Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has again pointed to poor recruitment in the transfer window as being behind the collapse in form which puts his side on the brink of relegation to National League South.
Echoing what he said after the losses to Southend United and Gateshead, the boss went a step further by revealing that striker Frank Nouble was ready to join the club before being allowed to join relegation rivals Torquay United.
The former Colchester United player scored twice for the Gulls in a 3-1 win at Maidenhead United on Easter Monday whilst Cooper’s side struggled in front of goal again as they went down to a 1-0 home defeat to Dorking Wanderers.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the game, Cooper said: “It didn’t have to be like this. Five or six weeks ago, the players we wanted to bring in….one of them is going to keep Torquay up by the looks of it and it just didn’t happen. We have to learn from that.”
Asked directly if he was referring to Nouble, the manager said: “The deal was done, Frank was coming in on a five-week deal and it didn’t happen. That’s what way it is. It’s frustrating because it didn’t have to be like this; I will get the majority of the blame, but it didn’t have to be like this.”
The boss has not attempted to hide his displeasure that a number of new signings, including striker Reo Griffiths and midfielders Scott Pollock, Callum Harriott and Zanda Siziba, had been recruited by the club’s prospective owners, SU Glovers, without his involvement.
Asked why the Nouble deal did not go through, Cooper replied: “I will leave you to surmise what went wrong with that.” Grab a calculator folks, punch in 2 + 2 and see if it comes up with 4.
Minutes after the manager’s comments went out, owner-in-waiting Matt Uggla took to his Twitter feed with a lengthy thread claiming why he disagrees with Cooper (to put it mildly) – you can read that here.
The result means there are six points between Yeovil and safety in the National League with just four games remaining, meaning relegation to National League South now seems an inevitability.
Cooper said: “When people sit back and look at it, they can see what happen and it is such a shame because it didn’t have to be like that.
“When it is finished, the football club has to see that as a real opportunity to build and say that is rock bottom, we have to put things in place and do things right and be a real professional football club.”
He added: “I would love to be (manager next season). I know supporters hate me at the minute, but a lot of it has been out of my control. I just hope the club move professionally forward.”
On the pitch, it was the same old story with a struggle to score goals compounded by the sending off of Chiori Johnson at the end of the first half.
Cooper said his side “never looked in too much trouble” until the defender received his marching orders, the boss said: “We played one up front, two in behind, high wing backs to try and get crosses in the box and we had really good opportunities in and around the goal but that final piece is what was missing.
“We have four or five players that I don’t know how they put the shift in that they do. Every game they run, they fight and they scrap but then we are filling in around them that you never know what performance you are going to get out of them.
“But, they are great lads, great characters, trying their absolute socks off <**TRYING THEIR SOCKS OFF KLAXON***> and it is an aboslute pleasure every day to work with them.”
He also took aim at referee Elliott Swallow claiming the sending off should never have happened. From my perspective, Johnson was somewhat fortunate to not receive his marching orders for his first tackle on James McShane, so it does feel like Cooper is clutching at straws here.
He said: “It is never sending off (for Chiori Johnson), it should have been a red card (for Dorking’s George Francomb) and I got booked for asking about an offside. Horrendous decisions. I have been to speak to the ref and I can’t explain it.
“Every foul the referee gave in the first half was a booking. I said to him he doesn’t understand the game because you are allowed to make a tackle without getting booked. That is game understanding from a young referee. He will learn from that.”
Oh, and it sounds like Matt Worthington has “tweaked a hamstring” as well. Just in case you didn’t think things could get any worse.
The Twitter comments are totally out of order!!
Everyone needs to look at themselves.
Somewhat inaccurate article. Our agency (AP Sports Advisory) represents Frank and we can confirm contracts were sent on deadline day with Frank agreeing terms.
Yeovil decided to pull out from the deal for undisclosed reasons and left us in the dark. We then were contacted by Torquay who got the deal done in the end.
I hope there is a yeovil foot ball club in heaven because that’s the only place now I will ever see them in the league again. Long live yeovil town f. C
I am now at the point of thinking ‘why’, yes why does everything connected with this football club go so badly wrong? It cannot be bad luck alone, we have two neighbours further West than ourselves who seem to make the right decisions on running their clubs. Exeter have their excellent youth policy, a pleasant ground and solid league status, Torquay have a modern ground and always manage to attract players. I conclude it cannot all be bad luck, people seem to make bad choices at our club, the non-sacking of Darren Way cost us our FL status, take it back even further to the disaster that was moving to Huish Park, leaving supporters still drinking in mud and puddles at The Thatchers End almost thirty years on from the build. Now we have this. The Ugglas or Cooper will leave, as ever we’ve grasped at new ‘care’ almost desperate for anyone to love us after years of abuse. Like all of you I am sick of it now and wondering if ‘someone’ else is still running this show.