintree assured me that was the best we have looked. The stats back up that it was a game we just about dominated, except the most important stat, of course. The first 13 minutes were great, I was wondering what all the complaining was about, but after that Braintree started to get a foothold in the game. We were definitely better in the first half, but we started lacking control towards the end of it and when the goal arrived, it had been coming. So, an improvement from a low base, for sure.
Plant and Sims a plus: For probably the first 20 minutes, James Plant looked electric and gave hope he can bring a much needed creative spark. He tired as the game wore on, not surprising for a player who’s played 30 minutes of competitive football all season. Monday will almost certainly be too soon to put him in from the start again, but there’s reasons to be hopeful there. And, a more than honourable mention to Josh Sims. Who had him coming in to form on their 2025-26 season bingo card? I certainly didn’t, but he looked like the player we saw in flashes last season. Let’s hope he carries on that way.
A big miss which piles the pressure on: Accepting the cliches of their being no easy games at this level, Braintree is a side we have to be getting points from if we have any hope of improving on last season. When you factor in the amount of chances we had to put this game beyond doubt – and, yes, they had plenty of chances as well – this was a big missed opportunity to build on that win against Brackley. That puts even greater emphasis on Monday’s home match against Gateshead – Frank Nouble and all.
An uncomfortable sleep: Wake me up when September ends, right? Mark Cooper doesn’t even give himself that long, he’s said ten games is the time to make an assessment. Mark up Tamworth away on September 20th on the calendar. I had a couple of conversations in the away end yesterday with people saying it was too soon to be talking about him being under pressure, but this is not about four matches this season. To borrow a phrase from the manager himself, I’ve been consistent. 2022/23 basket case relegation = write it off as too much to deal with. 2023/24 promotion = success. 2024/25 18th place finish = failure. This is the season that Mark Cooper has to show he can improve us and, four games in, I don’t see or hear anything different to last season. There’s time to turn it around, but I have dwindling confidence he can do it.
Wannell: We win, lose or draw as a team
2025-08-24
Yeovil skipper Jake Wannell said the defeat to Braintree was a tough one to take, but that he wouldn’t put it on the forward in the team.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins he said: “Yeah, tough one to take, obviously. After dominating the first half like we did, it was disappointing not to come away with a point, at least I feel like we had enough chances to win the game, [by] 2, 3, 4, [goals].
Ultimately, we win lose or draw as a team, so not going to push it on to the forwards at all. We’ve obviously conceded the goal, so we’ll look back at that and see where we could have done better there. Obviously, we know, the forwards know that we had plenty of chances to win the game, so we dust ourselves down and go again Monday.”
For the second match in a row, the Glovers conceded plenty of chances and Wannell put it down to the lack of the control of the ball.
“Too many turnovers, especially today, turnovers leads to chances most of the time, so we cut out the turnovers, the less chances that the opposition will have. But that’s full focus now on Monday. We’ll put that one to the side.
“It could have been a 5-4, 5-5, type of game, which we didn’t want, almost a game of basketball, like, which is not us. We want to start controlling a bit more. That’s where we’re really good, but just didn’t work today.
Match Officials – Gateshead (H)
2025-08-24
Yeovil Town will take on Gateshead on Bank Holiday Monday and the game will be officiated by Harry Wager.
No stranger to Yeovil games, we’ve seen him three times, most recently in April when he took charge of the National League tie at Eastleigh, where Otis Khan was sent off.
No complaints from us regarding the decision, Mr Wager saw a flailing elbow and reacted accordingly.
We saw him twice in the National League South title winning campaign, he awarded a penalty (which Frank Nouble missed) in a 3-1 home win vs Dartford and was in charge for the 1-1 draw away at St Albans.
At time of writing, he’s not had a game in the National League yet this season.
Jack Clench will be clutching one flag, Andy Bennett the other whilst James Tewson has the subs board in hand.
Yeovil Town FC (First Team) v Gateshead FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Wager, Harry
Assistant Referee: Clench, Jack
Assistant Referee: Bennett, Andy
Fourth Official: Tewson, James
Cooper bemoans impossible loss
2025-08-23
Mark Cooper cut a very frustrated figure following the Glovers 1-0 defeat at Braintree on Saturday. Yeovil fell to a 1-0 defeat, but had their chances to put away and the Yeovil boss put the pressure on his forwards to find the back of the net.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins, Cooper said: “It’s a game we should never, ever lose. We’ve got 15 really big chances, we don’t convert one. And they [Braintree] have a couple of chances in the first half, but it’s virtually impossible to lose that game with the amount of chances we had. I mean the first half. I mean we’re clean through on the goal, we’ve hit the goalie in the face, where we just need to to roll it in the goal, put one past the post, on the six yard line, and we’ve hit the cross bar, when it’s a roll into an empty net, and then the second half we’ve just missed multiple chances. We have to score.
“The pleasing thing is, we’ve created loads of chances. Had large spells of the game. Do we want to open up to create loads of chances? Then we leave a little bit open at the back, so it becomes end to end. But with that many chances, we have to score. Simple as that is, can’t dress it up any way. You have to score whether you’re a forward, midfield player, yeah, you’ve got score.”
When asked what it’s down to, and if Yeovil needed lady luck on their side, Cooper demanded ruthlessness in front of goal.
“It’s not luck. You have to be ruthless. When you get that chance, just put it in the back of the net. Take the back of the net out. We give the keeper a chance. We hit him in the face with a ball when the whole goal is gaping. You know we we have three chances at the end where our forwards kick each other and miss the ball, and it’s on the goal line. It’s it’s frustrating because the performance is good in terms of our attacking play. And the pleasing thing is, we create lots of chances, but we’ve got to be ruthless.”
Perkins offered a bit of praise for the performance of Tahvon Campbell, but Cooper shot back: “[It] Doesn’t matter about forwards being good. No one’s going to look in the paper tomorrow and go, ‘ooh he was good’. They can look and say ‘they didn’t score’. So I’m putting the pressure on the forwards, all of them. We’ve got enough of them. You have to score. It’s not like we’re asking you to play a style of football where you’re not getting [chances], you’re getting you’re getting loads of chances. We’re playing really attacking. Try to change a little bit. If we create that many chances in the game, we should score at least three goals, which should be enough to win a game of football.
Ahead of the visit of Gateshead on Bank Holiday Monday, Cooper said he hoped to welcome back Whittle and Cooper and that his selection headache was having “to pick the right forwards that are going to score.”
