Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has said his side will line-up with a three central defenders for today’s opening National League fixture of the season against Hartlepool United at Huish Park today.
Captain Jake Wannell, Morgan Williams and Alex Whittle will make up that defensive trio with on loan Birmingham City wing back Byron Pendleton and summer signing James Daly playing as wingers or wing backs depending how you want to see it.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah ahead of kick-off at Huish Park, the manager spoke about the line-up, he said: “Like it has done in most of pre-season, it is Whittle, Wannell Williams which on paper is a good back three with a bit of height and a bit of pace there and plenty of tenacity and no little ability on the ball. We have Byron (Pendleton) on one wing and James Daly on the other, I don’t think there will be any quicker wingers in the league than those two today.
“We want to try and be a little bit more solid on the first game of the season, we have got quite an expansive front five with the two wingers (Pendleton and Daly) and the two number tens in Luke McCormick and Josh Sims and Jarvis (up top). So we feel it is important the back three and the two midfield players (Charlie Cooper and Finn Cousin-Dawson) are solid. Brett (McGavin, who is on the substitutes’ bench) picked up a little niggle a few weeks ago so he is, in my opinion, a week undercooked, so we have good options.”
Both strikers Junior Morias and Tahvon Campbell are also on the bench for the curtain raiser. Campbell has suffered with a knee problem in pre-season and Morias, whose signing was announced during the week, has not had a full pre-season.
Cooper said: “Tahvon and Junior are still catching up. Tav has missed two weeks of training and Junior only joined us at the start of the week and due to his wife having complications with a pregnancy he has not done loads of training, so we have to be careful with him. But they are definitely have good options off the bench.
“I said at the start of pre-season that we wanted everyone through pre-season and available for the first game and we have done that. I said we might be 90% fit but everybody is fit and we can grow in to the rest and try and use our bench and try and keep away from as many injuries as we can. So to have everybody fit is testimony to the staff and medical team that we have got them through safely.”
Hartlepool have named a number of their summer signings in their starting XI including strikers Alex Reid, who Cooper revealed he tried to sign last season, and Danny Johnson.
Cooper added: “You can judge them on the quality of players they have brought in. They brought Alex Reid in, who we tried to sign last year but he did not want to move, they have Danny Johnson in from Walsall who is a proven goalscorer and throughout the team they have lots of new signings with quality. So they have been backed in the summer and we are expecting a tough game.”
One other new arrival at the North East club is manager Simon Grayson, who is yet to lose a game against Yeovil in his managerial career. The former Preston North End and Blackpool boss arrived at the club in June having been managing in India and Nepal in recent years.
Cooper said: “It is good to see him back, I have known him a long time, he is a Leeds fan as well so he is back from his exploits in Nepal and India and looking forward to the challenge.”
Daly playing wingback 🤦🏼♂️