Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 314)

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The Football Association’s disciplinary portal has updated to confirm Matt Worthington’s two match ban.

Worthy picked up his 10th yellow card in the (very) latter stages of Saturday’s game against Halifax, a game which represented the ‘cut off’ for such bans.

As it stands he will miss both home games against Bromley (Sat 25th March) and the TV game against Southend on 1st April, his next appearance will likely be the crunch clash away at Gateshead the following Tuesday.

For what it’s worth, now that the 10 yellow card cut off has passed, the next significant booking-based milestone surrounds Jamie Reckord who sits on 12, three more between now and the end of the season would lead to a three-match ban.

 

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In what might have been one of the worst footballing spectacles the National League has ever seen, FC Halifax Town and Yeovil Town played out a 1-1 draw at The Shay on Saturday.

Gloverscast Ben was on co-commentary duty for BBC Somerset in the press box and explores the reasons for this, of which plenty were out of Yeovil’s (or anyone’s) control for that matter.

A point on the road should be taken as a good thing on the whole.

I’ll get to the game itself in a moment, but I think it’s worth noting that we are at the stage of the season where we can’t really worry too much about style of play, or level of performance, but it’s now about getting as close to 50 points as possible.

As mentioned on previous podcasts, ten 1-1 draws between now and the end of the season might be enough. Although you’d rather get it wrapped up far sooner.

After the game Yeovil manager Mark Cooper told of his pride in the squad for coming back from 1-0 down and for putting their bodies on the line.

I’ve slept on it (Rule 2) and with some of the teams below us in the table dropping points – Torquay and Gateshead drawing and Dorking losing – it goes down as a ‘good away point’.

Now to the match… well, actually no, to the pitch now.

Manager Mark Cooper leads the applause for the away supporters at the end of the game.

The Shay stadium pitch was an utter disgrace.

Yes, I know it was the same for both teams, but I have to include something on the sandy surface.

I got the chance to stand on a little bit after the game, it was exactly like running across the beach when the tide had just gone out.

It was tough to get any grip if moving at speed, but in tight areas it was sticky and sludgy enough to get your foot stuck in it.

It was basically like playing on a non-Newtonian liquid. (Ask your science teachers, kids).

There’s no doubt in my mind it prevented any kind of a football match from breaking out and could well have contributed to one – or maybe both – of the serious injuries suffered by Lawson D’Ath and Edwin Agbaje.

Lawson D’Ath is lifted to his feet after suffering a hamstring strain.

Speaking of which, I’ve heard rumours that if you win the Golden Gamble next week, the prize has been changed from cash to a place on the bench for the second half. Bring your boots if you’re coming to the game on Saturday.

Edwin Agbaje looks set to be out for a considerable amount of time, Lawson D’Ath broke our hearts again by pulling up chasing to correct an error by Ryan Law, and Matt Worthington is out for two games after a tenth yellow card of the season after ‘taking one for the team’.

Goal-scorer Malachi Linton looked more like Malachi LIMPton as he came out of the tunnel to chat after and Charlie Cooper and Josh Staunton are bandaged up enough to represent an ancient Egyptian artefact.

Alex Fisher and Jordan Maguire-Dre both looked to be nursing something or other as well.

It’s a big week in the physio room as we patch a few bodies up and get them ready.

If Agbaje is out for a while, it would make sense to try and replace that loan spot, but my word do we need some bodies.

I still haven’t mentioned the football have I?

Let’s talk playing out from the back.

Grant Smith. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

I love the commitment to the cause, it’s clearly something Mark Cooper wants to see and maybe the personnel we have doesn’t suit long goal kicks, but oooof does it make me nervous.

The best keeper in the league, two centre backs in Josh Staunton and Owen Bevan you’d hang your hat on more often than not, but with the margins so fine and meaning so much, the risk-reward balance is right on the line and at times it was inviting more pressure than it drew on us.

Finally then. What happens now? A week off, but only for the players. 

Well, the assumption is that we need to bolster the ranks (see Matt Uggla’s tweets from Saturday night – here), which is far easier said than done, we’re already oversubscribed on loans but may need to roll that particular dice again.

We appear to have already earmarked targets for the summer (what is this forward thinking… and why do I like it?) but the suggestion is we might be in a position to move a bit earlier for those, which would be helpful.

Do we need to think about recalling some loans? We have two players in Will Dawes and Ollie Hulbert playing reasonably well in the division below, we have Ollie Haste, who is incredibly highly thought of, who can play as a back up to the left side.

But more than that, we have two home games in a row, the first of which falling on Non League Day. Is there time to try and do something to entice Bristol City fans, Southampton fans… any fans of Premier League/Championship clubs to spend their international break at Huish Park?

I’ve seen some clubs offer any season ticket holder of a Premier League or EFL side a £10 ticket, or similar, but having a bouncing Huish Park will only help the lads get through 90 more minutes against a very good team.

Nine more cup finals to go…

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Yeovil Town’s owner-in-waiting* Matt Uggla has said he is looking to bring in up to “four top top players” as the Glovers look to boost their injury-hit squad.

After injuries to on loan defender Edwin Agbaje and midfielder Lawson D’Ath in the 1-1 draw at FC Halifax Town on Saturday, the director of SU Glovers posted on Twitter that he would be looking to “open the cheque book” ahead of the deadline to register players next Thursday.

He responded to one supporter questioning whether he was willing to invest saying: “Very wrong! Let’s see who comes in next week.”

Asked about the potential deals, he responded: “We are in contact with 4 top top players all permanent. Wanted them in the summer but will have to push that forward to before Thursday. I think next week will be a big week.”

https://twitter.com/matt_uggla/status/1637169982910988291?s=20

Speaking after the draw at Halifax, Yeovil boss Mark Cooper confirmed D’Ath was expected to be missing for up to three weeks after picking up a hamstring injury, whilst Agbaje’s season appears to be over after he was stretchered off following a 71st minute tackle.

These come on top of injuries to defenders Max Hunt and Morgan Williams, midfielder Scott Pollock, who is yet to appear since joining earlier this month, and forwards Charlie Wakefield (back) and Jordan Young (hamstring). Oh, and Matt Worthington will miss the home matches with Bromley and Southend United after picking up his tenth yellow card of the season in West Yorkshire.

* – until someone says the “bureaucratic thing” which Uggla was delaying the takeover of the club from former owner Scott Priestnall has been overcome, we’ll stick with ‘owners-in-waiting’. But, the commitment of SU Glovers – which includes ex-England rugby union international Paul Sackey – to invest is (at the very least) a deeply reassuring.

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Another Saturday of football means it’s time once again to see how the Glovers loanees are getting on… some of them might be playing for a place on the bench at Huish Park before the season is out.

Starting in the National League where defender Ben Richards-Everton played the full 90 minutes for Scunthorpe United as they picked up a huge win at the bottom of the table, beating Wealdstone 4-1.

Oxford City were 1-0 winners in the National League South, Will Dawes was initially credited with the only goal, but an internal dubious goals panel took it off him in the game against Cheshunt.

Truro City were comfortable 3-0 winners against Bracknall Town, Ollie Haste was brought on in the 90th minute.

Striker Ollie Hulbert played the full 90 for Leamington, but they lost 3-0 away to Peterborough Sports.

Gillingham Town drew 0-0 with Bristol Telephones, team news hasn’t been made available, Rob Hollard and Sam Hodges may have been involved.

One person who definitely didn’t play was midfielder Toby Stephens who was absent from the Plymouth Parkway side.

Down at Tiverton, striker Charlie Bateson was brought on for the final few moments of their 3-3 draw with Marine.

… and finally, how about a man of the match performance from Jake Graziano? He was a stand-out performer for Sherborne Town as the Zebras drew 0-0 with Bridgwater United, fellow Glover Benjani Junior was on the bench.

Here’s a picture of Jake with a bottle of MOTM bubbly, we’re not sure he’s actually old enough to drink yet.

 

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Yeovil Town’s goalscorer at Halifax, Malachi Linton, thought the point was a ‘good’ one after late drama at the Shay.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins, the striker said: “Little points like this against a sort of relegation rival, I think its fair to say, can go a long long way. I definitely think in the manner of how we came back, late drama, it’s always a good point.”

His late equaliser, in a game where manager Mark Cooper said they were against the world, was a testament to the squad’s togetherness according to Linton.

“I think that performance shows our togetherness as team. We dug deep until the end, got a late equaliser and you know we’re around each other. People fill in holes and everyone applies themselves and we go out each game no matter what it is.”

“I don’t think the game should have gone the way it went. I think a dominant performance in the first half, the way the gaffer likes to play, I think we should bury it then and there, but we didn’t. And you always leave yourself vulnerable when you don’t take you chances and dominate a game and you’re susceptible to a counter attack goal like that.”

The striker did say he felt belief was coming back into the team though: “I think the past few games we’ve have had more of the belief that we’ve needed to have and I think if you go into a game not believing you’re not going to come out on the right side of it.”

More goals please Mal!

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Manager Mark Cooper said his side were ‘against the world’ during Yeovil Town’s 1-1 draw with FC Halifax Town.

A late goal from substitute Malachi Linton cancelled out Matty Warburton’s opener in a match that saw three players leave the pitch injured, Matt Worthington booked and facing a two-match suspension and the denial of a “blatant penalty”.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins the manager praised the entire club: “I thought the effort today, with people absolutely out on their feet at the end, it’s criminal that we’re asking them to keep playing, but they were fantastic – the whole club today: players, staff, supporters. You saw what it meant at the end and we deserved that so much as a club. We were against the world today, I have to be careful what I say, but we were against the world.

“I don’t want to mention the referee, or speak about him, it doesn’t warrant me wasting any breath. It was a blatant penalty. I’d like to watch [the game] back, I thought we got an awful lot of decisions against us today and an horrendous tackle on Edwin Agbaje.”

Lawson D’Ath is lifted to his feet after suffering a hamstring strain.

Agbaje was stretchered off after a tackle in 71st minute and looks set for a long spell on the sidelines. As does Lawson D’Ath who left the pitch in the first half with a hamstring injury. Cooper said D’Ath could be out for three weeks at a minimum. He also said Alex Fisher had hurt his hamstring too. To compound it all, Matt Worthington picked up his tenth booking of the season which will see him miss the next two matches at home against Bromley next weekend and Southend United seven days later.

The boss praised his side’s first half performance though: “Our first performance was brilliant. I thought we totally controlled the game. We need to be in front. My only gripe with the players is that the first half performance needs to be that were winning the game by one or two goals. Because you know that Halifax are going to react. The situation we find ourselves in is a lack of confidence in and around the opposition penalty area. And, I said to the players ‘what’s the worst thing that can happen? You can miss a chance, so what?’ But we need to sort that bit out. If we play like we did today for 70 minutes and the last five minutes when we worked so hard, we’ll be fine.”

With injuries piling up and just four players on the bench – on loan Doncaster Rovers striker Reo Griffiths missed training yesterday and wasn’t named on the bench, although there is no suggestion of an injury – Cooper was hopeful of bringing in the right players before the deadline for registering players on Thursday.

“We need to think about what we’re going to do, because what we don’t want to do is sign loads of players and burden ourselves with loads of debt. We need to make sure that if we bring anyone in they’re going to improve us and they’re ready to go. Hopefully we can come up with a name or two and try and get them into help the boys.”

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Venue: The Shay
Saturday, 18th March, 3pm kick-off

Pitch: Fantastic if you are after a beach holiday
Conditions: On and off drizzle 
Attendance: 1623 (103 away supporters)

Scorers: Matt Warburton 60 (0-1), Malachi Linton 88 (1-1)

Bookings: 

Yeovil Town: Owen Bevan 25, Charlie Cooper 51, Malachi Linton 57, Matt Worthington
FC Halifax Town: Jamie Stott 40

Referee: Jamie O’Connor

Yeovil Town (4-3-3)


Substitutes: Malachi Linton (for Lawson D’Ath, 25), Chiori Johnson (for Edwin Agbaje, 71), Jamie Reckord (for Alex Fisher, 90+4), Will Buse (not used).


Match Report

A Malachi Linton goal two minutes from the end earned Yeovil Town a smash-and-grab point at FC Halifax Town on Saturday.

After a game which was typically lacking in attacking intent from the visitors, the substitute bundled home an effort from Andrew Oluwabori to cancel out an opener from ex-Glovers’ loanee Matt Warburton.

However, there were serious looking injuries to midfielder Lawson D’Ath and on loan Ipswich Town defender Edwin Agbaje, who was stretchered off in the second half, and Matt Worthington picked up a yellow card which will see him get another suspension.

Here was Dave’s view from the away end at The Shay….

 

First half

It took five minutes for ex-Yeovil Town man Matt Warburton to have his first opportunity. It was one gift wrapped for him by Grant Smith whose desire to play it out from the back gifted an opportunity to Milli Alli to play a ball in and Warburton inexplicably put it wide with the goal at his mercy.

The opening ten minutes was a contest of which side lacked quality the most, but one moment for the visitors came on 12 minutes. A good run forward by Andrew Oluwabori fed Jordan Maguire-Drew whose ball went towards Worthington who appeared to be being impeded.

Two minutes later, Maguire-Drew was involved again as his ball in almost found Fisher in the box. Moments later, the ball broke Ryan Law who was pulled down inside the box. Probably not a penalty.

On 21 minutes, a corner was played out to Law who attempted to harness his inner Johan Cruyff (without success) and gifted possession to Halifax. Lawson D’Ath sprinted to the halfway line and pulled up holding his hamstring. He was replaced by Malachi Linton with Worthington dropping deeper.

Lawson D’Ath is lifted to his feet after suffering a hamstring strain.

A mistake by Owen Bevan, now on a booking after a foul on Warburton, allowed Diuserwuve down the right, he fed Alli who in turn found Warburton. Luckily Grant Smith was able to fall on the ball.

The tactic of playing out from the back caused Yeovil all kind of self-inflicted wounds during the first half. For a goalkeeper so adept with his hands, Smith appeared determined to show his quality with his feet – more of a shot-stopper than a footballer.

With five minutes of the half remaining, a ball in from Maguire-Drew went towards Linton who looked to be fouled. More of a shout than the Law’s, but still not more than ‘you’ve seen them given’ territory.

As the game ticked in to injury time, Warburton fizzed one just over the bar just before a forward surge by Oluwabori was flicked towards goal by Fisher. Not enough to force a meaningful stop out of the keeper.

Half time: FC Halifax Town 0 Yeovil Town 0

 

Second half

Five minutes in to the second half Charlie Cooper’s run forward forced a simple save from the keeper.

On 53 minutes, Warburton’s ball found Alli at the back stick, but his header flew over Smith’s goal. Three minutes later, a ball in from Fisher was

But, on the hour mark, the home side found a breakthrough. A good break forward saw Alli find WARBURTON who put a composed finish past Smith.

To add injury to insult, a collision between Edwin Agbaje and had to be stretchered off after 68 minutes. He was replaced by Chiori Johnson, but it did not look good for the on loan Ipswich Town man.

With their goal advantage and their opponents down to the barest of bare bones, Halifax looked to press their advantage. At the other end, there was a distinct lack of quality/confidence/energy (any of the three would be a correct answer). The cries of “ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!” from the away support were met with little at the other end.

Five minutes to go, the thing Ben warned about on last week’s podcast happened – a stupid foul from Worthington. Another yellow card and a suspension to help our personnel issues.

Then, from absolute nothing, we were level with two minutes remaining. Yet again it was Oluwabori whose run and hopeful shot was bundled home at the back post by….well, the club’s Twitter account gave it to LINTON but honestly I have no idea.

The assistant raised his flag as if to claim a foul/offside/handball (who honestly knows) and then quickly lowered it and ran to thr halfway line. Halifax keeper Sam Johnstone was shown a yellow card for his protests, but the goal stood.

How’s your heart doing? How about six minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game to really test it? Two minutes in to them,  Josh Staunton personified putting his body on the line with an outstanding block to deny Alli and the visitors hung on for a point.

Manager Mark Cooper leads the applause for the away supporters at the end of the game.

Full time: FC Halifax Town 1 Yeovil Town 1

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Top scorer Alex Fisher returns to the starting XI for today’s visit to FC Halifax Town (3pm kick-off).

The frontman, who has five goals this season, starts as a loan striker with Jordan Maguire-Drew, Andrew Oluwabori and Matt Worthington behind him in midfield.

There is no place for Jordan Young, who has a hamstring injury, and on loan Doncaster Rovers striker Reo Griffiths is the sixth loanee who misses out of the squad.

 

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National League general manager Mark Ives has hailed safeguards in place to prevent its member clubs being “destroyed” by unscrupulous owners.

Speaking to the Price of Football podcast, he was asked about the different operating models employed at different clubs in the division, with the model employed by the big spenders of Wrexham, Notts County and Chesterfield quite different to those on smaller budgets at the other end of the division.

He also revealed that the first payment of money from the National League TV streaming service would be received by clubs this month and gave his views on the way the league distributed of £10m of taxpayers’ money to clubs during the COVID-19 pandemic

On the subject of ownership, Ives revealed the league checks that clubs are “operating the appropriate way” on a monthly basis with regular contact being made with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), aka “the taxman“.

He was talking specifically about clubs being taken over by big-spending owners – presumably referring to the Hollywood boys at Wrexham – but the comments will be of interest at Yeovil Town with owners-in-waiting SU Glovers being led by Matt Uggla, the son of multi-millionaire business, Lance.

Ives said: “As long as clubs can show they are operating within their means and not causing risk to their clubs from an owner potentially loaning money and later on drawing it all out and destroying the club, then they should be able to operate providing they are operating in an affordable way.

“The one good record of the National League is they introduced their own financial reporting mechanism and checking clubs are operating the appropriate way and since that date a true National League club that been in the league for a while has never gone in to insolvency. We have inherited a few but never from our own ranks.

“As part of those checks, we check on a monthly basis money owed to HMRC and, prior to COVID, we didn’t have a single club owing money to HMRC. COVID caused a lot of problems and we are now moving back in the right direction, so our checks come very early and we try to deal with that as we see there is a problem arising.

Asked specifically about Southend, Ives immediately pointed out that Southend had come down from the EFL before adding: “I don’t think it would be appropriate to talk about an individual club on air. That would not be right and that would not be fair to the club.”

The general manager was also asked about what podcast presenter Kevin Day described as “the fuss” around the distribution of £10m of taxpayers’ money to help clubs in the National League survive the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This system was the subject of a documentary, ‘Gate Money: Inside Non-League Football’s Funding Fiasco’, which looked in to the decisions made by the League.

Commenting ahead of the documentary’s airing last October, Yeovil Town chairman Scott Priestnall said he opposed the way the money was distributed despite the club receiving “the highest level of distribution” of funding. You can read what he said at the time – here.

He added: “I was one director who voted against and regularly opposed the formula and the way the process was dealt with.”

However, Ives disagrees, he told the podcast: “You try to distribute £10m worth of money and you are going to have some opposition from those people who think it should have been sliced in a different way, so I am satisfied there was nothing untoward and nothing done incorrectly.

“The intention of the board was to make sure football could continue whilst in COVID in a safe environment and I can’t criticise the intentions or what they did with that.”

On the method for distribution, Ives said: “I think the confusion (around the distribution) came from the suggestion came from the suggestion that it would be dealt with purely on attendances. I would not agree with something being distributed solely (based) on attendances, it is not a consistent approach.

“If (the National League board) had time, maybe a cleaner way was to look at the sustainability and the financial records of the club. But it has to be remembered that the money was secured at a time when (the National League) had to get the money distributed fairly quickly across the club where some had not had money for several months, so it was backs against the wall and a question of can we get the games kicking off an help the clubs. If they had more time, maybe they would have come out with a different way of distributing the money.”

 

On streaming, Ives described National League TV as “a really, really big success” and said the first payment from the proceeds of the service would be received by member clubs this month.

The service which launched at the end of last year was “well ahead” of the amount of money it had expected to be bringing in and said the distribution model would benefit all of its 72 member clubs .

That model means that providing you declare the fact you are a Yeovil Town supporter when registering on the National League website then 60% of your fee will go in to the Huish Park coffers. A further 25% goes in to a pot which is distributed among the other teams in the National League pyramid – yes, that means W*ymouth do get a bit of your money. The other 15% goes in to another pot which the League says will be “retained by the league for reinvestment”, Mr Ives did not give any information on where that money was going.

Ives said: “One concern of some clubs was will streaming cause an impact on fans coming through the gates, that doesn’t appear to be the case at the moment. The latest figures show 79% of our clubs have shown increases in attendances compared to the previous year.”