If you are feeling brave, the highlights of our 2-0 defeat at Aldershot Town on Tuesday night are now available on the club’s YouTube channel.
If you spool forward to 2 minutes, 55 seconds in, you’ll see the sending-off of midfielder Alex Bradley – what do you think? Red card? Just a yellow? Referee banned for three matches?
Give us your opinion on the Gloverscast Twitter, here: https://twitter.com/gloverscast
Former Yeovil Town loan defender Morgan Williams has been released by his parent club, Coventry City.
Williams, 21, has spent two loans spells at Huish Park, playing three times last season before returning in October 2020 for another short stint.
Speaking to YTFC.net upon resigning Williams, Manager Darren Sarll said at the time;
“I immediately requested (when needing a defender) Morgan because of his playing traits. He is very different to what we have, and he made a huge impression on us all the last time he was on loan.
“He knows the group, to some extent, and understands what it is to play for Yeovil, the expectations that are placed on the players and the need to win games on a weekly basis.
“It’s great to have him back and I hope he has a great experience with us again.”
Everyone at the Gloverscast wishes Morgan Williams all the best in his search for a new club.
More EFL clubs are starting to formluate their plans for the upcoming season and Exeter City are the latest to release details of who will be staying and who will be leaving this summer.
There are a couple of interesting names to Yeovil Town fans including former defender Tom Parkes who played a couple of times on loan from Leicester in 2011, but also former striker Alex Fisher.
Fisher, joined Yeovil just hours before the 2018 meeting with Manchester United, having driven down from Motherwell to Somerset to sign the deal in time to be included in the glamour cup tie.
The front man would go on to score 14 goals in 62 games for a Yeovil side struggling at the wrong end of League Two, he, like many others at the time, found himself released from Huish Park at the end of the 2018/19 season when relegation was confirmed.
We wish Alex and Tom all the best in finding a new club.
Former Yeovil Town goalkeeper David Coles has left his role as Bristol Rovers goalkeeping coach.
Now managed by Joey Barton, the recently relegated (ha!) club up the road have reshuffled the deck following their relegation to League Two.
Coles played 96 times for Yeovil between 1991 and 1994. He has coached at Southampton, Portsmouth, West Ham and Bristol City.
Yeovil Town defender Alex Bradley has had his suspension confirmed by the Football Association today.
Bradley was sent off during the Glovers’ 2-0 loss to Aldershot on Tuesday night in the 55th minute.
The FA Suspensions Website has been updated to show that the defender is scheduled to miss three games for breach of Law 12 S1.
However, manager Darren Sarll confirmed the club’s intention to appeal the decision saying;
“I just don’t get it, I don’t understand it… it’s on the half line, it’s a professional foul to stop the attack, he’s clipped his heel… there’s no danger to the individual, how many of them do you see every week?”
“We’d like to think with an appeal and a clear mind the referee might do the right thing, becasue I found it very strange”
We will bring you news of the outcome of any suspension here on the Gloverscast, but as it stands Alex Bradley will missing for games against King’s Lynn, Maidenhead and Altrincham before being available again on the final day of the season against Stockport County.
To many Yeovil Town fans, May 12th 2002 is the start of over a decade of near permanent success, as goals from Carl Alford and Adam Stansfield secure a 2-0 win over Stevenage in the FA Trophy Final at Villa Park.
The weather was glorious, the football from Yeovil equally so, as thousands of supporters filled the Holte End at Villa Park after travelling up from Somerset.
Carl Alford’s overhead kick early on set the Glovers on their way on 12 minutes, but it was Chris Weale‘s 1st minute save from Kirk Jackson which really set the tone for the afternoon.
Gary Johnson‘s men really took control after half time, Terry Skiverton forcing a goal-line clearance from Matt Fisher, but the second goal came not long after, a fine finish from Man of the Match, Adam Stansfield.
After the game, Gary Johnson told reporters: “The club and the fans have been waiting more than thirty years to win this and now we have won it for them, I’m delighted”
Yeovil: Weale, Lockwood, Tonkin, Skiverton, Pluck, Way, Stansfield, Johnson, Alford, Crittenden, McIndoe.
Subs: White, Sheffield, O’Brien, Giles, Lindegaard.
Yeovil Town midfielder Charlie Lee said he was “frustrated” to not come away with anything from the trip to Aldershot Town on Tuesday night.
The 34-year-old, who played as a makeshift central defender in the 2-0 defeat, said he had not seen an injury record like that being suffered by his team-mates in his career.
“In 20 years of football, I have never seen the luck we have had with injuries (this season) and it’s been the story of our season…We have not coped well with it. Lots of people played out of position today and gave everything and up until the sending off I thought we were really in the game, we looked solid and we are frustrated we have come away with no points.”
The 55th minute red card of Alex Bradley was a key turning point in the game. Darren Sarll confirmed the club intend to appeal the decision, but Lee was pleased with how the side responded.
“When you go a man down…..to be proper, they were excellent, sometimes a team can be negative when they have got 11 men against 10, but they really pressed and threw numbers forward….But, we were 1-0 down and we were going for the same, so we knew we would concede chances and we were left a little bit exposed at the back. That was all part of trying to get a result, we got a lot of set pieces and everyone gave 100% but at the end of the day we have come away with no points so we are really frustrated.”
Injuries seems to be the main talking point at the moment at Huish Park with upwards of ten players missing from availability, but things don’t seem to have got any better with not only a potential suspension but also more knocks to patch up.
“Poor Bill’s (Sass Davies) nose is all over the place, Dags (Chris Dagnall) has got a gash on his head, Bradders will be suspended, but no-one is going to complain, Especially the younger players are going to learn a lot from these next four games, you’re going to learn to be a winner in your career. You’ve got to step up and do what’s needed and everyone will give everything they’ve got, every game and fingers crossed we can get people available for the weekend.”
Focus turned to the remaining games of the season, whilst Lee confirmed that any feint hopes of a play off run were over, he was still insistent that everyone will be giving their all to the cause, especially when fans return to Huish Park next week.
“Any chance of getting to the play-offs is long gone, so now you just have to get results for pride. Everyone is going to keep going and I will make sure and the staff will make sure that everyone is on it in training and we’ll give it everything. It’s been a major thing this season, (the fans) were a massive part of what we did last year and we were all immensely proud of what we did last year with a new team. We are all really disappointed this year. We had unbelievable support home and away for every game, and I am really excited about seeing the fans back in.”
Yeovil Town have back to back home games coming up vs King’s Lynn on Saturday and then Maidenhead on Tuesday night.
Despite succuming to a third successive loss, Yeovil Manager Darren Sarll was in fairly chipper mood about how his patched up side handled themselves in the 2-0 defeat to Aldershot on Tuesday night.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Tom Seymour, Sarll said: “I thought their application was magnificent, all night… I thought their commitment was excellent, they tried, Charlie (Lee) at centre half, (Josh) Neufville at right back, anyone that played out of position were very, very good.”
Lawson D’ath was a surprise inclusion on the bench returning after three months out and the Gaffer took time to praise his winger for his attitude.
“Lawson put himself into a position of availabilty after one day’s training and three months injured. I never asked him, he came to me, he said I want to help, we’re short, get me involved”
Injuries have meant that options at Sarll’s disposal have been thin on the ground with three outfield members of the Under-18s making the substitutes bench and Toby Stephens making his second professional appearance in the second half.
Sarll confirmed that there are concerns over the fitness of both Billy Sass Davies (Broken nose) and Chris Dagnall who had to have stitches in his ear at half time.
One pre-match positive was the return of Alex Bradley who was missing from Saturday’s squad with the flu, however, Bradley – who was being played in a central role – was sent off early in the second half for a professional foul.
Darren Sarll confirmed the club intend to appeal the decision. “I just don’t get it, I don’t understand it… it’s on the half line, it’s a professional foul to stop the attack, he’s clipped his heel… there’s no danger to the individual, how many of them do you see every week?”
“We’d like to think with an appeal and a clear mind the referee might do the right thing, becasue I found it very strange”
With half an eye on a return to Huish Park this Saturday for the visit of King’s Lynn, Sarll was cautiously optimistic that he might have a few more options, despite joking that picking a team would be easy, because he has no players available.
“We are still trying, we are still hoping on some of the injured players, (Luke) Wilkinson is trying really hard to be back and fit, he’ll be a huge player for us”
“If we can get Charlie back out there, Wilkinson back out there, Reid and I thought Quigley was great tonight… Dagnall, Sonupe, D’Ath will be another week further on, he might have to step in early”
Finally, Sarll was positive that seeing Yeovil fans back in Huish Park will bring out something more from his side.
“We’ve been better at home than away… and having supporters back at Maidenhead will give us all a lift, I’ve not looked forward to a game so much for a while. The only thing we’re really holding onto is supporters against Maidenhead, they don’t really realise how important they are, not only do they give us a lift, but they terrify the life out of the opposition, and we’re gunna need that”
Yeovil host King’s Lynn on Saturday before welcoming supporters back through the turnstiles the following Tuesday when Maidenhead are the visitors.
It was another difficult night for Yeovil Town’s walking wounded as they went down to their third consecutive defeat on a disappointing night at Aldershot Town.
With a decent starting XI – with Luke Wilkinson in goal – on the treatment table, Darren Sarll’s starting XI was the walking wounded from the opening whistle.
A battling first half saw them match their hosts, but a defensive error from an out-of-position back line and a harsh straight red card for Alex Bradley inside four first half minutes left the already depleted Glovers with too much to do.
Here’s how I saw it…..
With too many injuries to mention – look at the match preview if you’re interested – there was a welcome return for Lawson D’Ath on the substitutes bench, marking his first appearance in the squad since the 3-0 win at Weymouth on January 5.
Joining him on the bench were four members of the Glovers’ under-18s, youth team captain Jiah Medrano, midfielders Adam Heaton and Toby Stephens, the latter who made his first-team debut at Wrexham at the weekend, and keeper Max Evans, who has been a regular on the bench this season.
On the pitch, the injury-ravaged visitors lined up with central midfielder Charlie Lee in the heart of defence alongside Billy Sass-Davies, and Josh Neufville playing at right back rather than his more forward approach with Bradley at the base of the diamond.
However, Yeovil started brightly and made much of the early running with Emmanuel Sonupe having an early shot blocked before Tom Knowles and captain Reuben Reid linking up nicely for Knowles to jink in to the box and fire in a shot that was well tipped away by Aldershot keeper Mitch Walker.
Shots’ striker Harry Panayiotou fired one wide having been found by a fine George Fowler pass soon after, but – despite what the Aldershot live stream pundits told us at half time – the Yeovil chances were not restricted to one effort.
On 11 minutes, Reid held the ball up well on the edge of the box, squared it to Dagnall whose shot was well-saved by Walker. That’s at least two efforts that had the keeper working.
But, that was about as good as it got for the Glovers in the first half, with the home side turning up the pressure after that with Craig Tanner having a shot come off the outside of the post.
The final 25 minutes of the half turned in to a less end-to-end affair although it was Aldershot who looked more threatening going forward.
That pressure showed up exactly where Yeovil’s defence had players out of position with Neufville looking particularly vulnerable, as he did when he was deployed at right-back in the game at Chesterfield earlier in the season.
An equally big concern was head injuries to Sass-Davies and Chris Dagnall, the latter who ended up with a bandage around his head – injuries are not what we need right now.
Half time: Aldershot Town 0 Yeovil Town 0
Now, remember how I said in the first half that the out-of-position Neufville getting caught out of position? Well, with six minutes in to the second half, good play between Fowler and Tanner down the rightv saw a ball go to the back post and Chike Kandi got in front of Neufville to head Aldershot ahead at the back post.
To add insult to injury, three minutes later Alex Bradley saw red for a tackle from behind on Panayiotou in the middle of the box.
I’m obviously out of practice with this match reporting lark because I looked up just as the tackle went in, looked up to see Bradley walking. It looked wild to me at a first glance, but suffice to say not all of Twitter agreed with my glancing review, see below!
And, having watched the replay at the end of match, I concur with the views of Twitter – it was a yellow card, but never a red.
To add further injury to injury (or should that be insult as well?) a crunching tackle from behind on Tom Knowles by Aldershot substitute Jon Nouble’s on 69 minutes looked every bit as bad as the one Bradley saw red for.
Nouble got a yellow. What’s the first rule of the Gloverscast again?
Red card or not, the loss put Yeovil’s walking wounded were under even more pressure and Kandi will be disappointed not to have doubled their advantage shortly after.
There was a bright spot with D’Ath making an appearance in the 67th minute, replacing Sonupe, and despite an obvious lack of match fitness, he showed his usual composure on the ball.
Sass-Davies threw his body on the line on at least two occasions to block shots coming in from the home side, but with nine minutes to go Dagnall headed over with a rare opportunity.
The home side continued to turn the screw and it was another defensive mistake that led to the doubling their advantage.
A long ball forward found Nouble with only Kelly in the vicinity of him and, with the rest of the Yeovil defence racing back from…..well, somewhere…..he played in Panayiotou who hammered it home.
Adam Smith pulled off an amazing double save soon after, but dead on their feet is the way to describe how Yeovil looked by the closing 10 minutes of the match.
So, another defeat ends with me thinking the same thing as the after the last one – can’t we just finish the season now? Pretty, pretty please.
Full time: Aldershot Town 2 Yeovil Town 0
ALDERSHOT TOWN: Walker, Fowler, Sendles-White, Lyons-Foster, Rees (for Nouble, 28), Kandi (for Hinds, 74), Panayiotou, Anderson, Edser, Kinsella, Tanner (for Bettamer, 74).
Subs not used: Ogie, Miller.
Bookings: Lyons-Foster, Nouble, Panayiotou.
YEOVIL TOWN: Smith, Bradley, Sass-Davies, Lee, Kelly, Knowles, Sonupe (for D’Ath, 67), Dagnall (for Stephens, 82), Neufville, Quigley, Reid.
Subs not used: Evans (GK),Heaton, Medrano.
Sending off: Bradley.
Yeovil Town’s injury hit squad has meant Darren Sarll has been forced to look to some of his younger players to fill recent squads.
We’ve taken a look at what we might expect from some of the Young Glovers if they are going to be in and around the side for the rest of the season.
Firstly, Toby Stephens. Toby made his debut in the loss against Wrexham coming off the bench late on in the game. Despite the result, Sarll made sure to praise the 17-year old for his work ethic in his cameo role saying: “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,”
Another name that will have been spotted on plenty of team sheets this season is that of young ‘keeper Max Evans. He’s not yet had the chance to make his debut, instead deputising for Adam Smith, but the young stopper has regularly been included on Darren Sarll’s bench.
Joining from the Oxford United system at the start of the season, Evans has played this season whilst on loan at Frome Town
That leaves us a couple of new names to have a look at, Jiah Medrano and Adam Heaton.
Medrano is described as a defender, born in September 2002 (!) who actually started in academy set ups in the midlands with experience in the Stoke City Regional Talent Centre.
Back in October, Glovers fans were asked to vote for Medrano is a ‘League Football Education’ Goal Of The Month award for a blinding free kick, suggesting he might be on the set pieces should he be given a chance in the team.
Finally, Adam Heaton (born in November 2002!!) is listed among the midfielders on the Under 18s section of the official site, he has tasted a bit of first team experience during pre-season coming off the bench in a friendly against Bournemouth U23s.
Both Medrano and Heaton are 2nd year scholars at the club having signed forms alongside a certain Alfie Lloyd who this week signed for QPR for an undisclosed fee.
Both have been playing regularly for the Under 18s with recent wins over Swindon and Forest Green Rovers in the bag.
Best of luck to all the young Glovers between now and the end of the season.
Jiah Medrano’s Goal Of The Month contender