Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 312)

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What would your Monday be without another episode of the Gloverscast?

Ian, Ben and Dave are back to talk through the 2-2 with Maidstone on Saturday, and we answer your GCQs.

Thank you for your continued support of the Gloverscast. Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news and views from Huish Park.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Leave us a review and share the pod with a pal.

We’d love to welcome some local businesses into the Gloverscast family through advertising. If you’re a business that would like to speak to a dedicated audience of more than 1000 monthly listeners, please get in touch. Find out more about advertising with us here.

If you have an idea for the website, want to contribute or just want to send us a message, feel free to email ian@gloverscast.co.uk.

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Earlier this week, the world marked Groundhog Day. The day when the groundhog of North American comes out of its hibernation burrow and looks to see if its shadow is captured in winter sun or absent due to Spring cloudiness. If it spots it, it retreats for a further six weeks until it is sure winter has gone.

Now, there were no groundhogs at Huish Park on Saturday, but there was a former England rugby union player Paul Sackey in the stands for the 2-2 draw against Maidstone United. One assumes he is not there to check on what the yellow marks in the penalty area in front of the Thatcher’s Stand are, and if the rumour mill is correct  he’s involved in the unnamed “potential investors” in an “exclusivity agreement” to become a majority shareholder in Yeovil Town.

It’s now more than a month since the last bit of news we were got about the ownership of the club – the New Year’s Eve announcement about the aforementioned agreement – and it appears that those “potential investors” have enough interest (confidence?) to attend a match.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? In late 2018, Rob Couhig was photographed wearing a green-and-white scarf giving a big thumbs up and it looked like his deal to buy the club from then-owners Norman Hayward and John Fry was done. That deal collapsed and current owner and chairman Scott Priestnall took it on alongside business partner Errol Pope who later resigned from the board.

Rob Couhig, now owner at League One side Wycombe Wanderers, in 2018.

Fast forward to December 6th 2021, it was Julian Jenkins, the former Cardiff City commercial director and the frontman for the Simul Sports consortium, who tweeted that the group was looking to buy Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, the company which runs the Glovers’ football operations.

Both of those discussions reached the due diligence stages, at least from what we can see from the outside looking in, and now we appear to have more “potential investors” involved in an “exclusivity agreement” – so why does it matter?

Mark Cooper’s plans are being stifled

Speaking after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Maidstone, manager Mark Cooper was visibly miffed (we can’t use the F-word) and spoke about players who he was asking some to “do things they can’t do.”

He concluded: “Once we get in what we want to get in, eventually, then that will turn around.”

It’s not the first time he has spoken about how he has ambitions to strengthen the team and one assumes it is the current owner which has enabled him to sign Jordan Maguire-Drew, Charlie Cooper and bring in loans like Jack Clarke and Edwin Agbaje, but he clearly wants to do more.

There’s rent to pay from May

From May, there’s going to be a hefty bill landing on the Huish Park doormat for the first rental payment to landlords South Somerset District Council (SSDC) and based on attendances which hover between slightly above and slightly below 2,000, there seems to be a huge rental income coming in.

The amount the club received from selling the land upon which the stadium stands and everything around it is presumably running low. So where is the money coming from to pay those bills?

Blimey, it feels a long time since September 2021, when we highlighted the risk of all this happening – see here.

As ever, we are not privy to any secret conversations, so we have to go on what we are being told. There’s been no real changes to suggest an influx in match day revenue. We reported in December that plans to create “a fan zone” behind the Thatcher’s Stand had been approved by SSDC, but there’s been nothing further said about that.


We just deserve to know!

Let’s not get sucked in to the whole ‘supporters or customers’ debate because we all know that we are both – but the reality is this football club would not exist without its fan base.

Go back to the 1990s when fans pulled together to save it from the taxman’s bill at its lowest ebb, then 2019 when a Crowdfunder raised more than £50,000 to boost coffers – and a donation to the Yeovil Hospital Charity, of course – and not least the thousands of people who part with their cash week in and week out.

Plus, let us never forget the football club is an employer to many people, do they not deserve a straight answer about the future of their employer?

We have no doubt that the “potential investors” have their reasons for not going public, but the rumour mill is turning, the jungle drums are beating and there seems to be a far more professional ways of introducing yourself than the drip, drip, drip of information. You never get a second chance to make a first impression afterall.

 

If the ‘groundhog’ spots its own shadow and retreats back in to its burrow, it could be a long winter at Huish Park.

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Yeovil conspired to draw yet another game yesterday after being 2-1 as the game entered stoppage time. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions after the draw against bottom of the table Maidstone.

This one is blindingly obvious, the first half performance was nowhere near good enough. I went into yesterday’s game pretty confident after our performance on Tuesday. I thought we were excellent against Wealdstone in the first half but we didn’t come close to matching that level. As Yeovil tried to figure out their own system, Maidstone got comfortable on the ball and scored a brilliant team goal. After fifteen minutes we switched from a back three to a back four and only with a double substitution at half time did we really start to impact the game.

Alex Fisher is Yeovil’s top scorer this season with five goals. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Alex Fisher made the difference. I was surprised that we started with no recognised striker and as the first half wore on it was apparent that it wasn’t working with Andrew Oluwabori through the middle. Fisher’s arrival immediately brought about a focal point to the attack and gave Maidstone defenders something to contend with. When Morgan Williams launched a hopeful ball towards the Maidstone box, Fisher had to watch it travel some distance and executed a fantastic volley into the top corner. He has so many different types of finishes in his locker but as Mark Cooper said afterwards, he needs to do it in every game.

Once again, Matt Worthington put in the ultimate team player’s performance. He didn’t see much of the ball when he started in his usual midfield role, but the half time change saw him move to right wing back. Much like Torquay on New Years Day he made an impact on that side as we focused our play down Maidstone’s left. Our second goal came from his cross with either an opposition player or Chiori Johnson getting the decisive touch. Worthington finished the match at left wing back – he really has become Mark Cooper’s Swiss army knife. (Honourable mentions to Morgan Williams and Edwin Agbaje who moved around as required too.)

Matt Worthington. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

I thought I could manage to conclude without using the word frustrating, but Maidstone’s leveller was the epitome of frustrating. From an attacking position Yeovil attempted to kill some time and hold the ball in the corner rather than go for the third. Maidstone regained possession and got the ball forward quickly forcing Morgan Williams into a foul. Then, much like Yeovil’s first goal, a hopeful ball into the box was met by the man mountain Jerome Bindon-Williams who headed home. It felt like an avoidable series of events, which Mark Cooper put down to a mentality issue. We worked so hard to get ourselves in front and to somehow draw it was….frustrating.

It seems like things are moving on the takeover front. Rumours were rife yesterday that the club’s potential new owners were at the match. That’s a promising step that things are moving in the right direction. If we’re at the point where they’re comfortable to attend matches, it would be a welcome time for an update or an introduction to supporters. I understand the reluctance to get out there until the deal is done, Yeovil Town is a probably a case study in going public too soon. However, there are takeovers going on up and down the country at the moment and most supporters have an idea of who’s coming in (spare a thought for Morecambe). Let’s have a bit of clarity and some idea of what the future could hold.

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You’ve just got over the 90th minute Huish Park equaliser heartbreak and you’re thinking to yourself: “I wonder how our loan lads got on?”

Well, don’t worry, I’ve got you. Let’s find out.

We’re starting at Plymouth Parkway where Toby Stephens was a half-time introduction for his side as Parkway pulled off a cracking 1-0 win at Salisbury. He replaced a former Glovers’ loanee, striker Ben Seymour, at the interval.

Over at Truro, more splinters in the backside for Ollie Haste, who was an unused substitute for Paul Wotton’s side.

The White Tigers thrashed Yate Town 4-0.

Off to the Bob Lucas where the Seagull Botherers picked up a big win at the bottom of the National League South over Dulwich Hamlet but Will Dawes was not named in the match day squad.

Dawes’ initial month on loan still has a couple of weeks left, but Terras’ manager Bobby Wilkinson (the one who hates Yeovil, but is happy to take our cast offs) said Dawes had fallen foul to the five loanee limit.

W*ymouth moved up a place to third from bottom of the table, but are still in the relegation zone with teams around them having games in hand.

To Leamington where Ollie Hulbert played the full 90 minutes in a 1-0 defeat to Blyth Spartans in National League North.

The Brakes were reduced to 10 men shortly before half time with the resulting penalty the only thing between the two sides in the end. They are now two points off the relegation places.

At Sherborne, the result went against the Zebras, going down 3-1 against Saltash United, midfielder Jake Graziano was in the starting line-up, but Benjani Junior was not named in the squad.

We wrap up at Gillingham where once again goalkeeper Rob Hollard and Sam Hodges were in the Gills’ starting line-up but FC Bristol proved too strong winning 2-0.

Plenty more matches to come for the Glovers on loan as the weeks progress.

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper admitted he was “f*ust*ated” at his side’s inability to kill the game off before bottom club Maidstone United nicked an injury time equaliser to take a point from a 2-2 draw at Huish Park.

The boss said he had been “screaming” at his players to go for a third goal after Alex Fisher/an own goal from visiting defender Sam Bone/a goal from Matt Worthington/a goal from Chiori Johnson (delete depending on your opinion) gave the Glovers a 70th minute lead.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the match, the boss admitted he had got his team selection wrong from the start and said he did not blame the home crowd for booing his team after a “horrendous” first half display.

He said: “On the second half performance we have to win the game, we wasted 45 minutes, that was nothing like we had set up to do and there were some poor individual performances in the first half and we had to react at half-time.

“If I was a fan in the first half, I would have booed and moaned. We just have to be more on the front foot and play with pace and purpose and that is what we have worked on in these last few days.

“When you score the second, human nature is that you drop off and protect and I was screaming for them to go and get another one because that (equalising goal) can always happen, a free header from 15 yards. It’s a great header, but if you don’t go and kill the game, you leave yourself open for that.”

He admitted the absence of suspended full-back Jamie Reckord and on loan defender Owen Bevan was a major blow, saying: “We had to put people in the team who are not overly comfortable with how I want to play the game.

“I am probably asking them things to do that they can’t do, we changed to four at the back, they banked in, got everyone behind the ball and just counter-attacked and we got sucked in to it.

“We were horrendous in the first half and I will take the blame for that because I probably picked the wrong team.”

Fisher arrived as a half-time substitute in place of on loan midfielder Jack Clarke and pulled his side level with an impressive 67th minute finish before having a role in what had looked like the winning goal three minutes later.

But, Cooper said he needed more from the experienced forward, saying: “I need that from him every game, every time he goes on the pitch I need him to be a handful. It can’t be every three games and I have been his biggest advocate ever since I have been here.

“All I am asking him to do is stand down the middle and get hold of it or flick the ball on, and he has to do that every time. I have given him so much praise, but I need that for him to play, he needs to play like that.”

The result puts Yeovil four points clear of the National League relegation zone although they do not play again until the visit of leaders Notts County to Somerset on February 18th.

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Yeovil Town goal-scorer Alex Fisher admitted his team-mates should have gone for a third goal after being pegged back by a late equaliser to settle for a 2-2 draw at home to bottom club Maidstone United on Saturday.

The frontman scored twice – albeit the second one is subject to the Dubious Goals’ Panel – having come off the bench at half-time and appeared to have sealed the win, only for Stones’ defender Jerome Binnom-Williams to head an injury time equaliser.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the game, Fisher said: “We should have gone for a third more than we did, there was an air of nervousness about our play after the second goal went in.

“We felt we had something to lose at that point, perhaps. We could have been more professional with how we saw out the last five minutes, but it is a team game and we all take our fair share of responsibility for conceding too late.”

Moments before the equaliser, the Glovers attempted to hold the ball in the corner rather than put it in to the box in search of another goal which Fisher admitted was a mistake.

He said: “We looked at the clock and saw 90 minutes and we thought that if we keep it there (in the corner) it just kills the game off which other teams have done to us.

“But we didn’t retain possession and it’s a corner and a lot still had to happen for the ball to end up in our net but it was one of those wrong decisions.”

The second goal scored after 70 minutes was given to Fisher by the stadium announcer although Press Association has it down as an own goal by Maidstone defender Sam Bone…..oh and Matt Worthington and Chiori Johnson all felt they had a claim.

Fisher said: “I would need to see it back, I made a run across the front post, but I am not sure who got the touch. If there’s any ambiguity, I am delighted to put my hand up for it, but great from Worthy or Chiori.”

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Venue: Huish Park
Saturday 4th February, 3pm kick-off

Conditions: Cold and dry
Pitch: Must’ve been hot, scorched grass in front of the Thatcher’s

Attendance: 2,421 (54 away supporters)

Scorers: Sha’mar Lawson 20 (0-1), Alex Fisher 67 (1-1), Alex Fisher 70 (2-1), Jerome Binnom-Williams 90 (2-2)

Bookings: 

Yeovil Town: Morgan Williams 90
Maidstone United: Hady Ghandour 58, Jereome Binnom-Williams 90+5

Referee: Adrian Quelch

Substitutes: Alex Fisher (for Jack Clarke, 46), Chiori Johnson (for Ben Richards-Everton, 46), Charlie Wakefield (for Chiori Johnson, 75), Jordan Young, Will Buse.

Maidstone United: Barden, Fowler, Corne, Barham, Booty, Binnom-Williams, Deacon, Bone, Jobe, Lawson, Cawley. Substitutes: Ghandour (for Booty, 58), Pattison (for Cawley, 68) Mersin, Alabi, Jeche.

Match Report

An injury time equaliser from Jerome Binnom-Williams saw bottom club Maidstone United inflict a 14th draw of the season on Yeovil Town at Huish Park.

A second half brace from substitute Alex Fisher looked to have earned the Glovers a win after a Sha’mar Lawson gave the visitors the lead in a first half they utterly controlled with the home team booed off the pitch at the interval.

But, with a minute of injury time played at the end of the match Binnom-Williams rose highest to earn a point.

 

First half

With Owen Bevan missing through suspension, Yeovil went for a three-man back line of Ben Richards-Everton, captain Josh Staunton and Morgan Williams with Edwin Agbaje and Jordan Maguire-Drew playing as “aggressive” wing-backs, according to boss Mark Cooper’s pre-match interview with BBC Somerset.

Richards-Everton was straight in to the action clearing off the line after Jerome Binnom-Williams and Roarie Deacon combined to get the first effort in on the hosts’ goal.

Three minutes later, Deacon combined with Jack Barham who chipped the ball up for Jack Cawley whose header was weak but held by Grant Smith. It was comfortable for Yeovil’s number one, but a nervous start for the Glovers who were struggling to get through midfield in the early exchanges.

The tempo which was seen in the first half against Wealdstone four days earlier was missing for Yeovil, often the case when we play with a back three – and Mark Cooper spotted this and quickly changed to a back four. Richards-Everton moved to left-back, Agbaje to the right and Staunton and Morgan Williams adopted the central defensive positions. That saw Maguire-Drew move further forward.

However, it was the visitors who took the lead after 20 minutes through a move which belied their lowly status. A superb move through midfield involving Deacon and Mamadou Jobe who squared the ball to Sha’mar LAWSON who coolly side-footed in to the bottom corner. It was nothing more than Maidstone deserved.

The first meaningful effort on goal came after 27 minutes when a good run from Matt Worthington fed the ball in to Andrew Oluwabori on the edge of the box, but his effort was over the bar. A meaningful effort, but off target.

The animation of Cooper and his assistant Chris Todd on the touchline spoke volumes for the manager’s opinion on the pedestrian performance. There was no urgency to get the ball out and going forward. Half-time ‘re-programming’ incoming?

As the board came up for injury time, Maidstone midfielder Regan Booty, who scored the late penalty in the 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture, was found on the edge of the box but his low shot went whistling past the post.

The half-time whistle blew to the sound of boos at Huish Park.

Half time:  Yeovil Town 0 Maidstone United 1

 

Second half

Cooper responded with a double change at half-time pulling Jack Clarke and Richards-Everton and introducing Alex Fisher and Chiori Johnson, the latter not seen since being taken off at the interval at Torquay on Boxing Day.

Within five minutes of the restart, the tempo rose (it couldn’t really have sunk any lower) and Worthington got a good ball across, crying out for Fisher to throw some part of his body at it. He didn’t and the chance dissipated.

Maidstone dropped deeper defensively in response to Yeovil getting forward more, but still no shot on goal.

One eventually came on 55 minutes when a great ball in to the box from Oluwabori found Worthington at the back post to test Dan Barden in the visitors’ goal, the ball dropped to Oluwabori who went for a spectacular shot outside the box. You can probably guess the rest.

It was the striker’s instincts of Fisher which led to the equaliser on 67 minutes. It was hopeful ball in to the penalty area by Morgan Williams and FISHER took it on the right foot volley and smashed it home. That’s what a striker can do for you. Parity.

Three minutes later, Yeovil were ahead. Great play by Worthington and a combination of Fisher, Chiori Johnson and a Maidstone defender all had dibs on that one. The stadium announcer gave it to FISHER, so we’ll say Fisher, but probably one for the Dubious Goals’ Panel.

If Johnson had had a goal taken off him by Fisher his game got worse when he pulled up with a hamstring injury on 75 minutes. He was replaced by Charlie Wakefield.

A great free-kick in to the box found a head from BINNOM-WILLIAMS which flew over Grant Smith. Fair play to Maidstone, they deserved their point for their first half performance alone and that stopped a run of nine straight defeats for them. For Yeovil, another draw.

Full time: Yeovil Town 2 Maidstone United 2

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On loan midfielder Jack Clarke returns to the Yeovil Town starting line-up for the visit of bottom club Maidstone United to Huish Park on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

He replaces Jordan Young, who has started the previous two matches and drops to the bench, in what appears to be a three-man frontline alongside Andrew Oluwabori and Jordan Maguire-Drew.

Ben Richards-Everton comes in for the suspended Owen Bevan, who misses out after his red card in the goalless draw with Wealdstone on Tuesday night.

Maidstone United: Barden, Fowler, Corne, Barham, Booty, Binnom-Williams, Deacon, Bone, Jobe, Lawson, Cawley. Substitutes: Mersin, Alabi, Pattison, Ghandour, Jeche.

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Striker Charlie Bateson bagged his second hat-trick in as many weeks as Yeovil Town Under-18s picked up their first win in the Gary Else Memorial Cup this season.

The young striker starred in a thrilling 4-3 win over Wimborne Town in the young Glovers’ third match in the South West Counties Youth League round robin cup competition at Alvington on Saturday.

Having fallen behind to an early goal after just seven minutes, Bateson broke through to prod past the visiting keeper five minutes later. Wimborne restored there advantage on 14 minutes but it lasted just four minutes as Bateson broke away again and coolly slotted home his second.

The hosts fell behind again on 20 minutes and it was left to Bateson to pull them back in to it rounding the keeper and firing another equaliser on 27 minutes to make it 3-3 at half-time.

The second half was less breathless and settled on 71 minutes when Jacob Shore stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot.

Jacob Shore smashes home the winner. Picture courtesy of Matt Partridge.

Bateson’s treble means he has now netted eight times in his last six outings including a hat-trick in a friendly win at Sherborne School last weekend.