Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has been chatting to the BBC ahead of the visit of Woking on Saturday and says that he hopes that any frustrations about having a bit of time off can be taken care of at the weekend, even if preparations have themselves, been tricky at times.
Chatting to reporter Jack Killah, the boss said: “You cant get on the grass, we’ll be lucky if we get on grass, we have to train on a icy 3G, but yeah, we’ll get some work done.
“[Having a break] has it’s pros and cons, you can clear up a few niggles if you’ve got some, but generally, you just want to play, you don’t want to have too many big gaps in between games.”
Yeovil have added not one, but two new bodies to the group this week, firstly, the return of former loanee striker Ciaran McGuckin for another spell borrowed from Rotherham United.
“When somebody comes in and does as well as Ciaran did, he gave us that sort of impetus at the top of the pitch with Jarv, he wants to run in behind, he wants to run towards the goal and he can score so, that was something that we were always trying to do, we’d have loved to do it on a permanent but, not for now, but the next best thing we can get him until the end of the season.
“He really enjoyed his time here and I think he feels like he’s got unfinished business.”
The other is midfielder Jacob Maddox, on a permanent deal from Forest Green Rovers, Cooper says that he fits the bill of what he looks for in a Yeovil player.
“He’s one that fits our – what we try and do – technically, really good. [He] can run, he’s a decent size, he’s got pedigree, he’s one that can definitely add to our group.
“He played at Chelsea, he played in Portugal, he played in League One, League Two. He’ll be frustrated that he’s not played, but sometimes when a manager goes into a club he wants to sign his own players and that’s fair enough.”
The squad has been further boosted by the return from loan of striker Harvey Greenslade who spent a month with Weston-super-Mare in the National League South, but the gaffer did confirm that full-back Alex Whittle remains sidelined.
“[Harvey’s] move [to Weston] didn’t go as well as we hoped, he picked up a niggle with his ankle, and then he was ill, so, he didn’t play the amount of games we hoped, but you know that can happen, so Harvey wants to come back in and fight for a place.”
“Alex Whittle has still got a mysterious niggle in his knee, he’s done some training this week, but he’s not trained with the group because he can’t train on the 3G, so it’ll be too soon for him, this weekend. But the rest are in pretty good shape.”
The game on Saturday could mark a milestone appearance for club captain Matt Worthington in green-and-white. The midfielder one of the few players to have represented the Glovers in the EFL, National League and South and as captain could make his 250th club appearance after first signing on August 31st 2017. This Saturday marks 2679 days since his debut, an eight-minute cameo from the bench in a 2-2 vs Morecambe.
Cooper said: “It’s great that in this day and age, people stay at a club for five or six years, it’s rare. Obviously last year, I made him the captain and we had a really good year, it’s great that a player stays at a club for that long and plays that many games, so it’s a big achievement.
“He’s honest, his work rate – he runs – you know what you’re getting from him every week, I think that’s important.”
Looking ahead to Woking, Cooper expects a changed outfit to the one that Yeovil beat 2-0 at the end of November, a change in manager amongst a whole host of differences. Neal Ardley took over at the Kingfield following the sacking of Michael Doyle in mid-December and has won all his four matches in all competitions since his arrival/.
Cooper said: “[Neal Ardley] has done well hasn’t he? He’s gone into Woking, he’s changed a little bit about the way that they play, he’s tried some rotations and from what I’ve seen, they’re trying to play a lot more football and they’ve had some good results, so it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re playing really well at the minute and our last few games we’ve performed really well and we’ve not got the points total that we’ve deserved, we’ve been on the end of a few sticky decisions shall we say? If we keep playing as we are, it might be our time to get a little bit of a rub of the green.”