James Plant has returned to Port Vale after picking up an injury which is expected to keep him out until his loan spell with Yeovil Town expires, according to Glovers’ boss Mark Cooper.
The 20-year-old, who has impressed since joining from the League Two high-fliers, was not in the squad for last weekend’s 3-1 home win over Braintree Town and, following a scan, is expected to be out for up to six weeks.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah ahead of this weekend’s trip to Hartlepool United, Cooper said: “Planty has had a scan, his injury will take him past his loan, so he is back at Port Vale. He is going to be up to six weeks, so we will have to reassess when he is fit whether they will let him come back to us on loan or permanently, which we would love.”
The boss also confirmed that defender Alex Whittle, who missed last weekend’s fixture through injury, had been cleared to return to playing after a scan, but midfielder Sonny Blu Lo-Everton was still unavailable with a knee injury.
He also said that on loan Exeter City defender Ed James, who started and scored against Braintree, would be a doubt for the long trip to the North East with a hamstring injury. The teenager did play a full 90 minutes for his parent club in the Premier League Under-21s Cup on Wednesday night.
Cooper was also asked about rumours on social media that a number of players had been made available for transfer. He did not confirm or deny the rumours, but said he had to “rattle a few cages” amongst his players after the disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to local rivals W*ymouth which ended their FA Trophy campaign.
He said: “I’m really loyal to these players and give them lots of chances to play, we look after them and make sure they are well prepared. They know every detail and I love them all to bits, but I live and die by results.
“When you lose to W*ymouth in the manner we did, I have to rattle a few cages. I am not saying we did or did not put anyone on the transfer list, but I had to dig a few people in the ribs to make sure we came out fighting. Did that work? We won the game, got three points and showed a real tenacity.
“Whether people are on the transfer list or not, that is the club’s business, but I have said to the players that they have to keep doing whatever their job is in the team.
“If I was going to move players on it would be for the right reasons, like someone not getting enough game time, like we did with Dylan (Morgan) earlier in the season. There will be other players that need games and, if we did do it, that would be the reason.”
The manager said he was still looking to bring a striker to the club to take the pressure off top scorer Aaron Jarvis and Nouble, and revealed the club had tried to bring former loanee Ciaran McGuckin back to Huish Park on a permanent deal.
The Northern Ireland international scored twice in six appearances on loan from League One side Rotherham United before being recalled last month and EFL rules stipulate that he cannot return to Somerset following his recall.
Cooper added: “We would love to take Ciaran back, but he’s not available. We tried to make that a permanent deal, but he is at a really good football club and he has had some opportunities to play minutes in League One. I know the owner (Martin Hellier) would move heaven and Earth to get him back. We would love to have Ciaran back to give Jarv, Frank and all the boys who play at the top a bit of help.”
Yeovil make the almost 700-mile round trip to Hartlepool this weekend looking to extend their winning run in the National League Premier Division to three matches, but face a home side which is unbeaten in their last five matches
Pools sacked ex-Glovers’ boss Darren Sarll in October after just six months at the club and appointed former Cardiff City boss Lennie Lawrence in temporary charge before giving him the job until the end of the season. The 77-year-old has an impressive managerial CV, but his last frontline job was as caretaker boss at Crystal Palace in 2012.
Speaking about Lawrence, Cooper said: “Lennie Lawrence, what a career as a manager. He’s a lovely guy, he’s managed massive clubs and been a mentor for some really good managers.
“He is experienced and he will have people running about for him doing coaching bits. They have some real warriors and they have every right to get results at this level, but we have won our last two league games and we want to make it three.”
There is some doubt about whether Cooper will be in the dug-out at Victoria Park having been sent off as the second half was about to get underway in the 3-1 win over Braintree last weekend. The boss said he was confident the dismissal would be overturned, so he may be allowed to feature on Saturday if an appeal is pending.
He said: “I’m still reading through the report as to what I was meant to have done. I will respond to the FA because I think they have a couple of things wrong, but I am confident it will be overturned. If it takes me to be animated to get the players going to get three points, I will take the odd slap on the knuckles.”
One other topic of discussion in the manager’s Thursday press conference was the club’s exit from the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup on Wednesday night. Yeovil fielded a side made up entirely of members of their Under-18s’ side which went down 1-0 to an early first half penalty from Brandon Bak, a young striker on loan from Bristol City.
Cooper, who watched the game from the Huish Park stands, said: “It was virtually impossible to play any senior players because we have game in the North in 72 hours and, if they played last night, they would not be able to train today (Thursday) and prepare for Saturday.
“So we gave that game to Matt (Percival, Under-18s manager) and the youth set-up, Weston told us it would be their youth team and they went and played four or five players that are main first-team players, but (our youngsters) acquitted themselves well and a slight mistake for a penalty was the difference between the teams.“