Yeovil Town’s Ollie Haste was back in the starting line up for Truro as the on loan defender made his second debut for the White Tigers on Tuesday.
Haste played a key role in Truro’s 3-0 away win at Salisbury.
The defender made a couple of important defensive clearances as well as being part of the build up to at least one of his team’s goals.
Toby Stephens’ Plymouth Parkway side play tonight (Wednesday).
Yeovil Town manager Chris Hargreaves said he understands the frustrations of supporters after angry scenes at the end of a 2-0 home defeat to Aldershot Town on Tuesday night.
Two goals in the last five minutes at Huish Park sent the Glovers to a second consecutive defeat and pushed them in to the National League relegation zone with supporters calling on the manager to go at the final whistle.
Speaking to BBC Somerset commentator Ian Randall at the end of the game, Hargreaves said he was “100%” certain that he had the tools he needed to get the club out of trouble.
He said: “I completely understand the annoyance. All I can do is turn up tomorrow and try my best.
“I care about the club and want it to do well. I understand the frustrations and I understand we need to get bodies in to the building.”
The boss pointed to the absence of absence of experienced heads, notably playmaker Lawson D’Ath who was not in the squad, and the late departure of Sam Pearson who has “temporarily returned from his loan spell” from Bristol City to “recover from fatigue“, according to both clubs.
Hargreaves said: “I’m asking a lot of young lads to step up and it is difficult for them and there’s a group of players where some will come through that tough period and some might struggle.
“I’m asking the experienced boys to step up and lead, but it was a tough night from them.
“It’s a very poor result and it’s difficult for some of those lads to get through the period because of their experience.”
On Tuesday night, the Glovers’ fielded a side with an average age of 24.81 years, rising fractionally to 24.85 years with the arrivals of substitutes Chiori Johnson, Will Dawes and Gime Toure.
For context, Aldershot’s starting XI had an average age of 24.72 years, rising to 25.2 years with the arrival of their two substitutes including 34-year-old Kenny Davis, who appeared on the hour mark.
Yeovil gave a debut to 20-year-old midfielder Ewan Clark in the defeat following his arrival on loan from Bristol City, swapping places with young Robin Pearson.
Hargreaves said he was continuing to “work hard” to bring in new players having spoken ahead of last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic about the club seeking clearance on a couple of training with the squad.
The boss said he had been close to bringing in players who he believed could have helped the club’s plight.
He said: “It’s a challenge because some players chose to stay at clubs and not risk playing elsewhere, but I’m working all hours to try and get the right player in and be better.
“We’ve been unfortunate with a couple which I think would have made a massive difference to the team and squad, a couple the clubs have decided to make them stay because they have got in their teams. They would’ve made a big difference.”
Venue: Huish Park
Tuesday 25th October, 7:45pm kick-off
Conditions: Cool, clear night
Pitch: Looking good
Attendance: 2396 (219 away)
Scorers: Phillips (0-1 ’85), Willard (0-2 ’90+)
Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Reckord ’75, Dawes ‘ 79, Johnson ’89
Aldershot Town: Harfield ’79, Davies ’90
Referee: James Durkin
Yeovil Town : (4-3-3…maybe)
Grant Smith
Owen Bevan – Josh Staunton – Ben Richards-Everton – Jamie Reckord
Callum Rowe (Will Dawes ’66) – Matt Worthington – Sam Perry
Ollie Hulbert – Alex Fisher(Gime Toure ’60) – Ewan Clark (Chiori Johnson ’73)
Substitutes (not used): Max Hunt, Malachi Linton
Yeovil Town dropped into the National League relegation zone following a 2-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Aldershot Town, in a game where the Glovers passed 430 minutes without scoring a goal, two late goals from the visitors confined the green and whites to a second consecutive 2-0 defeat.
Ian Perkins was there, here’s how he saw it.
With changes across the team, including a debut for Ewan Clarke, the Glovers lined up in a 4-3-3 – praise the Lord.
The opening ten was pretty cagey, with both sides exchanging spells of possession with no chances at goal.
In the 13th minute Grant Smith was called into action, diving to his left to put Tommy Willard’s goal-bound effort wide for a corner.
The Glovers had a half chance moments later with Clarke meeting Jamie Reckord’s deep looping cross with a tame header towards goal.
As the lone striker, Alex Fisher was doing a lot of running and in the 22nd minute he glanced a header wide of the post after a good cross from Reckord on the left.
Some neat play moment later opened some spaces for efforts that were closed down but it fell to Clarke who’s left footed effort was easy for Taylor Ashby-Hammond.
Former W*ymouth man Tyler Cordner’s eyes lit up as he galloped forward and with space to line up a strike he smashed the ball wide of Smith’s goal.
As half time approached discontent grew amongst supporters with boos for misplaced crosses and even when the players had audacity to retain possession – odd.
Aldershot’s movement was causing Chris Hargreaves’ side a few issues as they adjusted to the new shape, but a fairly dull affair saw the scores level at the break.
The first effort of the second half fell to Aldershot, as Amaluzor had his left footed shot deflected wide for a corner.
Attacking the Thatchers, which seemed to have gained a few idiots from the surrounding villages, Alex Fisher dragged an effort wide shortly after.
Aldershot had their best chance of the game in the 58th minute. After a mix up in defence, Frank Vincent snuck in to strike at goal but his shot went wide.
Chris Hargreaves changes personnel Midway through the half, replacing Fisher and Rowe with Gime Toure and Will Dawes.
Shortly after the former Stratford man’s arrival, a defensive clearance rebounded horribly off of Amaluzor just over the bar as Smith scrambled back towards goal.
Buoyed by his effort in the first half, Cordner had another go in the 70th minute that flew just wide of Smith’s left hand post.
Toure mazed his way through the box and went down appealing for a penalty, although the referee saw no contact and waved the appeals away.
Aldershot opened the scoring five minutes from time with Giles PHILLIPS heading home a corner. 0-1.
The Glovers couldn’t lift themselves after conceding and Tommy WILLARD piled on the misery in stoppage time. 0-2.
Chants of “We Want Hargreaves out” and “f*ck off back to BT” and boos at full time really piled the pressure on Chris Hargreaves as the GloverS fell into the bottom four.
At the full time whistle, there were some ugly scenes as the Glovers fans made their voices heard.
The customers have spoken….. #YTFC @scottpriestnall @RobinsStuart @YTFC pic.twitter.com/7sY2XEG53u
— Gloverscast ?⚽️? (@gloverscast) October 25, 2022
Teenage midfielder Ewan Clark has joined Yeovil Town on loan from Bristol City – as his team-mate Sam Pearson makes a temporary return to Ashton Gate suffering with “fatigue”.
The 19-year-old, who joined the Championship side from National League South outfit Oxford City in the summer, arrives in time for tonight’s crucial league match with Aldershot Town.
Speaking of the new arrival, Glovers’ boss Chris Hargreaves said: “Ewan is a young player who arrives with experience at a good level within the non-league ranks.
“He is an exciting attacking player who we believe is ready to hit the ground running.We would like to thank Bristol City for their cooperation on the deal.”
The statement announcing the arrival included confirmation that Pearson had returned to City having been a regular started in recent games.
It added: “On the departures front, Sam Pearson has returned to Bristol City on a temporary basis to recover from fatigue.”
Ian, Ben and Dave return to chat about defeat at Oldham and we take your questions.
Aldershot to look forward to!
Yes, you did read that headline correctly! Yeovil Town’s age group teams picked up four wins against their counterparts from Juventus Devon in the Junior Premier League at the weekend.
The Under-11s, Under-12s, Under-13s and Under-14s teams, who all play under the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust, against the teams from Newton Abbot, Devon.
The Under-16s picked up a draw against Chivenor Soccer School in their match whilst the Under-15s match against Juventus Devon was postponed.
Ben Barrett was in the press box for the Glovers’ 2-0, defeat to Oldham.
It was a tough, stressful and genuinely quite emotional experience.
Here’s his five conclusions.
It’s probably worth bearing in mind I haven’t seen this Yeovil Team since mid August.
Back go back games against Barnet and Altrincham were both either reasonable performances or a reasonable result, since then I had been told tales of some of the good, the bad and downright ugly side of YTFC.
Regardless of what had gone before it, we had to come out strong, we had to be the first to draw blood and to kick ourselves out of our slumber.
To go down 1-0 early was an almighty hammer blow.
Obvious as it may seem, that sixth minute goal, the scrappy defending and the unlucky deflection set the tone for a torrid afternoon for the Glovers.
A ball that could have been prevented from coming into the box, fell into an area from which it could/should have been cleared. I felt the ‘hear we go again’ from the 144 in the away end.
Shall we wrap up the positives in one go next?
Owen Bevan and Ollie Hulbert did alright and Grant Smith is the best keeper in the league.
Bevan had an important role as the central figure in a Staunton-less defence and I think he shone the most of the back line. In the second half, Ollie Hulbert sensed a chance to make an impression on debut, and in difficult circumstances, I thought he did alright.
He’s quick, direct, showed some nice little link ups. I reckon he’s got every chance of getting more minutes over the coming weeks.
And Grant Smith is the best shot stopper outside the EFL. He just is.
Positives taken care of, who wants some more negatives? Jolly good.
I don’t like wing backs, you don’t like wing backs, we get it.
But if you have to have wing backs, you’d probably want them to be Chiori Johnson and Jamie Reckord.
So… why on earth did we start Sam Pearson at wing back and Johnson in the middle?
I’ve said this 100 times before but why we can’t start playing our best players in their best positions I simply do not know.
Chris Hargreaves thinks this formation has worked OK so far. It hasn’t Chris, it just hasn’t.
I’m not a qualified football coach, but I have eyes. There are some simple, tactical tweaks which I’m convinced would make a difference;
The front two need to be closer together, there was no chance of catching a flick on, or getting a little combo of passes together in the final third, nobody close enough to get busy and pick up the pieces of a broken down attack and it was infruariating.
Set pieces need a complete overhaul because we are shocking at defending them and trying to score from them and please, play people in their best positions.
Josh Staunton was on a one man mission to play in all 10 outfield positions, as admirable as that is, it stopped him being good at what he’s good at. I felt for him, he’s clearly feeling everybit of the disappointment we all are.
Confidence is rock bottom.
So many times, players were showing obvious signs of the sheer lack of confidence we as a unit are struggling with right now.
Maybe it’s a fear of making a mistake, of losing possession. Maybe it’s a desire to get off the ball as quickly as possible. A panicked clearance, a slashed ball forwards, a overhit pass, a sideways or negative move when a braver option was on elsewhere.
There’s no magic wand to make confidence just appear out of nowhere, it’s down to working hard (to levels where socks indeed come off), positive reinforcement and some excellent man management and leadership.
Finally, then.
I’ve not said it on the podcast before now, I’ve kept my mind open, my thoughts to myself until I can see with my own eyes what’s going on.
In the current state of the country, it feels odd and to be honest, fairly horrible, to talk about someone else being in or out of employment.
But purely from a football point of view, I have no choice to confirm that I am absolutely Hargreaves Out.
I’m sorry, Chris, I am.
But this formation doesn’t work, there’s no plan B, our side looks a dishevelled shell of what I think it can be. Results haven’t been nearly good enough.
I feel like when you appeared on the pod, we were all backing you. We forgave some early season wobbles, we saw glimpses of what this side could be, but it’s time now to call it a day. An experiment that didn’t work.
I feel like I could chat football with you over a beer all day long, but right now our football team is hurting, things have to change.
Yeovil Town’s two loan stars Toby Stephens and Ollie Haste both saw their sides win on Saturday, but only one made it onto the pitch.
Toby Stephens was a rock in the centre of midfield for Plymouth Parkway as they thrashed Hendon 6-0 in the Southern League Premier Division South at Bolitho Park. Former Glovers’ loanee Ben Seymour scored four goals in the hammering.
Haste returned to Southern League Premier Division leaders Truro City during the week and was an unused substitute as they came from 2-0 down to win 4-3 at Hayes & Yeading.
The 19-year-old had a successful spell at Bolitho Park – also the home ground of the White Tigers – at the start of the season before making a brief return to Huish Park.
He was an unused substitute in the 1-1 draw at Dorking Wanderers and in the goalless opening match against Taunton Town in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round.
Chris Hargreaves said he still believes he is the man to lead Yeovil Town away from the National League relegation zone despite them dropping to a point clear of the bottom three.
The Glovers dropped to 20th place with a 2-0 defeat at Oldham Athletic on Saturday, their fifth defeat of the campaign with 14 matches played with the boss subject to shouts from the 144 travelling supporters at Boundary Park at the final whistle.
Asked by BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins whether he doubted he was the right man for the job, he immediately declared: “I believe I am the man for this job otherwise I would not have taken it. We are in a situation where we have to show some serious amounts of resilience, I get that and there are players in (the dressing room) who have not been in that situation before.
“I get that fans are frustrated and there is unrest and myself, the players and the staff thank them for coming. It was a long journey which cost them money. Second half I don’t think the players gave up, they kept trying and they will always do that, but there was just a lack of final third quality.
“In the league we had lost one in six before this game, but we haven’t won enough games. The performances we have had in those draws have been good but we haven’t been able to win the games.
“But there’s a lot of games, a lot of points still to be won and there’s a lot of fight still in there and the fight is still the same with me from the day I walked in.”
Having persisted with playing a five-man defence with Jamie Reckord and Sam Pearson in wing-back positions, the manager was asked whether he remained confident the formation was working.
He replied: “It has done in previous games. It is a case of having quality to be able to deliver no matter what shape you play and that’s not going to change at any club up and down the country. It’s about having players who make the right decisions at the right times, no matter what shape you play.”
There were four changes made from the FA Cup exit at Taunton Town on Tuesday night including the return of Malachi Linton up front in place of Alex Fisher, and Ollie Hulbert came off the bench in place of Gime Toure at half-time and put in a lively second half performance.
Hargreaves said afterwards that he was still looking to bring more players in having said to before the trip to Greater Manchester that the club was trying to register two players currently training with them.
That push will continue as the Glovers prepare to host Aldershot Town, who leap-frogged them with a 2-1 home win over York City at the weekend, on Tuesday night. The Shots sacked manager Mark Molesley following their exit from the FA Cup at the hands of lower league Chelmsford City and placed veteran Terry Brown in temporary charge.
He said: “We need some recruits and we know that and we’ve been working hard to do that, but you can’t just go and sign players on vast amounts of money who will give you that immediate result or immediate performance.
“It is a case of still looking which we will still be on Monday leading up to the Tuesday game and that will not stop.”
