Otis Khan makes his second debut for the Glovers this afternoon replacing outgoing Frank Nouble in the starting line up.
Brett McGavin also misses out, with Finn Cousin-Dawson nudging into midfield leaving loan duo Frankie Terry and Kyle Ferguson make up the heart of the defence.
Alex Whittle skippers the side, Kyrell Wilson is the unlucky 6th loanee.
Frank Nouble has signed for Gateshead until the end of 2025/26 season, finally departing Huish Park nearly two weeks after Mark Cooper confirmed Nouble’s intention to leave.
The forward’s departure was confirmed in a statement by Yeovil Town posted at 12pm on Saturday ahead of the 3-0 win at Solihull Moors, which said: “Yeovil Town Football Club can confirm that Frank Nouble has been approached by Gateshead and has expressed his intention to pursue this move. While we are disappointed with his decision, we respect his right to make it. The club would like to make it clear that it has always prioritised the best interests of the team and its supporters.
“Nouble’s departure comes at a time when we are focused on strengthening our squad and continuing to build a competitive side for the remainder of the season. We thank Frank for his contributions during his time with the club, but our priority is to continue striving for success and to ensure the best interests of Yeovil Town Football Club and its loyal supporters.”
In response, the 33-year-old posted on his own Twitter/X account posted at 7.32pm on Saturday, saying: “There are some great people at YTFC, to the supporters, home and away for the last 2 years unreal!! thank you so much. A trophy in the cabinet too. Unfortunately my desire to stay at the club wasn’t reciprocated so on to the next. Take care.“
The contradictions between the two statements clearly underline a difference of opinion in the reasons behind the departure of the former West Ham United and Wolves forward, who played the full 90 minutes for his new club in a 2-0 defeat at home to Tamworth.
Rumours about Gateshead’s interest and an impending takeover were confirmed by Cooper before the 3-0 defeat to Boston United on the 11th of March. Cooper said: “Apparently it is a potential new owner that is coming in to Gateshead that has agreed a deal with Frank, the deal has not gone through because of that. We were told (on Monday) it was agreed and I think from what we have heard now the deal has fallen through. Frank’s made his wishes clear, he wanted to move on and that is fine, he has done well for us and been a big part of what we are trying to do. But his future is elsewhere.”
Frank was part of the Glovers National League South winning side, and leaves Huish Park having scored 14 times in 80 appearances in green and white, including three crucial goals against Tamworth, Maidenhead and Southend United last month.
We’d like to say a huge thanks to Frank for his commitment whilst in the Yeovil shirt and his efforts in the community with his academy that has made a huge impact to youngsters in Yeovil.
Yeovil Town are back on the road in search of points to pull them away from the relegation mire at the foot of the National League Premier table and travel to a Solihull Moors side…..*checks notes*…..in search of points to pull them away from the relegation mire at the foot of the National League Premier table
After two wins on the bounce in the middle of February, the Glovers’ form has dropped significantly, with no win in their last five fixtures. Yeovil’s only point during this period has been a 2-2 draw at home to Southend United.
The caveat would be that the Somerset side has predominantly trams in the playoffs over that period, as well as the 3-0 loss at home to a resurgent Boston United, one of those sides looking to swap places with them below the dotted line.
Last time out for the Glovers was a spirited 1-0 defeat to promotion-chasing York. Yeovil rarely threatened but can’t take confidence in the fact they didn’t concede more than the one goal.
Solihull’s form hasn’t been particularly glamorous either over the last five games with just the one win, they have drawn two games as well alongside two losses.
In their last league game, they drew 1-1 at Hartlepool United, another club in crisis off the field which is impacting them on the field, on North-East coast. Their goal coming through striker Manny Duku, who has proved a vital boost since joining on a short-term deal at the start of the month following his departure from Hednesford Town in February.
The loss of manager Andy Whing, who departed the Midlands to join League Two Barrow in January, has turned Solihull’s season from one looking to once again compete for play-off places, to looking over their shoulder at the relegation zone. Since his replacement, former Portsmouth and Bolton Wanderers player Matty Taylor quit Wealdstone to join them, they have won just once, the 2-1 home win over bottom club Ebbsfleet United a fortnight ago – with Duku on the scoresheet twice.
Yeovil – Brett McGavin
We have said his name a lot this season and for good reason, McGavin is our top scorer. As a team that has lacked goals in all areas, McGavin has popped up with a few important ones and some just sublime ones too.
The wonderfully haired midfielder does more than just score goals however, alongside Charlie Cooper, he controls the midfield. In recent games it might not have clicked for the pair but we have seen what happens when it does, we win.
All we can hope is that injury which saw him limp off against York last weekend was not as serious as it looked.
Boston United – Manny Duku
The centre forward has been a lightning rod (almost literally, he’s 6’2″ tall) since arriving at Damson Park at the start of the month.
Having departed Northern League Hednesford Town (where he’d scored 19 times this season) the previous month, the former Dutchman has scored three in as many games. His double at home to Ebbsfleet a fortnight ago proved the difference to lift the gloom over Matty Taylor’s reign, and he equalised to grab at point up at Hartlepool last weekend.
If Yeovil are going to get anything from this one, they will need to pay him close attention.
Yeovil manager Mark Cooper spoke positively about his hopes of the return of some the club’s missing injured players including defenders Jake Wannell and Michael Smith
On their next opponents, he added: “They’ve had lots of change, obviously, change of the Manager [who] went to the EFL to Barrow, done a great job.
“They brought in Matty [Taylor] from Wealdstone. It’s always tough, when you go into a team that are used to a manager’s way, you have to try and change and adapt to the way you want it.
“They’ve had a turn around of players, they’ve had some injuries, so it’s been tough, but they’ve had a little run, I think, three unbeaten. Like I always say, there’s never any easy games at this level, never. And we’re expecting a really tough game, but I’m sure they would have watched us against York, and they’ll be expecting a really tough encounter as well.”
In his pre-match interview, Matty Taylor said he expects to be going again with the same group of players which earned Solihull a point up at Hartlepool last weekend. But, he was pleased to see some fringe players get minutes in the 4-1 defeat at Tamworth in the Birmingham Senior Cup on Tuesday night.
The manager said: “It’s been a week where we’ve been able to rest players that needed a rest because we have had a few injuries and managed to get minutes in to players that needed it on Tuesday night, so the majority of the boys have done all the four training sessions we have had this season.
“We know it is going to be another difficult game. Our form has been better, unbeaten in three, but we have to start getting clean sheets. We know Yeovil are not on the run they would want to be on, but we know they have some very good technical players, they have a very good, experienced manager in Mark Cooper.”
The two teams have met 12 time throughout history with, the first game only being played in November 2016 when Darren Way’s Glovers crashed out of the FA Cup in a second round replay at Damson Park – on penalties! Out of those 12 fixtures, Yeovil have come out on top only three times, with Solihull winning four and there being five draws.
The most recent game between the two was back in September at Huish Park, when Solihull won 1-0 with Connor Wilkinson, who is injured for the return fixture this weekend, scoring the only goal.
There are a couple old Glovers in The Moors squad with some being more recent than others.
Ollie Wright will be a name you all know. The goalkeeper spent the majority of this season on loan at Huish Park before Southampton decide to recall him then send straight back out on loan again. Weird we know.
Tahvon Campbell is a name that maybe familiar to the older match preview reader. The striker joined Yeovil first back in January 2016 on loan from West Brom. He returned to Yeovil in the august of the same year, again on loan until January 2017. Across his two spell Campbell played 42 games (still his most capped club) scoring three goals. That said, he has missed most of this season through injury, so is unlikely to feature.
No one is suspended for the game.
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It’s match day and Yeovil make the trip to Solihull Moors today in what is a huge game for both teams. Ian spoke to Stewart Westley, NLTV commentator and the man behind Solihull’s match preview shows.
Yeovil Town have announced the signing of Otis Khan on loan from Oldham Athletic until May 5th.
The Pakistan international returns to the Glovers for a second stint having previously represented the club between 2016 and 2018.
He played 87 times, scoring 18 goals under Darren Way.
Khan tips the number of loanees at the club beyond the five allowed in the match day squad, so one of: Frankie Terry, Kyle Ferguson, Kyrell Wilson, Ciaran McGuckin and Ryan McLean will have to sit in the stands – potentially two should Sean McGurk return to the club from injury.
Welcome back to Somerset, Otis.
Yeovil Town Defender Dom Bernard has said that performances like we saw against York City will bring about results.
The Glovers wen’t down 1-0 to the Minstermen, but put in a good enough display to convince the former Forest Green man that the points will pick up sooner rather than later.
Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset’s Josh Perkins, he said;
“Football is results based isn’t it? You feel that there’s games where you might play really bad, and you pick a 1-0 and take it all day, so in the end it’s the results that count,
But, we’ve had a hard schedule with Halifax, York and Barnet, hard running Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday, so you’ve got to take that into account,
But there’s no blame on it, at the end of the day you’re out there giving it your all, that performance against York, if we implement that against any opposition, you’re bound to take something out of the game.
We were actually really unfortunate in the end, some of the chances we had, sometime it comes down to a penalty, and those things happen.
But there’s no excuse on our behalf, we obviously want to win as many games and we think we can go against the top teams.”
This weekend, the Glovers head to Solihull, who sit just a point above the Glovers and a couple of places above in mid table and Bernard is expecting a tough fixture.
“[Solihull] have got Matty Taylor as manager now, he’s gone there to try and implement his ideas, when he was manager at Wealdstone, they played good football, and they’re probably in a stage where they’re trying to mix it up, they can do that, they can mix it up both ways,
I think at this stage of the season any game is going to be tough because different teams are playing for different reasons and I’m sure they probably look at us and think it’s going to be tough game as well and we’ve got what we want to play for, but they’re a well drilled side and hopefully we bring our performance like we did against York.
Obviously, we were unfortunante not to get a result there, but if we perform like that we’ll be alright.”
With plenty of new faces joining the group in recent weeks, Bernard is quickly becoming one of the more experienced members of the group and has taken a senior role in making sure the new recruits are settling in.
“I know Marcel [Lavinier] from playing with him, I like to introduce myself early, get to the lads, I like to get along with everyone really, get in there, make them feel welcome, which I think all the lads do to be fair, and make the team cohesive and really bond.
Especially in this period of time, there’s only eight games left, so, short little run to the end and the more welcome they feel the more settled they’ll be.”
Mark Cooper has said that he is hopeful that he will be able to call upon four or five of his most experienced players in the coming weeks after injury,.
Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset’s Josh Perkins ahead of the game this weekend, he said he was grateful to how the younger, newer players were adapting to life in Green and White, but that he hopes more players will be available soon.
“Well, I spoke about this, [the new recruits ] are all young lads that bring something different, so they’re trying to make their way in the game. So for us to try and replace Jake Wannell, Aaron Jarvis, Morgan Williams. Michael Smith, James Plant, Sean McGurk, to try and replace those players like for like, is impossible at this stage of the season in terms of experience. So the only other route is to try and get younger players that are making their way in the game, desperate to get some game time, and they bring something different, but at the moment, they’re learning the game, so they will make mistakes, and sometimes they’ll be better coming off the bench.
Through circumstance, they more or less all that to play last week against Boston and and it was a tough environment for them to play in, not a nice nice environment, and that knocks their confidence.
Then Boston go to a team in the playoffs and score three there. So it’s a tough environment. So we have to be careful with them, but until we get more frontline players back, we have to give them all the support we can and trying to put them in the right position, in the right times, so they can really help too.”
As for when we might expect players to return, we are now into waiting “weeks” rather than “months” before we get players back from the physio room.
“It’s day to day, really, where you know, every time the physio rings me, I’m frightened to death to answer it, because you know somebody else is going to be up for six weeks. This is just a moment in time. It happens at certain teams, in certain seasons that you look at Tottenham all of their top players were injured. And that affects, it really affects and we just got to ride it out, and hopefully Wannell and Smith may be back in the next few days. Then we’ve been looking at Jarvis and Williams probably within a couple of weeks. So yeah, so hopefully there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
On Solihull, who the Glovers come up against on Saturday, Mark Cooper said that they, like us, had been through plenty of change this season and that it is guaranteed to be a tough fixture.
“They’ve had lots of change, obviously, change of the Manager [who] went to the EFL to Barrow, done a great job.
They brought in Matty [Taylor] from Wealdstone. It’s always tough, when you go into a team that are used to a manager’s way, you have to try and change and adapt to the way you want it.
They’ve had a turn around of players, they’ve had some injuries, so it’s been tough, but they’ve had a little run, I think, three unbeaten. Like I always say, there’s never any easy games at this level, never. And we’re expecting a really tough game, but I’m sure they would have watched us against York, and they’ll be expecting a really tough encounter as well.”
This Saturday marks Non-League day in the UK and few managers have had the level of success outside the EFL than Mark Cooper and he said that it represents the ‘lifeblood’ of the game in this country.
“If I give my experience, Dan Burn was a non-league player at Darlington, when I was a manager, I gave him his debut at 16, and I actually did an interview saying that he would play for England one day. I didn’t actually probably mean it at the time, but we were trying to raise his fee for when we sold him.
But that the game is littered with stories like that, of how many players have gone into non league to get some experience or have started in on me? So it’s vital that that it is celebrated. It’s just a shame that there’s not, there’s not as much funding coming down the pyramid as probably there should be, when you see how much money there is at the top end of the game with the Premier League and the wages.
I know once you’re once you’re in there, turkeys are not going to vote for Christmas are they? You know, they’re not going to vote to drip down more money down the pyramid. But I think we have to look at it and say, you realise where the actual lot of talent does come from. I give you actually.”
Yeovil Town are off to the Midlands for their National League Premier Clash against Solihull Moors and Sebastian Stockbridge won’t be far behind.
This will be Mr Stockbridge’s first National League game of the season, with all of his previous commitments being in the EFL.
In 24 games across Leagues One and Two he’s dished out, 107 Yellow cards, two reds and pointed at the spot half a dozen times for good measure.
A vastly experienced official, you have to go all the way back to 2016 before you can find his last game in charge of the Glovers, a 4-1 defeat to Plymouth Argyle; Nathan Smith, Ryan Hedges and Kevin Dawson all saw yellow that day.
Now, you may remember that fantastic 4-3 win over Barnet, also in 2016… well, Seb was right in the middle of that one too!
That does mean he awarded the penalty to John Akinde, but Liam Walsh and Harry Cornick meant that it didn’t really matter.
As far as I can tell, he’s only taken charge of one Solihull Moors game – a second round clash between Hartlepool and Solihull in the FA Cup which went the way of Pools on penalties.
He will be assisted by Daniel Flynn and Thomas Staten, Wayne Gray (not that one) will be on fourth official duties.
Solihull Moors FC (First Team) v Yeovil Town FC (First Team)
National League – Premier
Referee: Stockbridge, Sebastian
Assistant Referee: Flynn, Daniel
Assistant Referee: Staten, Thomas
Fourth Official: Gray, Wayne
It’s time the March edition of the YeoGov Survey (here’s a reminder of the results from February) and once again we want your thoughts about the four weeks that have just been.
In those four weeks, the Glovers turned form around to beat Tamworth, Maidenhead and draw with Southend before defeats against Barnet, Halifax, Boston United and York City this past weekend.
It’s the usual questions around performance around the club and the optional matchday experience one and this month we want to know if the club are performing as you expected for the first season in the National League.
The results of February’s YeoGov survey are in. Thanks to the 252 supporters who shared their thoughts.
As always we have the usual questions with the scores out of 7 below..
How do you think Mark Cooper is doing? 2.80
How do you think the players have performed? 3.04
What would you score the ownership/board? 3.15
What would you score the communication from the club? 3.54
What would you score the match day experience this month? 3.42
We also asked the question, How important is it to you that Yeovil Town FC owns the land at Huish Park? to which the result was overwhelming with a score of 6.37 out of 7. The land has always been seen as a key unlock to secure the long term future of the football club and, clearly, it remains of vital importance to supporters.