We’re back for a natter.
Dave’s been to Helsinki so he teaches us everything he learned in Finland.
We’re all a bit down about injuries and everything.
Ben spoke to Alex O’Loughlin about the upcoming game with Southampton B, working with Darren Sarll at Yeovil and he’s promised to make sure the Saints loan us a striker..
Yeovil boss Darren Sarll was disappointed with his side’s “garbage” performance at Weston-super-Mare this afternoon.
Tom Knowles salvaged a draw with a vintage strike (don’t fall in love with footballers, kids) but Sarll was unhappy at the defensive aspect of the afternoon.
“We’ve probably given away more chances today than we did in the other three games combined, which is the disappointing thing for me.
“I was just disappointed with our defending intent today. I thought it was poor, we let people through. It was far too easy to play in behind us, far too easy to get set plays. I think we gave away seven corners in the first half from eight balls in behind the fullbacks. I think there’s lots to be done,” said Sarll.
Never one to not look for positives, Sarll did say that playing badly and picking up a draw is a good quality to have.
He said: “One thing I did like, was that we’re going to play badly and take points this year. And that’s a good quality to have. Normally you try and attribute those qualities to teams that win leagues and trophies. So I quite liked it that we kept it to one nil and it doesn’t matter that it’s Weston. They’ve got lots and lots of football league appearances in their team.”
“That’s been our first real tough week and it seems to have beaten a few in terms of the energy levels and physical capacities,” he added.
Reuben Reid is set for an extended spell on the sidelines after picking up an injury in Yeovil’s 1-1 draw at Weston-super-Mare.
Speaking after the match, Glovers boss Darren Sarll the loss of Reid would be huge.
“That looks bad. I think that looks like a hamstring tear. You get that horrible sick feeling because normally the hamstring it takes all of the your resistance to put your foot down straight away and players just literally drop to the floor, and we obviously saw that with Reuben today. He’ll be a huge huge miss for us.”
Sarll also admitted the squad was looking ‘threadbare’ with ‘complications’ for Mark Little, Charlie Wakefield coming off with tightness in his thigh and Luke Wilkinson absent through risk of ‘tightness’ and ‘cramp’.
“There’s lots of recruitment to be done because now it is threadbare. So we’re going to have to start working properly.”
Thanks to Ryan Jones for the following report from Weston!
Tom Knowles rescued a draw by the seaside this afternoon as Yeovil Town came from behind after a stunning free kick from Dale Grubb.
The afternoon was marred by an injury to Reuben Reid which saw him forced off in the second half.
First Half
Bright start from Yeovil, good work from Quigley brought the ball inside the penalty area. The ball fell to Ismail whose tame shot was easily saved.
Quigley and Reid linking up well and Ismail was being used as a good outlet particularly on the break.
Town had other chances throughout the half with Worthington hitting a shot straight at the keeper after good play from Reid.
Reid also had a shot that sailed over the keeper after beating his marker. Weston also had a few chances in an entertaining first half with a couple of shots whistling past the post.
They also forced a fair few corners which the impressive looking Yeovil defence were able to keep at bay.
Half Time: Weston-super-Mare 0 Yeovil Town 0
Second Half
After a slightly more measured start to the second half, Weston took the lead with a stunning free kick from Dayle Grubb.
Around about 5 minutes later, Reid was running through on goal from the right hand side. Just as he looked as though he was about to shoot on goal, he fell to the ground and had to be helped from the field and substituted due to injury.
The game fell into a lull for a little while with Weston seemingly taking control of the game and Yeovil not able to get anything going.
Weston had a good opportunity to double their advantage with a good strike which clipped the crossbar. Yeovil then equalised shortly after.
Lo-Everton (Trialist) played a good one-two with Wakefield before playing the ball to Knowles who cut inside and his well placed right footed shot flew past the Weston keeper.
Shortly after, Dale Gorman had a free kick which flew over the bar.
Final Score: Weston-super-Mare 1 Yeovil Town 1
Team: Smith, Bradley, Staunton, Hunt (Williams) Barnett, Gorman, Trialist (Wakefield, then replaced by Trialist, Worthington (Simper) Knowles, Quigley, Reid (Trialist)
Unused sub: Evans
The Gloverscast understands that Yeovil Town are taking a look at Watford youngster Sonny Blu Lo-Everton in the game against Weston-super-Mare today
Lo-Everton is an 18-year old academy product for the Hornets who spent time on loan at Wealdstone last season, playing ten times, scoring twice, once on his debut against Woking and once in his final appearance against Hartlepool.
He did play against the Glovers as an 18th minute substitute replacing Alex Dyer as Yeovil ran out comfortable, 2-0 winners in early May.
An attack minded player, he can play in a number of different roles and has been involved in a number of Watford’s first team friendly fixtures wearing the number 10 shirt.
At the moment, it’s unclear if we’ve have sealed a loan deal already or if this is simply a trial agreement.
The youngster is a Scottish youth International who has been at Vicarage Road for nearly a decade already after signing for the club aged just nine. He is under contract with Watford until the end of this current 2021/22 season suggesting a loan deal is more likely than a permanent one.
?️ Lovely way to sign off your loan spell @WealdstoneFC @SonnyBlu1 ? pic.twitter.com/mgWMg9FZzf
— Watford FC Academy (@WatfordFCAcad) June 2, 2021
Yeovil have topped up the trialist contingent for today’s match in Weston, with three in the squad, one of whom is starting.
Luke Wilkinson and Mark Little are absentees this afternoon but Morgan Williams makes the bench.
Starting Lineup: Grant Smith, Alex Bradley, Josh Staunton, Max Hunt, Jordan Barnett, Dale Gorman, Trialist, Matthew Worthington, Tom Knowles (#DFILWF), Joe Quigley, Reuben Reid.
Subs: Max Evans, Morgan Williams, Lewis Simper, Charlie Wakefield, Ollie Haste, Trialist, Trialist
For the first time since March 2020, The Green and White Supporters Club are running travel for an away Yeovil Town fixture.
If you’d like to travel to the season opener at the Hollywood-owned Racecourse Ground in Wrexham you can book your spot now.
The prices are as follow:
GWSC Members
Adult: £30
Concession: £28
Non Members:
Adult: £32
Concession: £30
The coaches will leave Huish Park at 7:45am on Saturday 21st August.
Message or call Paul Hadlow on 07736044570 to book and get more information.
Who knows, you might meet Deadpool? Or the other one.
Read the recently updated Ciderspace Away Travel guide here.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Darren Sarll is enjoying the organisation and fitness levels of his Yeovil team so far this pre-season, although he admits having to fight his nature.
Tom Knowles scored a late winner for the Glovers in the tough test at Taunton on Tuesday, but the manager said he was happy with his side’s display.
“I really enjoy coming here. Last year we were useless when we came here, absolutely useless and it set the tone. We’re starting to see a little bit more of a pattern of our play now. I thought the offensive play was better than it has been the last two games.
“We’re trying to evolve and were trying to look at our mistakes. We look strong in our shape so far. The nice comparable is we looked strong in our shape against Forest Green and we looked strong in our shape tonight and we need to keep developing that.”
Sarll added that he’s having to adjust to this new mentality and fight his natural urge to push his team to attack. He said: “My natural character is ‘come on let’s go’, ‘let’s go and attack’, ‘let’s go and score another goal’. I have to fight really hard on the side line to curb that intent. We need to be very strong in our shape. This group can’t afford to be expansive. It has to be compact, because it’s athletic, so that we can access different parts of the pitch a little bit differently than last year,” Sarll said.
While Sarll is happy with the defensive shape, he’s asked for patience when it comes to the attacking style of his new look team.
“People need to give us time on the offensive stuff because until I’m absolutely 100% confident that were not going to be a bunch of wet lettuces, then we need to keep nailing off this defensive organisation. It was good tonight. We were very strong in our shape and so far there’s not those hairy moments that I saw every half last year,” said Sarll.
“The big thing for us is to always apply our strategy as much as we can and have that consistently to our approach to it mentally. We need to try and keep evolving our attacking play because its still not quite right. I think that wont come until early September. I don’t think we’ll have that fluidity in our performance until early September. People are still trying to find how to get Charlie Wakefield in and where we roll Reuben [Reid] in differently to Joe [Quigley]. The midfield two is not quite right yet – the balance in their attacking play. So there’s loads of little things we need to iron out. If I’m doing it on the training pitch it becomes very manufactured, if we can learn in game it becomes very real. I think they’re important things that we need to patient with.”
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Yeovil boss Darren Sarll has urged for patience as he prepares the Glovers for the National League season.
Yeovil had only fourteen first team members available for Tuesday’s 1-0 win against Taunton and speaking after the match, Sarll said: “I’m sure the group will grow as the pre season carries on and as we get into the season. We’re going to have to be patient though as we are looking for real value. Both financially and something that going to come into the starting eleven and make a real impact.”
Conspicuous by their absence on Tuesday were the cohort of trialists we’ve seen at previous friendlies, with one new face, Zeli Ismael appearing. Sarll cited the newness of this current squad as the reason for not bringing in too many trialists.
“Because 50% of the group are new, I don’t want to flood it with other new people like trialists and dilute the cohesion that we might miss out on if we do that. The benefit of keeping everything nice and small and tight is that they’re obviously getting to know each other a lot quicker because they’re having to play more minutes with each other a lot earlier.
“I am liking the fact that they’ve got to be together. There’s not many trialists, the trialists were trying to bring in have got to have some sort of CV or credibility and value to the group. Hopefully what that does is just accelerates the way the players can interact and hopefully we’ll get wins,” he said.
New Yeovil Town defender Mark Little has been speaking to the football podcast Millsy and Mason’s Football Hootenanny about his career so far and what he’s hoping to achieve during his time at Huish Park.
During the chat, he spoke about having to deal with crossing the Bristol divide having played for both Rovers and City as well a career that has taken in big sides like Peterborough and Bolton as well as his recent stance on social media abuse and the racist nature of that abuse that he and others at all levels have received.
When asked about the expectations for the season, Little was adamant that the squad want to be nearer the top than the bottom of the table.
“It (the target) is definitely not to stabilise, because I don’t expect to be at the bottom of the table.. I’m really excited to start the season, every day in training and in the game recently, I’m looking around thinking ‘this is actually really good’.
“I’ve been really impressed with the team, the players I’m playing with the standard of football we are playing. I’m enjoying it.”
The full back was honest enough to note than it’s likely that the Glovers aren’t competing with some sides in the division from a budget point of view, but that it was still the club’s intention to battle with the higher spending sides.
“If we are in contention with them (higher spending sides), that’s my personal aim and I hope that’s what the rest of the lads will be doing.”
“I believe our squad will give a good account of ourselves and me, going out there leading it, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be accepting anything else to be honest.”
“I’m excited for the season, I really am , I’m going to be realistic about it, if we win the league, I will be very very happy because that would mean we would have ‘done a Leicester’ and beat all the top money spenders… and why not!?”
To listen to the whole Podcast click HERE
Episode 10 – Interview with Mark Little (@Litts_2)
Topics discussed:
• Loans and full time at #PUFC
• #BristolCity
• #BristolRovers
• #BWFC
• #YTFC
• Racism within football
• @finemasterapp
• Episode 1 of Anorak vs Anorak#football #podcast https://t.co/gGwy1oaHiG— Millsy And Mason’s Football Hootenanny Podcast (@MillsyAndMason) August 2, 2021