Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 424)

On the face of it, going away to a Solihull Moors side on a run of four consecutive wins and getting a 0-0 draw is a result that plenty sides in this division would take.

Plenty have tried and failed to do what a solid Yeovil Town defensive unit did and keep and clean sheet.

Here are five things Ben Barrett took away from a battling draw at Damson Park…..

It might be an odd place to start, but after some chat about the loans that have ended recently, some quotes regarding the Lewis Simper, Dion Pereira, Ben Seymour and Jordan Dyer deals have suggested that maybe our place as developers of talent for other clubs has been questioned.

But the loanees we have are very, very good for the club.

I can’t really comment on Sonny Blu Lo-Everton as his cameo was short and purely a fresh pair of legs to chase and chase.

But, the full-backs Dan Moss and Jack Robinson were two of the star players in the Midlands.

Both of them are clearly here to get used to ‘grown-up’ football and they will have learnt so much in that 90 minutes.

How to take a pummelling from the likes of Tyrone Williams and Adam Rooney, but picking themselves up  heading the next cross away and putting themselves right in harm’s way.

I gave Robinson my man of the match. When at left-back he links with Jordan Barnett and Charlie Wakefield well, but when called upon to slot inside next to Josh Staunton he stood up and made it his own.

Moss was equally impressive and is not afraid to put his head in where it hurts (literally a couple of times) which is wonderful to see from a player who is not ‘ours’.

Darren Sarll spoke after the match about how Robinson was ours until January and Moss was going “absolutely nowhere.” I want them both secured for the rest of the season.

I’m sure you’ve noticed, it may have been mentioned, but we don’t have much squad depth.

Only Luke Wilkinson and Morgan Williams were missing from the squad and it felt like we were missing a golden ticket from the bench.

Jamey Osborne and Adam Rooney came on and made a real difference for the hosts, when I looked at the bench, I didn’t see the midfield general we needed to control the game.

As the second half especially rolled on it was crying out for another Josh Staunton in the middle, someone to put their foot on the ball and try and calm the play down.

With Staunton’s time at centre-half set to last a while longer after Max Hunt’s dismissal, I feel we need to think about this area in recruitment.

In my last Five Conclusions after the 2-0 win over Woking in midweek, I said I didn’t really know what to think about Adi Yussuf.

Well, 70-odd minutes more and well, now I can say with some confidence, that I am still absolutely no nearer to knowing what I think of him.

For every neat passage of play with his strike partners, there was an offside, or a stupid free-kick given away.

For every flick on into good areas, there was a frustrating lack of control especially at times where we needed to take the pressure off… and then there’s THAT miss.

At the time of writing, I haven’t seen it back on the highlights yet, but I REALLY hope it’s not as bad as I thought when it happened live.

Going into half time 1-0 up would have flipped that game on its head and quite simply you have to be taking those chances when they come around.

Darren Sarll and plenty of others have talked about how fit this bunch are, but for the first time, maybe all season… we did finish the game looking a bit tired.

Eight games in October, one of which went 120 minutes and penalties, a couple long coach trips have all piled on, and I reckon they’ve earned a Sunday and maybe a Monday off before cranking in to gear again for Yate Town in the FA Cup last weekend.

No doubt our new fitness coach Scott Wickens has been doing wonders and will be crucial in the weeks to come.

I actually wanted to do one of these without an off-the-pitch mini rant, but it was so good to see a club clearly committed to putting on a show for their family fun day.

It was Halloween special day and fans of a number of higher positioned league clubs could attend at a reduced rate, there was a Halloween fun fete thing on the outside 3G pitch, plenty of activities, face paint, the works.

Kids there had Aston Villa shirts [did you leave have yours on, Ben? – Ed), Birmingham shirts, Coventry shirts and more, and with those kids, parenmts who want a coffee, a bite to eat, to pay to park, to have a drink in one of their multiple bars – you get where I’m going with this, don’t you?

I understand that COVID restrictions are preventing us having ball boys and girls at Huish Park, but that didn’t seem to be an issue at Damson Park – if they can do it…..

We have people at our club who could do and have done this stuff with their eyes closed… they just need the green light from above.

Oh, and the away supporters’ bar at Damson Park was a small breeze block building with a bar, nicely done up with a Peaky Blinders’ theme, and it was rammed for a couple of hours before kick-off.

Not hard, is it?