Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 36)

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Yeovil Town extended their lead at the top of National League South to eight points with a hard-fought win at Eastbourne Borough.

A controversial first half goal from Frank Nouble sealed the three points. After 36 minutes, Rhys Murphy nicked the ball off hosts’ Freddie Carter from a drop ball and fed his strike partner who fired the game’s only goal.

The second half was an exercise in energy conservation as the visitors probed but could not find their way through a resolute backline.

With Torquay United and Maidstone United both defeated, the win stretched the Glovers lead heading in to a double header with Somerset rivals Taunton Town.

Here is how Dave saw the game from a chilly away end on the South Coast…..

First half

Mark Cooper handed a debut to winger Courtney Senior, who signed on loan from National League Premier side Barnet on Friday night, with Charlie Cooper who dropped to the bench.

There was also a return among substitutes for left-back Alex Whittle, who had been missing through injury in recent weeks.

From the off it was clear this 3G pitch was going to take some getting used to. Not a drop of water had been put on it in a long time and it had zero bounce on it.

 

An early cross from the hosts’ Sam Beard fizzed a cross over the face of goal and the first sight of goal came from Sonny Blu Lo-Everton after good play from Frank Nouble after 13 minutes.

On 20 minutes, good work down the left side from Matt Worthington and Senior saw Worthy burst in to the box and almost pick out Rhys Murphy at the back post.

Frank Nouble celebrates his goal.
Picture courtesy of LR Photography.

It was a moment of opportunism from Murphy led to an opening goal for the visitors after 36 minutes. A drop ball from the referee saw the striker nip in ahead of Carter and burst forward, play it across to NOUBLE who coolly finished.

There were protests led by Eastbourne skipper Brad Barry to referee Jack Bloxham, but one feels he may have more to complain about to Carter for his bizarre failure to contest the drop ball.

There was another chance fell to Murphy after a great through ball from Young on 42 minutes, but Foulkes was equal to it to turn it wide.

A red card seemed to be flashed at the Eastbourne bench, perhaps to manager Mark Beard, as protests towards the referee continued after the half-time whistle had been blown.

Half time:  Eastbourne Borough 0 Yeovil Town 1

Second half

Within 30 seconds of the restart, the home side’s Callum Kealey broke away from the Yeovil defence but pulled his shot wide. 

That set the tone for the 20 minutes which followed as the home side who continued to probe at the backline. Substitute Decarrey Sherriff had a shot from inside the box blocked by Sonny Blu Lo-Everton.

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton makes a perfectly legal tackle…..
Picture courtesy of LR Photography.

There was very little to excite the away support in an end which did little (nothing?) to foster an atmosphere. The arrival of Will Dawes in place of Senior on 64 minutes. Senior showed what he can bring to the side with good pace and flashes of an ability to take of defenders and Cooper will have been pleased with his start.

A minute later Foulkes got in just ahead of Morgan Williams to claim a looping free-kick from Young, before a good combination between Kealey and Leone Gravata almost released Kealey.

Substitute Fletcher Holman almost made an instant impact after coming on 67 minutes, b

ut his shot flew over. On 74 minutes, the first meaningful chance of the second half fell to Young who curled his shot wide.

But, with games coming up on Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve, the Glovers showed a control to see out the game which, say it quietly, is the hallmark of a promotion side.

For now we’ll settle for an even more comfortable gap at the top of the division. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Full time: Eastbourne Borough 0 Yeovil Town 1

Match Details

Venue: Priory Lane
Date: Saturday 23rd December – 3pm kick-off

Competition: National League South

Pitch: A rock solid slab of plastic 
Conditions:  Dry and cool

Attendance: 1,736

Scorers: Frank Nouble 36 (1-0)

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: Frank Nouble 38,
Eastbourne Borough: Jack Paxman 30, Sam Beard 45,

Referee: Jack Bloxham

Yeovil Town (4-4-2)

Substitutes: Will Dawes (for Courtney Senior, 64),Charlie Cooper (for Rhys Murphy, 77), Alex Whittle (not used), Josh Owers (not used), Alex Fisher (not used).

Eastbourne Borough: Harrison Foulkes, Scott Leslie (for Fletcher Holman, 67), Brad Barry, Jack Clarke (for Imran Uche, 82), Jack Paxman (for Decarrey Sheriff, 55), Freddie Carter, Louis Collins, Leone Gravata, Billy Vigar, Sam Beard, Callum Kealey.
Substitutes (not used): Dan Quick, Lucas Defise.

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New signing Courtney Senior has been handed a start for Yeovil Town at Eastbourne Borough today (3pm kick-off).

The winger starts is supporting  Rhys Murphy and Frank Nouble alongside Jordan Young in the National League South match.

Midfielder Charlie Cooper has been dropped to the substitues’ bench alongside full-back Alex Whittle, who returns from injury.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yeovil Town make their first ever trip to Eastbourne Borough today and we’re delighted to welcome Trevor Fuggle back to the podcast to talk about how their season is going.

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Barnet winger Courtney Senior has joined Yeovil Town on one-month, the National League South leaders have confirmed.

Having just seen Jordan Maguire-Drew head in the other direction, Senior joins the club as a replacement in the midfield positions.

Courtney Senior, as seen on Yeovil Town’s X channel.

 

The 26-year-old joined the Bees from League Two side AFC Wimbledon in February of this year, and has made the majority of his appearances from the bench – eight in total this season.

Senior has a career which began in the youth system Brentford and has seen him play for a number of EFL clubs including a five-year spell at Colchester United with more than 120 appearances for them.

Welcome to the Glovers, Courtney!

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Jordan Maguire Drew has joined National League Side Barnet on loan for the rest of the season.

The deal comes with – what Barnet are describing as – an option of a “free permanent transfer” at the end of the season.

The former Grimsby Town man has joined the Bees after finding chances of first team football hard to come by at Huish Park.

JM-D has had just 472 minutes of league football so far this season and hasn’t started a league game since the loss to Havant & Waterlooville, and his last start was in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round win over Didcot Town at the end of September.

In his pre-match press conference ahead of this weekend’s trip to Eastbourne Borough, Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper said he was hoping to bring in new faces ahead of the fixture.

He said: “Obviously (Sonny Cox) was recalled. He was playing on the Saturday (in the 2-2 draw at Dartford) which was a blow for us because he had been really productive statistically, we got Jay (Foulston) in and Bristol City then wanted to take Duncan (Idehen) back to have some game time for them in their Under-23s.

“So of course we are looking and I am sure we will have movement hopefully before the next game.”

As ever, JM-D will be added to our Loan Watch articles and we’ll keep you up to date with his progress, but it’s probably a fair shout to suggest we’ve seen the last of him in green and white.

Thanks for the goal at Torquay, JM-D!

 

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In Part Three of his statistical analysis of Yeovil Town’s centre midfield, Jonathan Hooper takes us through the varying combinations we’ve seen under Mark Cooper so far this season. You can read Part  One and Part Two here.

Midfield Combinations

Before I dive into this, I love data and what it can tell you about what is happening on the pitch, but I also know it doesn’t give the full picture. Data such as xG is done on averages, as an example some teams may play above their xG for a period of time, such as German side Union Berlin did last season to qualify for the champions league but this isn’t sustainable for a long period of time, now this season they’re near the bottom of the Bundesliga. However, xG and other metrics are good indicators of the underlying performances of teams and players.

Jordan Young celebrates his opener after 16 minutes at Welling United.

xG can only show so much, for example Yeovil had a higher xG than Welling despite losing 4-1. If we look at the xG story you can see Welling’s xG was superior to Yeovil’s until the very good Fisher chance late on.

Please bear this in mind as we look at performances from different combinations and analyse the performances.

THE DATA

Yeovil have lined up with 7 (seven) different midfield combinations so far this season in the league. Here they are:

ComboGamesWonDrawnLostPointsGoalsConcededPPMGoals PMGA PMOppo StrengthExpected PPMPossesion
Worthington & Cooper641113852.171.330.8310.81.156.3%
Worthington, Lo-Everton & Cooper41215761.251.751.5012.01.655.3%
Lo-Everton, Cooper & Williams10101111.001.001.0010.02.058.0%
Worthington, Owers & Williams11003323.003.002.0012.00.540.0%
Owers, Lo-Everton & Williams11003323.003.002.0021.00.752.0%
Worthington & Owers33009723.002.330.6710.01.656.0%
Worthington & Lo-Everton6411131382.172.171.3313.31.756.0%

Worthington & Cooper and Worthington & Lo-Everton have both player 6 games and have the same record, won 4, drawn 1 and lost 1. This gives them a PPM of 2.17 which are both above the teams average PPM of 2.14 so far this season. Worth noting that Worthington & Cooper have played against harder opposition on average. Oppo strength = league position of opposition / number of games, lower the number harder the fixtures.

Next with 4 games Worthington, Lo-Everton & Cooper, lowest PPM of a combination to play more than 1 match together. Then it is Worthington & Owers with 3 games and 3 wins, against the hardest opposition as well.

Quick look at a 2 combo v 3 combo

2 in the middle: 15 games, 11 wins, 2 draws & 2 losses. PPM of 2.33

3 in the middle: 7 games, 3 wins, 3 draws & 1 loss. PPM of 1.71

Cohesion, in team sports, especially football, I believe this is one of the most underrated parts of the game. Fans want new signings nonstop, but at what point does that become detrimental to the team? Just look at the amount of signings Chelsea & Nottingham Forest have made recently and how their performances are in relation. One company I like is Gainline analytics, they are mainly Australian sport dominated but their piece on Leicester in 2015/16 is very good, You can view it here.

Mark Cooper sends instructions on vs Hampton & Richmond. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Keeping Mark Cooper over the summer gave Yeovil a better start to this season as it bought consistency, and his success in retaining many of the squad. During the winning run the back 5 stayed the same throughout, this can only help the team grow and understand as it moves forward. However, the rest of the team changed frequently, below I will go through the games, trying to read Mark Coopers mind, or should we call him Claudio Cooper after Claudio “the Tinkerman” Ranieri, lets find out…

START OF THE SEASON

First 4 games of the season, it was consistently Worthington & Cooper. Going by xG Yeovil slowly got better, the gap in xG between the teams grew each game. Yeovil finished ahead of their Expected points despite the loss to Hemel.

Worth pointing out Jordan Maguire-Drew, started just in front of the 2 in in midfield for each game.

OpponentPointsXG DiffExpected Points
Hemel Hempstead Town0-0.120.70
St Albans City30.231.50
Truro City30.291.50
Maidstone United10.331.50

Yeovil finished ahead of their Expected points despite the loss to Hemel. Actual 7 Expected 5.2.

Next up was Tonbridge, we started with Worthington, Cooper, & Lo-Everton for the first time. We dominate the game, xG difference is 1.10 and xPts is 2.3. Here its looks like a good change from the gaffer, 2 goals and a clean sheet. JMD didn’t start this game, in his place was Jordan Young for his first start of the season.

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Next up was Havant after a 2 day turn around. Cooper selected the same trio as Saturday we started with Worthington, Cooper, & Lo-Everton, 2 changes in the back 4 and all 3 up front. However the system remained the same. We lose 4-3, we also lose the xG battle by 0.66 and our expected points is 0.5.

THE UNBEATEN RUN

Chelmsford at home sees the introduction of Williams as a DM, playing just behind a duo of Lo-Everton and Cooper. Yeovil win the xG battle by 0.75 and their xPts is 2.00 but the Glovers fail to make their chances count and draw 1-1. A positive performance.

Next up was Weston away, first of plenty Somerset derbies this season. Yeovil start Owers for the first time, Worthington and Williams joining him. Cooper misses via a suspension. Yeovil win 3-2, thanks to 3 set piece goals. However, the data suggests Yeovil got lucky. Losing the xG battle by 0.66 that means the Glovers expected points from the game was 0.5. This is where the xG story I mentioned above  comes into it a bit better, Yeovil scored 2 goals before the 20th minute. WSM got one back from a long range effort late in the first half. Yeovil get a 3rd in the 55th minute. Yeovil shut up shop and WSM throw everything at it and get a goal late on. Interestingly this game was Yeovil’s lowest possession game so far this season in the league with 40% of the ball.

Josh Owers
Josh Owers. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz

Last two games, going by data, dominate one and draw, get dominated and win.

Eastbourne were next on the list, Yeovil lined up with Owers, Lo-Everton and Williams in the middle. Worthington started as well but in more of a left wing role. Again according to the data Yeovil were lucky to come away with the win. losing the xG battle by 0.29. their xPts was 0.7.

Winning whilst not playing well, champions stuff. Despite the wins, was Cooper happy? I don’t know but for the next match he reverted back to…

Worthington & Cooper to face Hampton and Richmond. Yeovil got the win but once again lost on data and xG difference of -0.15 and xPts 0.7. However, H&R got their goal from a late penalty, in xG a penalty is worth roughly 0.75, which means on average a penalty is scored 3 out 4 times. If you were to take the penalty away, Yeovil would have won on the data.

Aveley were the next visitors, Mark Cooper changes the midfield again, due to an injury to Charlie Cooper. Incomes Josh Owers to partner Matt Worthington. this is the midfield duo for the next 3 league games (4 if you include FA Cup against Southend) These games are also the first time Yeovil reverted to a more traditional 4-4-2. Here is how the data lines up

OpponentPointsXG DiffExpected Points
Aveley30.642.00
Worthing3-0.190.70
Weymouth30.852.00

A pretty successful run of games, winning on data comfortably on two of them. The other Worthing were awarded a penalty late on, same as the H&R game. Without that penalty Yeovil would have won each game by over 0.5 on xG.

Despite the success of this partnership, it was broken up for the Braintree game. I am unsure if this was because of injury to Owers or another reason but it was the start of a six game run for a new partnership Lo-Everton and Worthington.

OpponentPointsXG DiffExpected Points
Braintree Town3-0.070.70
Torquay United30.351.50
Dover Athletic33.002.70
Farnborough30.341.50
Chippenham Town11.012.30
Welling United00.081.50

You can see against Braintree it was a pretty even affair, not helped by the weather. Yeovil got a bit lucky in this game as the data shows. Then a strong run of form winning each game on data as well as on the pitch.

Matt Worthington. Picture courtesy of Iain Morland.

Chippenham, looking at the data it was one of our best away performances of the season, we did struggle to score on the day but the xG suggests we should have been comfortable winners.

Welling, as I mentioned at the start, we won the xG but they were leading until late on. It wasn’t Yeovil’s best performance of the season but not one where you’d expect them to concede 4.

RECENT GAMES

After the loss to Welling Mark Cooper decided to change up the midfield duo and formation.

OpponentPointsXG DiffExpected Points
Bath City3-0.160.70
Dartford11.652.70
Hampton & Richmond1-0.130.70

Bath game, Cooper replaces Lo-Everton and partners Worthington. we got lucky, had one chance and took it. That said Bath never really created a golden opportunity and only just beat us on xG. Dartford, we revert back to 3 in midfield with Worthington, Cooper and Lo-Everton, the data suggests we played well, created numerous chances but didn’t take all of them, whilst Dartford were the clinical ones. Similar to the Chippenham game.

Hampton & Richmond, continuing with the trio in midfield of Worthington, Cooper and Lo-Everton. Pretty even game one that we did lose the xG battle on just but a draw was probably a fair result.

RANKING

I have scored each of the combinations, based on fixture difficulty and xPts, here is my rankings

RankingComboScore
1Worthington Owers0.47
2Worthington Lo-Everton0.28
3Worthington Cooper0.22
4Lo-Everton Cooper Williams0.20
5Worthington Lo-Everton Cooper0.16
6Worthington Owers Williams0.13
7Owers Lo-Everton Williams0.10

Worthington & Owers come out on top, do you think they should start more often?

HOME AND AWAY

I am often interested in how teams fair differently playing away from home. Yeovil’s PPM is 0.80 per game less away from home. What causes this I do not know. Teams do seem braver at home. The fact Yeovil have lost to 2 of the bottom 4 also baffles me. Lets have a look to see what combinations have done what home and away

CombinationHome GamesHome PointsHome PPMHome xPtsAway GamesAway PointsAway PPMAway xPts
Worthington Cooper372.334.50362.002.10
Worthington Lo-Everton Cooper242.003.00210.503.20
Lo-Everton Cooper Williams111.002.00000.000.00
Worthington Owers Williams000.000.00133.000.50
OwersLo-Everton Williams133.000.70000.000.00
Worthington Owers263.004.00133.000.70
Worthington Lo-Everton393.004.90341.335.30

Conclusion

In the first part what struck me was the slight imbalance of having 2 or 3 right footed players in central midfield. I didn’t have the data to compare the midfield to a midfield with one right and one left footed player.

The second part we could start to see different aspects of players games from different metrics and stats. each player had their stand out aspect, from Owers being more feisty and getting stuck in to Lo-Everton creating chances.

In this part we can see how the different combinations fair. Owers & Worthington finished top in my metric, is that because of the balance of a right & left footed player, luck or something else? Do the tweaks that Mark Cooper makes help or hinder the side over a long term?

As Mark Cooper said in his recent press conference, we may not be winning every game currently but the data performances are generally good, if not better now than they were during the winning run. As I said at the start data can only tell you so much, if you take an early lead then look to control the game may be a success getting results but the data looks poor. We all know which one we would prefer to win between actual points and xG/xPts.

What we can see from the data is that every player and every combination has their strengths & weaknesses, lets all hope Mark Cooper can get this best out of them. Go on the Glovers!

What duo or trio would you pick to start?

SPEED OF PLAY

One thing I’ve heard recently from other supporters is that some players slows down play, I do not have the data to prove or disprove this. However, as a bonus, below is a chart showing passes per 90 and passing rate for every team in the league. Higher the passing rate the faster a team moves the ball.

Do you have any thoughts about Jonathan’s epic three-parter? Leave a comment below.

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Eastbourne Borough away tomorrow! Ian, Ben and Dave talk about a quiet week and take your GCQs!

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Yeovil Town captain Matt Worthington has challenged his team to start killing teams off as the Glovers head into a busy festive schedule.
 
Speaking to the media before the Saturday game against Eastbourne Boro, he said that things were in a good place at Huish Park, but he thinks there’s more to come.
 
“I’m really enjoying it, I think the lads are doing really well and as a team I think we’re where we want to be at the moment but we have lots still to to improve on and points to pick up so yeah, it’s going really well.”
 
Looking back on last weekend’s 0-0 draw, the midfielder, who had a sniff at goal himself still considers the game a missed opportunity.
 
“I think as players we’d always think it’s two points dropped, we definitely had more than enough chances to win the game so the only sort of criticism would be we have to take those chances and really kill games off and start to kill games off, but it’s a point, it’s a point in the right direction so yeah, all positive.”
 
“We had we had multiple chances, but like we said as a team and the Gaffer said, as long as we’re making those chances we’re doing we’re doing well so we need to keep making them and hopefully we’ll start finishing them.”
 
Worthington and Murphy. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.
 
Looking ahead to the game against Eastbourne, Worthy said that the team will look to keep it simple, keep a clean sheet and build from there.
 
“The thing we always try and do is keep a clean sheet, if you keep a clean sheet in a game, you’ve got a good chance of winning it, we need to start taking our chances, dominating games and really killing them off.
No game is going to be easy, it is going to be a tough test for us, but it’s something we’re really looking forward to and hopefully we can get the three points.”
 
With three games in quick succession, with a double header against Taunton to squeeze in between Christmas and New Year, Worthington said that the team were looking forward to the busy period.
 
“It’s always nice, you’re not too far away from your family, which is a nice thing and it’s local derbies, the games you want to be playing in, we’re really looking forward to it.”
 
 

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper is looking to bring in new faces before his side make the long journey to Eastbourne Borough this weekend.

The Glovers’ boss admitted after last weekend’s goalless draw at home to Hampton & Richmond that he was keen to strengthen his forward line with Sonny Cox recalled from his loan spell by Exeter City and Jake Hyde and Jordan Stevens both suffering with an injury.

He also lost loan defender Duncan Idehen this week after he was recalled by Bristol City and recently saw former captain Josh Staunton depart after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract.

Speaking on Thursday, Cooper called for supporters to trust his judgement, he said: “I know that if you don’t win every game, some supporters are not going to be happy.

“But they need to trust us that we are trying to do the right things for the club and bring in the right character and the right quality not just for this year but for going forward as well.

“Obviously Coxy was recalled. He was playing on the Saturday (in the 2-2 draw at Dartford) which was a blow for us because he had been really productive statistically, we got Jay (Foulston) in and Bristol City then wanted to take Duncan (Idehen) back to have some game time for them in their Under-23s.

“So of course we are looking and I am sure we will have movement hopefully before the next game.”

Jordan Stevens is expected to be out for the next “six or seven weeks”.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The boss gave an update on the club’s injury list ahead of the weekend, as follows:

  • Jordan Stevens: “He is still six or seven weeks away (from returning), he had a bad three-month injury, so he is still a long way away.“
  • Alex Whittle: “Because Jay Foulston is here, we are not putting massive pressure on him to rush back for one game, but I think he will be close.“
  • Jake Hyde: “It’s a 3G surface at Eastbourne, so he won’t play on 3G“
  • Jamie Sendles-White: “Is still injured.“

The Glovers have won two, drawn three and lost one of their last six National League South fixtures, putting them tenth in the division’s form table over that period, but they still sit seven points clear of second-placed Torquay United going in to a busy Christmas period.

Cooper believes that only poor finishing has cost his side in their last two matches – a 2-2 draw at Dartford a fortnight ago and the stalemate against Hampton & Richmond last weekend.

He added: “I think we have played better recently than in some of the games we have won. If you take the W*ymouth game here, we didn’t play well, won 2-0, we took our chances. Braintree here, didn’t play very well, won 2-0, took our chances.

“If we had won four games, then drew won, won another four games, lost one, won another four, drew one, won another two and lost one, I don’t think there would be much moaning. Because we won 14 straight (games), we have to win.

“Yeovil is a difficult fan base to please, but the fans have been brilliant this year. They have been magnificent home and away with the way they have backed the team.

“I think they need to trust the process of what we are doing because we have had one defeat in 16 in the league.
As a group of players and staff we are calm, we know what works and what we need to do and the only thing that has been missing is we have not taken our chances.

“The statistics are higher than when we were on that run and with players like Rhys Murphy, Frank Nouble, Jake Hyde and Jordan Young (not taking our chances) is not going to last very long. When you have players of that calibre, they are going to score consistently.“

Rhys Murphy shoots wide of goal against Hampton & Richmond last weekend.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Over the same six-game period, Eastbourne have won two, drawn one and lost three of their most recent league fixtures and have not won at home since mid-November, having been ravaged by injuries to key players.

But, they did see captain defender Brad Barry and midfielder Jack Paxton, who scored twice at Huish Park when they impressed in a 3-2 defeat to the Glovers at the end of September, return to help them to a 2-0 win at Welling United last weekend.

Asked about his next opponents, Cooper said: “The club has been taken over by a wealthy gentleman, they have gone full-time this season and they have some big ideas and it is the first chapter of that episode.

“They have got a really good young coach (in Mark Beard) and they have some really good players. They have suffered with injuries but I think they have most of them back now.

“I said to the players this morning we can do all the homework on their players, but nearly every opposition changes what they are doing when they play against us and that is a compliment to our players.

“So whatever Eastbourne did last week, I think they will do something different this week and like every week, the opposition changes because they are playing Yeovil.”

 

 

 

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Yeovil Town make the long trip east as they take on Eastbourne Borough in their final game before the festive football fixture kicks in.

The Glovers head into the game off the back of two draws, their latest being fairly dull 0-0 against an in form Hampton & Richmond.The travelling faithful will be hoping their teams frontmen will be able to find their scoring boots soon.

Eastbourne Borough currently sit one place above the drop zone in 21st and will be looking to get a result against the league leaders and turn their fortunes around.

Yeovil Town Teams News

Mark Cooper was very complimentary of the opposition, believing there is reason behind their poor league position. He said: “They’ve got some really good players, they suffered with injuries, but I think they’ve got most of them back now.

“They played very well here when we beat them 3-2, so we know everything about their players, that you would expect. We can do our homework but nearly every team changes (tactics) when they play us.”

The ex-Swindon boss also spoke highly of new signing Jay Foulston, saying he has a “great left foot” and that he can play “left-back, left centre-back and left-wing back”.

Jay Foulston.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Newly appointed captain Matty Worthington also gave his thoughts on the upcoming fixture. He said: “We always try to get a clean sheet, we need to start taking our chances, really dominate games and kill teams off.”

Cooper confirmed Jordan Stevens is out for six weeks, Alex Whittle will miss out along with Jake Hyde who can’t play on 3G pitches. Jamie Sendles-White is still absent but has returned to on grass training.

Eastbourne Borough News

Borough boss Mark Beard spoke after their win against Welling about playing the Glovers. He said: “It’s one win, but we can build on that now. we can go into the game against Yeovil next week full of confidence.”

Despite their bad luck with injuries so far this season, The Sports have seen numerous key players return over recent weeks, none more so important than captain Brad Barry who returned in their 0-2 win over Welling last weekend. Also returning that match was midfield Jack Paxman.

The win last weekend was Eastbourne’s first since mid November and was also their first time keeping clean sheet since the opening day fixture against Hampton & Richmond, which led to keeper Harrison Foulkes being named in the National League South Team of the Week.

The South-Coast side have also made a number of high profile signings, with the additions of David Sesay, Louis Collins to name but a few.

A player for Glovers fans to look out for is full-back Sam Beard (son of manager Mark) who recently joined from Dorking. The experienced defender was major part of Barnet getting to the playoffs last season. Collins, is also a player to keep an eye as according to one Sports fan, “he never stops running”.

Cameron Gbadebo is out injured for Eastbourne Borough.