Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 436)

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In local authority news, South Somerset District Council will be getting a new Chief Executive from last month.

This is, of course, relevant as the authority’s District Executive Committee has agreed to buy Yeovil Town’s Huish Park stadium in a move spearheaded by Chairman Scott Priestnall.

At a meeting of the authority’s full council earlier, Clare Pestell was confirmed as the new incumbent, replacing Alex Parmley from June 7.

Those who recall the meeting of the council’s District Executive Committee last December which approved the deal may remember Mr Parmley saying:“We’re not spending money on a football club or giving them taxpayers’ money – we’re investing in the land. We’ll have a significant land asset with a value at the end of it.”

There were no elections held for members of South Somerset District Council on Thursday meaning Councillor Val Keitch, a Liberal Democrat councillor and season ticket holder at Huish Park, remains Leader of the Council.

Later this month, the pause on this deal triggered by the Glovers’ Trust decision to activate it Asset of Community Value (ACV) will lapse. The moratorium is scheduled to end on Wednesday, May 26.

At the time of confirming the activation, the Trust published this document explaining its reasons – see here.

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There were mixed fortunes for two former Yeovil Town midfielders this weekend.

Darren Way’s Plymouth Argyle under-18s team won the Merit League One title after a 1-1 draw at Cheltenham Town at the weekend.

But, Paul Warne, who had two seasons at Huish Park between 2007-2009, saw his Rotherham United side relegated from the Championship after drawing 1-1 at Cardiff City. Former Yeovil loanee Lewis Wing was on the scoresheet for the South Yorkshire side.

Congratulations and commiserations to both our old boys.

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Following the 3-0 loss at Wrexham, Darren Sarll confirmed that loanee Matty Warburton has returned to Northampton Town, cutting his loan spell short.

“He (Warburton) went back to Northampton a while ago after Lee (Collins) passed. It was a particularly difficult time for (him) anyway because he wanted to make decisions on his future. He wanted to go back to Northampton anyway and then sadly Lee passed and he accelerated that. We felt it was in his best interests as a human being that we allowed that to happen.”

We’d like to thank Matty for his efforts during a difficult time at Yeovil Town.

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Carl Dickinson captained the side in the Glovers’ 3-0 loss to Wrexham but in doing so, reached a special milestone in the Green and White.

Dicko has now played 100 times for the Glovers since joining the club in June 2018.

 

The left-back, who turned 34 in March, will leave the club at the end of the season to take up the reigns at Hanley Town in a player-manager role.

The former Stoke City man can make it to 105 appearances for the Glovers should he play in each of the final five games of the season, but here’s a quick breakdown of his 100 games for Yeovil.

Games 100
League Games: 90 (86 starts)
FA Cup Games: 4
EFL Cup Games: 1
EFL Trophy Games: 2
FA Trophy Games: 2
National League Play Off Games; 1

Dickinson has scored twice for the Glovers, his first was the final goal in a 6-0 demolition of Newport County, a direct free-kick that went in thanks to some questionable goalkeeping and then just just three games later in a 3-1 loss to Crawley Town.

Some very quick maths suggests that Dicko has played in 39 wins, 20 draws (including cup games that went beyond 90 minutes) and in 41 losses.

Of course, the qualities he has brought to Huish Park go far beyond numbers, a wonderful left back, a vastly experienced campaigner who now passes three figures for the same club for the second time in his career after getting beyond the century for Port Vale.

He has led the side by example, a no nonsense, never give up, style defender who’ll whip a cross in with finesse and then boot the opposition winger into the car park – all totally legally of course!

Let’s not forget, this is a man who did not play a minute for us between a 2-0 League Two defeat at MK Dons on March 23, 2019 and the end of the season which ultimately cost us our place in the Football League.

Yet, he stuck around when he undoubtedly had other options and became a mainstay of Darren Sarll’s side which reached the National League play-offs last season.

There’s no doubt in the Gloverscast mind, that Yeovil Town have been miles better for having Dickinson in the side, than not.

Huge congratulations on a wonderful achievement, Carl, from everyone at the Gloverscast.

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Darren Sarll faced the media following Yeovil’s 3-0 loss against Wrexham and talked of the side’s fragility both mentally and physically.

All three goals came in the first half in Wales with Shaun Pearson, Luke Young and a wonderful free kick from Jordan Davies giving the home side an unassailable lead before the break.

When asked to sum up his side’s performance, Sarll said:“There’s a fragility to us, that’s probably the best way how we explain… and it’s all coming up at once, at a tough time for us all.”

Prior to the game, assistant Terry Skiverton said that Yeovil were down the bare bones in terms of fit and available players, a situation which has been made worse, with issues reported for Matt Worthington and Albi Skendi, who both had to come off before half time, with Max Hunt and Carl Dickinson playing through an injury as well as concerns for Alex Bradley and Rhys Murphy prior to kick off.

On his injury crisis, Sarll added: “If I told you the stories of injured players or ill players … I couldn’t write it.”

BBC Somerset’s Tom Seymour confirmed the full extent of the Glovers’ injury problems after the game.

 

Despite the negative result, Sarll did make sure to recognise the positives from a more resilient second half display. “I thought second half, we did better, we contained, we didn’t ever look like scoring a goal, and we were just patching up and plastering over our wounds from the first half.”

The second half also saw the introduction of Toby Stephens, an academy graduate and at just 17 years old, someone Yeovil fans would have been excited to see.

Sarll joked, he was the only fit central midfielder at the club at the moment, before taking time to praise the youngsters cameo appearance.

“Toby deserved to play today, the way he trained yesterday, he deserved to come onto the pitch today… he deserves the opportunity He’s with us for next season, under contract, I really like Toby, I have to remind of his midfield duties, but he took the ball, tried to win it back. For someone at 17 years-old, I think he’s got a really great opportunity, but we are going to have to create a better environment for him to progress.”

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Former Glover Marc Richards has been appointed the first team coach at Northampton Town after Jon Brady was announced as the permanent manager today.

Richards’ role was described by club Chairman, Kelvin Thomas: “Within the new structure, Marc Richards will have a particular focus on developing the young professionals.”

In September, Richards took up the role of Youth Team Assistant Coach at Northampton under Brady. Brady, a former Ru$hden & Diamonds player was appointed first team manager on an interim basis following the sacking of Keith Curle in February.

Richards will be best remembered for his worldy at Dover. The last goal Yeovil Town scored before the pandemic.

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Joe Quigley has said Yeovil Town spent too much time “dwelling on mistakes” as they went down to a 3-0 defeat at promotion-chasing Wrexham.

The Glovers were 3-0 down inside half-an-hour at the Racecourse Ground with defensive mistakes costing them dearly.

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset after the game, Quigley said: “As a team we were dwelling on mistakes too much, when mistakes happen we need to crack on and focus on the next phase of play instead of thinking about the mistakes.”

The frontman, who played the full 90 minutes alongside Reuben Reid, refused to use first half injuries to Matt Worthington and Albi Skendi as an excuse.

He added: “We all train in different positions, we know the system we play and we know what the gaffer expects from us, so I don’t think that can be an excuse today.”

The defeat leaves Yeovil in 16th place in the National League table level on 48 points with Solihull Moors and Aldershot Town, who they travel to on Tuesday night.

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There’s plenty of things which have gone wrong for Yeovil Town this season, but  defensive frailties and injuries to key players would be in most supporters’ top two on-the-field issues.

In less than 30 first half minutes, both issues were cruelly exposed by a rampant Wrexham side who cruised to a 3-0 lead helped in no small part by gift-wrapped defending from the visitors.

Youth team graduate midfielder Toby Stephens made his debut when he came on for the final 10 minutes, and that really was the only highlight for Yeovil.

It says a lot that despite conceding three, goalkeeper Adam Smith was the visitors’ man of the match and without a number of high quality, reaction saves the score could have been much, much worse.

Here’s how I saw it…..

FIRST HALF

There was one change to the Glovers’ starting line-up with Matt Worthington returning from injury to replace Jimmy Smith who dropped out with a knock. Top-scorer Rhys Murphy returned on the bench in place of Alex Bradley.

Captain Carl Dickinson, who was making his 100th appearance for the club, started in the middle of defence alongside Albi Skendi, with Michael Kelly at left back and Billy Sass-Davies on the right. Add that central defensive partnership to the number made by boss Darren Sarll this season.

The home side took the lead in all too familiar fashion when Wrexham captain Shaun Pearson was given a free header to nod home a corner after just nine minutes, with Sarll screaming to make a substitution.

The change was made with Worthington replaced by Max Hunt presumably due to injury, but the shaky defending continued with Omotayo having a couple of chances against another central defensive pairing in Hunt and Dickinson.

On 17 minutes, Tom Knowles had the visitors’ first chance with a free-kick well saved by Rob Lainton.

But, it was another piece of calamitous defending that gifted Wrexham a 2-0 lead.  Joint top-scorer Luke Young was found in acres of space inside the box and his goal-bound shot was turned in to his own net by Hunt.

Only a fine stop from goalkeeper Adam Smith stopped it from being 3-0 with the Yeovil defensive all at sea (again) when Young burst forward and squared it to Dior Angus  whose shot was saved before Young blazed the rebound over.

Just before this chance, a tactical reshuffle saw Sarll switch to three at the back before reshuffling back to four after the plan’s shortcomings were very swiftly exposed.

Joe Quigley shot wide from distance soon after and to add injury to insult Skendi went off with what looked like a rib injury to be replaced by Emmanuel Sonupe.

Jordan Davies, who Tim Edwards from Wrexham fanzine Fearless in Devotion spoke to us about on Thursday’s Gloverscast, got the third with a free-kick from fully 25 yards out which bent round the wall and past Smith. Tim told us this lad was a future Wales international player and, with a technique like that, it’s hard to argue.

Angus and Davies could have added to the scoreline before the home side mercifully took their foot off the gas and Yeovil were able to see out the half.

That said, defender Theo Vassell was denied by another fine stop from Smith when he was (surprise, surprise) unmarked at the back post from a corner.

In reality, Wrexham would have felt disappointed to only be 3-0 ahead at the break. Heaven only knows how Sarll started that half-time team talk.

Half time: Wrexham 3 Yeovil Town 0

SECOND HALF

Presumably with the manager’s words ringing in their ears, Yeovil  did start the second half brighter with Neufville firing wide three minutes after the restart with Quigley and Reuben Reid both unable to get a touch to turn the ball home.

Shortly after, Omotayo was denied by a mixture of good luck and good goalkeeping from Smith who had raced to the edge of his box, and Cameron Green fired the loose ball wide.

Neufville was at the heart of some improved play for the Glovers for the first 15 minutes of the half, however, Lainton could easily have set up a deck chair such as the bluntness of the visitors’ attack. Quigley ran hard with little impact and on the few occasions the ball found Reid, he did nothing with it.

You always felt this was a bit like a cat playing with a cornered mouse – with Wrexham being the cat, of course – and in the 70th minute, Smith made another point blank stop to deny Pearson’s header from a corner.

Highlights were few and far between for Yeovil, but one was definitely the appearance of young midfielder Toby Stephens who replaced Knowles in the 80th minute.

He has been turning out for the Glovers’ under-18s side this season having come up through the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust set-up.

Like many of his team-mates, Stephens struggled to see much of the ball in his time on the pitch as Wrexham strolled the game to a close.

With the last kick of the game, Omotayo found space on the edge of the box and hit it high wide and not very handsome – we were spared us that indignity, at least.

Can the season just be over now? Please.

Full time: Wrexham 3 Yeovil Town 0

WREXHAM: Lainton, Vassell, Pearson, Harris (for Rutherford, 39), Green, Kelleher, Davies (for Jarvis, 81), Young, Hall-Johnson, Omotayo, Angus (for Ponticelliat, 74)
Subs not used: Dibble, French,
Bookings: Young

YEOVIL TOWN: Smith, Dickinson, Sass-Davies, Skendi (for Sonupe, 28), Kelly, Worthington (for Hunt, 10), Knowles (for Stephens, 80), Neufville, Dagnall, Reid, Quigley.

Subs not used: Evans, Murphy.
Bookings: Dagnall, Knowles.

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Matt Worthington returns to the Yeovil Town midfield for the visit to promotion-chasing Wrexham, replacing Jimmy Smith who drops out of the squad entirely.

Top-scorer Rhys Murphy returns on the substitutes’ bench after missing the past two games through injury. Alex Bradley is also missing having come off the bench in the past two games.

Carl Dickinson is making his 100th appearance for the Glovers.

Yeovil Town: 1. Adam Smith; 3. Carl Dickinson, 18. Albi Skendi, 35. Billy Sass-Davies, 14. Michael Kelly;  7. Matt Worthington, 21. Tom Knowles, 24. Josh Neufville, 34. Chris Dagnall; 19. Joe Quigley, 33. Reuben Reid.

Subs: 31. Max Evans (GK), 26. Max Hunt, 36. Toby Stephens,  25. Emmanuel Sonupe, 9. Rhys Murphy.

For the hosts, former Yeovil Town striker Gold Omotayo was in the starting line-up, but there’s no place for Keanu Marsh-Brown.