Five Conclusions: Torquay United 1 Yeovil Town 1
2022-12-27
The Boxing Day curse (can two defeats be a curse?) at Torquay has been broken with a draw – it had to be a draw, didn’t it?
A 1-1 draw against Gary Johnson’s men was the final result of Yeovil Town’s 2022, and here is how Dave saw it from his vantage point squinting in to the sun in the first half at Plainmoor…
A game of two halves: A total cliche, I know, but rarely have I seen a case where it was so true. I got a fear in my stomach when I saw the starting line-up and saw all our recognised strikers either on the bench or missing completely. And, in the first half, I found out why I was nervous, whatever the tactic was from the off it just did not work. Given our opponent’s issues in defence, we needed to attack them from the off and instead we let them attack us. When Fisher and Linton came on at half-time you saw exactly what we were missing up front and we looked a side transformed. Given Mark Cooper’s ability to change tactics mid-match, it was surprising he stuck with it as long as he did.
Where was Grant Smith’s cap?: When I walked on to the away end, the first thing I thought was “I wish I had got a baseball cap for Christmas!” Grant Smith, who was defending that end must have thought the same, he spent the whole first half shielding his eyes from the sun and I swear he saw the Torquay opener late as a result. I’ll get him one as a late Secret Santa.
Get Maguire-Drew on the ball: This was my first look at Jordan Maguire-Drew and he personified the game of two halves. First half, he looked like he didn’t know where he was as one of a collection of forward players not sure if they were playing out wide, through the middle or what, but playing in behind Fisher and Linton in the second half he showed his class. His incisive passes caused and clever runs Torquay all sorts of problems and showed exactly what he can bring. If we can keep him, he will be a real asset.
Another one for the draw-ing board: That is our 26th National League draw in 2022 (12 this season!) and that tells you exactly what our problem is. An obvious conclusion, but we need to be winning more if we are to get anywhere. When we showed a little attacking intent at Torquay we looked like the only team likely to get the win. Do more of that and we might lose a few but we’ll win more.
New Year’s Day must be a must win: The first opportunity to achieve the aim outlined above comes at is quickly – against the same opposition on New Year’s Day. With Dylan Crowe suspended and Gary Johnson in the stands after their red cards, there’s even more incentive to get on the front foot. Let’s start 2023 as we mean to carry on – with intent to score.
Loan Watch: Devon Derby, Debuts & Defeats
2022-12-27
It was a busy boxing day for the six Glovers loanees out and about.
Starting at the Bolitho Ground where ground-sharers Truro City and Plymouth Parkway faced each other in a game that ended 3-3 thanks to a 92nd minute Truro equaliser.
For Plymouth Parkway, Toby Stephens started and clocked up 68 minutes. Ollie Hulbert was used from the bench with just 5 minutes left, also.
Truro, have their own Glovers loanee in the shape of Ollie Haste, but he was left as an unused sub.
Next up a debut victory for Max Evans.
His Bedford side were 6-1 winners over AFC Rushden and Diamonds… and the eagles missed a penalty!
Up at our “close friends”, Stratford Town, Will Dawes started and played the full 90 in a 4-0 loss to Tamworth.
He may not have scored, but was awarded the sponsor’s Man of the Match award.
? John Taylor / Sherborne Town FC
….but we’ve saved the best until last with our actual close friends Sherborne Town where Benjani Jnr scored the opening goal in a 1-1 draw against Street.
The #Zebras take the lead on 56 minutes through debutant Benjani Jr #COYZ @TSWesternLeague @tswlfans @swsportsnews @Abbey_104 @sherbornetimes @NonLeagueCrowd pic.twitter.com/ScYHc1V8eF
— Sherborne Town FC (@SherborneTownFC) December 26, 2022
Well done to Benjani and all the Glovers loanees for a busy Boxing Day of action.
Match Report: Torquay United 1 Yeovil Town 1
2022-12-26
Venue: Plainmoor
Saturday 26th December, 3pm kick-off
Conditions: Cold but dry
Pitch: was green, looked fine to be honest (David Coates 2022)
Attendance: 3805 (486)
Scorers: Mark Ellis 20, Malachi Linton 64
Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Josh Staunton 28, Morgan Williams 58
Torquay United: De Silva 51, Evans 60, Crowe 67, Wyatt 74
Sending offs: Crowe 90+6
Referee: James Durkin
Yeovil Town
Substitutes: Fisher (for Wakefield 46), Linton (for Johnson 46) Not Used: Buse, D’Ath, Oluwabori
Torquay United: Halstead, Crowe, Jarvis, Evans, Wearne, McGavin, Wyatt (Omar 83), Donnellan, Goodwin (Andrews 84), Da Silva (Lapslie 75), Ellis
Substitutes not used: Hanson, Lovett
Match Report
Yeovil Town finished off 2022 with a draw at Plainmoor against Torquay United. A first half goal from Mark Ellis was cancelled out by substitute Malachi Linton’s second half strike.
Here’s how Coatesie saw it from the away end in the English Riviera…
First half
Without a recognised striker in the starting XI, it is perhaps no surprise that efforts going forwards were limited for Yeovil whilst Torquay attacks seemed to run out of steam for the opening quarter of an hour.
On 15 minutes, an overhit free-kick by Jordan Maguire-Drew seemed to be going nowhere before it broke to Matt Worthington inside the box, but his effort went harmlessly wide.
Moments later, good link up play between Charlie Wakefield and Worthington saw the ball drop to Josh Staunton on the edge of the box. Torquay keeper Mark Halstead needed two chances to stop it going over the line. Any goal line technology on that stream?
But, on 20 minutes, the first meaningful opportunity for the home side led to their opening goal. A free kick in from the right was not cleared and then all dropped in the box to the head of Mark ELLIS – who played under Yeovil boss Mark Cooper at Barrow – and despite Grant Smith getting a fingertip to the ball it crept in at the far post. 1-0
That gave Torquay some impetus and as they continued to press a Yeovil defence looking far from its usual impregnable self. Just after 30 minutes, on loan Cardiff City midfielder Kieron Evans dragged a shot just wide of Smith’s goal.
At the other end, a series of long balls forward seemed to be the only thing Yeovil had to offer going the other way. Despite a forward line filled with wide players, getting the ball wide was the one thing that did not occur.
Five minutes from the interval, the home side and a great chance to make it two when Max Hunt tumbled under a weak challenge, Evans broke through and it took a fantastic last ditch interception from Ben Richards-Everton to deny him.
On 42 minutes, Aaron Jarvis dragged a shot wide and it two minutes in to first half injury time, Yeovil forced Halstead in to action. A scramble inside the box ended with Maguire-Drew trying an acrobatic overhead kick which the keeper clawed around the post.
Half time: Torquay United 1 Yeovil Town 0
Second half
Unsurprisingly, half-time saw recognised strikers enter the fray with Alex Fisher and Malachi Linton replacing Wakefield and Johnson.
Within a minute of the restart, the change paid dividends as Jamie Andrews got in on the near post and laid it back to Linton whose effort deflected wide. From the resulting corner, Maguire-Drew corner clipped the crossbar but no-one was on hand to turn it home.
Shortly after, Jarvis got clear of his man at the other end and Smith did well to smother the effort.
On 64 minutes, Maguire-Drew broke forward and perfect pass through to LINTON, who had been everywhere since coming on, and the striker coolly slotted home the equaliser. 1-1
The pair almost found almost found another as they combined but Linton was denied by Halstead.
The difference from the first half was night and day with a Maguire-Drew’s guile backing up Linton and Fisher to put pressure on Torquay’s defence which looked as shaky as their goals against tally suggests.
With 15 minutes gone, Maguire-Drew had a free-kick deflected wide and Josh Staunton’s header from the corner that followed came off the top of the crossbar.
On 77 minutes, Linton had an effort and well saved by Halstead as the pressure continued from the visitors, but it was Fisher who has a golden chance to get the winner in the 89th minute.
The striker found himself clean through on goal but seemed to think too much on the chance and his effort was turned away by a fine stop from Halstead.
In injury time, a quick clearance from Smith out to Maguire Drew saw the play-maker pulled to the floor by Dylan Crowe who saw red, but there was not enough time for the advantage to be put to full effect.
Full time: Torquay United 1 Yeovil Town 1
Several readers are saying Gary Johnson was sent off after the final whistle.
Team News: Torquay United (away)
2022-12-26
Charlie Wakefield returns to the Glovers starting line up for the Boxing Day clash with Torquay.
Wakefield replaces Alex Fisher in attack with Ben Richards-Everton also coming into the side in place of Bournemouth loanee Owen Bevan.
Fisher drops to the bench, whilst Bevan misses out alaltogether.
Jordan Maguire-Drew also makes his first league start for the Glovers, with Grant Smith back between the sticks after sitting out the FA Trophy game vs Dorking.

Substitutes: Will Buse, Lawson D’ath, Andrew Oluwabori, Alex Fisher, Malachi Linton.
Cooper hoping for a scoring solution
2022-12-23
Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper is hoping to get a solution to his side’s scoring problems in the coming months – either from the training pitch of the transfer market.
The boss said his side created enough chances created to have comfortably won last weekend’s FA Trophy tie with Dorking Wanderers, which was goalless after 90 minutes before they went out 4-1 on penalties.
The result means the Glovers have scored just three times in 450 minutes of football with two of them coming in the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup win over Taunton Town.
Cooper said: “We put an unbelievable number of crosses in the box and had some really good chances.
“I’m not sure in a game of football you will get as many as that, so it comes down to the quality of the (attacking) player to score the goal. As long as we are still getting in those positions I think we’ll be alright, I think we just need to relax, we’re snatching at things a bit too much.
“We put the players in the right areas of the pitch and in the right positions. Either we will start scoring goals really quickly or ideally you bring in people who can do it.”
Asked by Three Valleys Radio’s Adi Hopper whether he had the budget to be able to dip in to the transfer market, he added said: “It’s not possible at the moment, but we are hoping going forwards that we will be in a position where we can.
“There’s no point bringing in players who are the same as you have got, if we are going to do it we need to bring people in who have a history and a record of doing it. It’s not always a centre forward, it’s sometimes the people who play that ball in.”
New signing Jordan Maguire-Drew, who arrived on a one-month loan from League Two Grimsby Town ahead of last weekend’s Trophy tie, is one player who will be looked to to create those chances – and score some of them.
That was the winger’s first action since October 22, when he came on for the final two minutes of Grimsby’s 0-0 draw with Bradford City, and Cooper admits he needs more minutes.
He said: “He is probably not 100% fit, but we will only get that fitness by playing games. The more he plays, the sharper he will get and that’s what his game is about, he makes intricate passes and crosses and finishes, so he’s not a worry about what he can produce when we get him in the right area of the pitch.”
Defender Owen Bevan, who is on loan from Premier League AFC Bournemouth, trained on Thursday having come off in the 41st minute against Dorking following a clash of heads with team-mate Morgan Williams. The boss said he was “very hopeful” the 19-year-old would be available for the Boxing Day visit to Torquay United.
Cooper said he was expecting an exciting match against Gary Johnson’s Gulls – who have scored 27 goals but conceded 46, compared to the Glovers’ 17 goals scored and 21 conceded.
He said: “They try and gamble a lot of players forward and try and score at every opportunity, take risks, so they leave defenders one-v-one at the back.
“We know we are going to have to be defensively sound. It is a team which can score a lot of goals against a team which defends really well – so it will be a classic 0-0.”
In a brief pre-match press conference, Cooper was asked his target for the remainder of the season.
He said: “The ultimate aim is to make sure we stay in this league first and foremost, hopefully we can attract a couple more quality players to the group which should help us. If we can remain defensively sound and keep working on the other end of the pitch, we will be okay.”
Torquay double header available to stream
2022-12-23
The festive double header against Torquay United will cost £9.50 for Yeovil Town supporters to stream following the “full launch” of National League TV.
The price is double what it cost to witness the goalless draw at home to Scunthorpe United – although you may have felt cheated paying even that – when the service was in “a successful two-week beta test period“, according to the League.
The other Glovers’ game which could have been offered at the reduced rate was the midweek trip to Barnet which fell foul to the freezing weather. So, at full price, the trip to Plainmoor on Boxing Day and the return fixture at Huish Park on New Year’s Day will be served up to streamers.
If you are outside the UK, half-season and pay monthly options are available at £80 and £22.50 respectively, and wherever in the world you are you can sign up at www.nationalleaguetv.com.
National League general manager Mark Ives said: “Our goal is to give fans who can’t get to stadiums the ability to be part of the live match day experience no matter where they’re based around the world. The numbers have only endorsed the passion for football at this level.
“We didn’t want to limit supporters to just one match stream on the platform, our unique offering has been designed to allows fans to switch between matches to keep track of all the action as it’s happening live that day.”
Providing you declare the fact you are a Yeovil Town supporter when registering on the National League website – see here – 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 71 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.”
We obviously look forward to hearing what that reinvestment looks like – we’re sure it will not be long before they tell us.
The National League has previously said the service would screen “non-televised matches” whilst “also respecting the need to comply with Article 48 restrictions.”
Article 48 is a UEFA regulation which prevents matches being televised in England and Scotland between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday, which presumably means the new streaming service will only cover midweek, bank holiday fixtures and any rescheduled kick-off times.
However, Article 48.2 (are you still awake?) states that there is no blackout between November 12th and January 14th – which enabled matches to be streamed during the World Cup.
After the Torquay matches, the rearranged fixture at Barnet on January 17th will be available on the service followed by the home match with Wealdstone on January 24th.
Keeper Evans out on loan
2022-12-23
Young goalkeeper Max Evans has joined Southern League side Bedford Town until January 19.
The 20-year-old, who impressed in his only National League appearance on the final day win at Altrincham last season, has been recovering from injury picked up whilst on Larkhall Athletic in October.
He has found himself third choice behind Grant Smith and on-loan Bristol City man Will Buse and has joined the Southern League Premier Division Central side looking for minutes.
Bedford sit six points off the relegation zone and face bottom club AFC Rushden & Diamonds at home on Boxing Day when Evans seems likely to get his debut.
The Eagles have had goalkeepers James Callan and Aymen Azaze on loan from National League Barnet in recent months, but both have returned to their parent club.
Good luck, Max!
Barnet and Wrexham get new dates
2022-12-22
... can Yeovil do it on a Tuesday night in Wrexham (again)? Well, we will find out on Tuesday 7th February.
The Glovers have rearranged two games after postponements.
There’s a trip to Barnet on the cards on Tuesday, January 17th (19:45) and we’re off to North Wales once again on Tuesday 7th February also a 19:45, KO.
If you have a ticket for the original Barnet game, it’s still valid, if you want it to be.
Tickets were not yet on sale for the Wrexham game as that had been called off due to continued cup participation, there’s that is… not ours.
That just leaves one fixture left for rescheduling, Bromley away.
Loan Watch. Late cup exit for Hulbert and Parkway
2022-12-20
Yeovil Town loanee Ollie Hulbert was part of the Plymouth Parkway side who lost in the FA Trophy to National League side Barnet.
A 90th minute goal was all that separated the sides with the game ending 1-0.
Hulbert came off the bench midway through the second half and had a headed chance shortly before the Bees grabbed the match winner.
Toby Stephens was an unused substitute for the Plymouth side too.
Plymouth Parkway face Truro City on Boxing Day, a game which could see the Parkway duo line up against fellow Glovers loanee, Ollie Haste.