Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 319)

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Is it time the National League had a proper discussion about last minute postponements and how to prevent them? Amidst a cost of living crisis and spiralling costs that impact both clubs and match-going supporters, the late pitch-inspection and postponement has never been a bigger frustration.

The determination to get fixtures played at any cost puts players, staff, supporters and facilities at risk.

As Yeovil made the trip to Barnet on Tuesday evening and temperatures plummeted below zero, the Bees were still pushing tickets and programmes up until about 5:25pm – and I fully accept that these were probably scheduled posts – before the match was postponed at 6pm after the referee inspected the pitch.

Barnet had tweeted that ground staff had been keeping an eye on the pitch throughout the day and it was only once the temperature dropped at 4:30pm that the referee requested an inspection. At what point do we start trusting ground staff with the decision making? We’re as guilty of it as anyone.

When Yeovil played against Scunthorpe in early-December, one end of the pitch looked like it was North of the Wall. The ground staff at Huish Park worked throughout the week to get the game on but should it have even been played?

With temperatures across England well below zero at the start of December, Scunthorpe travelled 258 miles to play out a dire 0-0 against a Yeovil side riddled with illness and injury – what was the point?

A week later, Yeovil hosted Dorking Wanderers, which was subject to late pitch inspection. Prior to that game the referees instructions included warming up in the frozen area of the pitch to help defrost it. Presumably infuriating the ground staff who work all year round to make the surface perfect for football. What damage does that do to a pitch? How much does it cost a few months down the line? Why’s it all getting a bit “we’ve all had enough of experts” in a field (ahem) that people work damn hard to become experts in?

Supporters risk long journeys to see their clubs, and on some occasions in treacherous conditions, when sometimes its blindingly obvious that things aren’t going to go ahead. At some point clubs need to be brave enough to make an early decision. 

Snow covered Yeovil on Wednesday and temperatures aren’t forecast to get above 6 degrees before Altrincham make the trip to Somerset for Saturday’s National League fixture. Surely a sensible decision can be made more than 24 hours before kick off?

I’ve no idea who’s at fault, if if anyone is at fault? Is it the referees? Is it the macho football culture, is it the packed calendar of constant football? Are there too many clubs in the National League, forcing clubs to cram in fixtures? Should professional clubs be playing in their county cups?

There has to be a solution somewhere that stops putting people at risk, can the organisations that run the game authorities find it?

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Yeovil Town have bolstered their midfield ranks with the resigning of Jack Clarke on loan from Chesterfield.

Clarke, who had joined the Glovers for a short stint during the 2020/21 season, returns for the rest of the current campaign.

The midfielder hasn’t played for Spireites since 4th October when he played 75 minutes in 3-2 defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge.

Clarke will wear the number 30 shirt and is available for the Tuesday night game against Barnet.

Welcome Back, Jack!

 

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South Somerset District Council has insisted it has “a number of safeguards” in place to protect Huish Park from development.

The authority has issued its second statement in a week defending its purchase of the land upon which the stadium stands and the land around it in a deal valued at £2.8m back in May.

It is a pretty wordy statement which references “comments on social media” which we assumes refers to ongoing questions posed by Martin Hellier, the local businessman who has made no secret of his desire to buy the club.

The statement gives a lengthy chronology of how it came to buy the land and then refers to Yeovil Town Holdings Limited (YTHL), a company controlled by club chairman Scott Priestnall, which has the buy-back rights to what it calls the “non-core land” at Huish Park – essentially the land around the stadium.

The council said: “YTHL cannot sell the non-core land for development while the freehold is owned by SSDC. Due to commercial confidentiality, we will not be debating hypothetical situations regarding sales or disposal but a number of safeguards are in place to protect the core land, i.e. the stadium.”

Plans produced by SSDC showing the ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ land it owns at Huish Park.
Hellier’s criticism on social media has centered on the fact that he says he is willing to buy the land from the authority, but is yet to make any progress in his efforts.
In its statement the council said it would “carefully consider any proposal to buy the freehold outside of the buyback option” it has with Priestnall, as the majority shareholder of Yeovil Town Holdings Limited.
It adds: “Bearing in mind the Council’s reasons for buying the land in the first place, it is highly unlikely SSDC would sell its freehold of the stadium or remaining land unless it judged that was part of supporting the future of the club. This would therefore probably have to be linked with a transfer of ownership of the football club.
“But a potential buyer would need to agree terms with the current owner and jointly approach SSDC with their proposition.
“The option for the buy-back was to the owner prior to the SSDC purchase and leaseback, but would apply to any successor. SSDC was always clear that it was not going to become involved in the running of the football club via this transaction, and that the owner can manage the club as it considers appropriate.“
The “potential buyer” referred to in the statement could refer to an unnamed “preferred party” with which it has an exclusivity agreement to become a majority shareholder of the club.
The saga continues……

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In news which made set a world record for making the Gloverscast out of date, Jordan Maguire-Drew is a Yeovil Town player.

Within minutes of us posting an article about comments made by Grimsby Town boss Paul Hurst saying he was expecting the playmaker back at Blundell Park, the player’s departure from the League Two side was confirmed.

Then 19 minutes later, he was confirmed as signing an 18-month contract at Huish Park.

In a statement on ytfc.net, the 25-year-old said: “I’m delighted to be here permanently. I really enjoyed my first month and now having the move sorted, I can’t wait to kick on.

“I’d like to thank the fans for their support so far, it was your support that made this an easy decision for me.”

The deal ends a somewhat odd bit of statement tit-for-tat between North East Lincolnshire and South Somerset.

When Maguire-Drew signed back in December, the Glovers said that “personal terms have been agreed for the player to sign on a permanent contract during the January transfer window, subject to the completion of a satisfactory medical” whilst Grimsby referred to it only as a one-month loan.

The Mariners then followed up with a statement reiterating their position “in light of contradictory statements“, before adding: “Although we can confirm that informal discussions regarding a permanent transfer have taken place between the two clubs, it is important to state that nothing has been formally agreed at this stage and Jordan remains under contract with GTFC.”

True at the time, we guess, but then minutes after Yeovil boss Mark Cooper confirmed he expected the player to sign after the 4-1 defeat at Bromley on Saturday, his Grimsby counterpart Paul Hurst said differently.

Either way, on the basis of his performances since arriving in Somerset – welcome to Huish Park permanently, JM-D!

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UPDATE: No sooner than we post this, Grimsby have announced the departure of Jordan Maguire-Drew by mutual consent.

Grimsby Town manager Paul Hurst has said that Jordan Maguire-Drew is expected to return to his parent club this week following the expiry of his initial loan deal.

Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph, Hurst said: “As it stands Jordan [Maguire-Drew] will return [this week]. To my mind, if a permanent move was going to happen then that would’ve been sorted by now, so I’m expecting him to be back with us. If someone comes back and they conduct themselves in a certain way, and we all know what that means, then they won’t be involved but that also goes for the players that haven’t gone out on loan.”

“Ultimately, he’s our player I said that I reluctantly agreed to let him go out on loan, I wasn’t pushing him out the door so it is very much in Jordan’s court in terms of how he comes back. I’m very open-minded with it all and everything I’ve seen and read suggests he’s done well [at Yeovil] so time my mind, he is contracted with us and will be back, but it is up to him now.”

Jordan Maguire-Drew. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Following the defeat to Bromley, Glovers’ gaffer Mark Cooper said he expected a permanent deal to be confirmed in the early part of this week with the suggestion that personal terms had already been agreed when the initial loan deal was agreed.

Cooper said that a permanent deal for the forward was “more or less done.” He added: “Hopefully we can announce that early in the week.“

Clearly there’s some miscommunication somewhere in the matrix, Maguire-Drew has played just three league games in the Green and White of Yeovil including scoring the all important second goal against Torquay on New Years’ Day.

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The Somerset FA have published the full list of Quarter Final ties for the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup.

The Glovers’ away game against Paulton Rovers has been scheduled for Tuesday 14th February with a 19:45 kick off.

Yeovil have a free weekend prior with Gateshead away now postponed due to Heed’s FA Trophy involvement and Mark Cooper’s side will host Notts County on the 18th.

Larkhall’s tie against Bath and Bridgwater’s game against Weston Super Mare will both take place 24 hours later on Wednesday 15th.

The other tie sees Bishop Sutton taking on Frome with that game pencilled in for Tuesday 31st January.

The Glovers beat Taunton Town 2-1 in the last round as they look to defend their 2022 crown.

At time of writing ticket details have not been confirmed, but a Valentines Date Night at Winterfield Road sounds like an opportunity not to be missed!

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Yeovil Town forward Ollie Hulbert has joined National League North side, Leamington FC on a loan deal through until the end of the season.

The striker had been at Plymouth Parkway until last week but now joins the Brakes for the remainder of the campaign – his third loan club of the season having also had a short time at Gloucester City.

Leamington boss Paul Holleran said on Hulbert’s arrival;

‘I’m delighted to get Oliver over the line,’ said the manager on the new arrival. ‘He’s a player that was very impressive in this division last year. It’s an area we have been looking to improve. We’ve been looking for another option for a number of months, but trying to find the right number nine at the moment is something that has proved to be very difficult.

‘Oliver is a player that we know has the potential to add a different dimension to our attack, and throughout his young career he has always scored goals. We are really looking forward to working with him.’

Hulbert has made just three league appearances for the Glovers this season, most recently a cameo from the bench against Maidstone on October 29th.

Loan Watch fans are delighted at this news!

Go well, Ollie.

 

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Dave braved Bromley and is here to tell Ian and Ben the story of his afternoon.

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Yeovil Town’s defensive copybook got well and truly blotted  at Bromley on Saturday and the goal-scoring issues which have dogged us the past two seasons were still there for all to see.

The result was a 4-1 defeat, the first time we have lost by three goals since last March.

Here’s what Coatesie made of it….

 

We could not cope with the wind.  The 149 supporters who made the trip to the away end will be under no illusion there was a strong wind at Hayes Lane yesterday – it was blowing across the pitch and directly in to our faces. Bromley presumably recognised it and kept the ball down, albeit on a plastic pitch, whereas we seemed to be overhitting passes, trying long balls and I wonder if the lad in the away end whose baseball cap got tossed in the air ever found it! With the likes of D’Ath, Maguire-Drew and Oluwabori in the starting line-up, keeping the ball down should surely have been the tactic.

What happened to our defensive solidity? Bromley fans must have been wondering how this side had the third (now sixth) best defensive record in the National League. The first goal was a complete freak deflection, there’s not much anyone could do about that, but we looked so far removed from what we have been used to after that.
The inability to simply pick up players and show commitment to get to the ball before an opponent was non-existent and Bromley’s second and third goals. Richards-Everton gave me no confidence and Hunt only seems to perform with a calm head alongside him. Can the loss of Owen Bevan who, regardless of his undoubted quality, is a 19-year-old on loan from a Premier League academy really make that much of a difference?

So many attackers, such little end product. By the end of the match we had five recognised forward players on the pitch – Alex Fisher, Andrew Oluwabori, Jordan Maguire-Drew and the substitutes, Jordan Young and Malachi Linton – and yet chance after chance went begging. We’re undoubtedly able to create chances, Maguire-Drew and Oluwabori both proved that on countless occasions, but what are our attacking players working on in training? The miss by Oluwabori just before half-time was almost unforgivable…..and, yes, I know he’s a young lad starting his career, which is why I said ‘almost’.

There has to be changes. It seems unlikely there’s much which can be done on the training pitch in the 48 hours before we travel to another National League play-off contender, Barnet, so personnel changes has to be the only option. I’m hoping that Bromley was a blip based on the rustiness of not playing since New Year’s Day, but up front we have to do something differently. I go back to the impact ‘Fish & Mal’ made when they came on at half-time in the Boxing Day draw at Torquay. Tuck JM-D in behind them and keep Oluwabori on the bench to bring on and run at them towards the end. Whatever the changes, there has to be changes or it could be a long night on Tuesday.

It’s not you, Mark, it’s not. I heard a couple of comments from the terrace directed against Mark Cooper and seen a few post-match comments on social media to the same effect. Pinch of salt added for the social media comments, of course. Be under no illusion – our predicament is nothing to do with Mark Cooper. Before this game we had gone seven games unbeaten, granted with a number of draws, but under Chris Hargreaves we would be deep in the mire. With a hand tied behind his back by the basket case boardroom issues, Cooper has given us mid-table obscurity over a relegation scrap.

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Whilst the Yeovil Town first team might have come unstuck at Bromley their army of loanees were out and about, but only one was getting more game time, let’s round up what happened.

Down in Plymouth we start with Parkway who were on the wrong end of a 1-0 defeat to the Met Police.

Toby Stephens came off the bench in the 65th minute, but couldn’t help his side find an equaliser.

There was only one real winner – the weather – in the games involving Sherborne Town (Benjani and Jake Graziano), Gillingham Town (Rob Hollard and Sam Hodges) and Truro (Ollie Haste), as all were postponed.

We assume Max Evans‘ loan at Bedford Town has been concluded ahead of schedule (he was meant to be with the Eagles until 19th Jan) as he was once again not involved for them.

And then there’s Will Dawes up at Stratford who was also not involved for the Bards, it’s unclear if his ‘short term’ deal has come to an end or not.