Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has said that he’s had to adapt his side for the rigours of two games in three days, with his team selection for Braintree.
The Glovers have made a number of changes with Harvey Greenslade [Groin] dropping to the bench and Charlie Cooper [Achilles] missing out altogether to ensure they can play a part on Bank Holiday Monday.
Speaking to the BBC’s Josh Perkins, the gaffer said;
“We’ve got Wannell back and Plant back, so they come straight in the team,
[Charlie Cooper] is really sore, the other night, he wanted to keep playing to make sure we got the three points, he’s going to rest today and hopefully be OK for Monday.”
On the busy schedule, which will see the Glovers do Wednesday – Saturday – Monday, before back to back midweek fixtures at the start of September, Cooper said that it puts sides like his at a disadvantage.
“It punishes the clubs with smaller squads, because we can’t change, where as Forest Green have got 26 players, good for them, but if there’s a salary cap, there’s a certain amount of money, you’ve got to either have 22 average players or 15/16 good ones.
But then, if you’ve got to play two games in three days or four games in nine days, it’s virtually impossible, we need a bit of luck, we’re going to have to try and manage the situation, but it’s about trying to win the game.”
As for the game today, Cooper hopes the changes can still give his side the best chance of taking the points from a traditionally tough place to play, so long as his side have their running boots on!
“Aaron Jarvis comes in today, Harvey had a bit of a tight groin, but we’ve got Monday in mind, so as well as Harvey did the other night, by not starting him today, he should be flying for Monday.
They should be expecting to be strong at home and try and win your home games so, it’s a tough place to come, you can see the pitch is rock hard, you see the surroundings, but you have to deal with that, you have to be committed, you have to be diligent and you have to run.
The message to the players in all of our work, is that when we have really high speed, long distance running in good numbers, we win games. It’s about getting that mentality through the group that we have to run.”