Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper has said he is confident that goals will come for his side after they continued their pre-season friendly campaign with a 2-1 win at Sherborne Town on Wednesday night.
The Glovers came from 1-0 down in the second half in front of 965 fans at a sweltering Raleigh Grove with goals from defenders Morgan Williams and Jake Wannell securing the victory following a 1-0 win in their first friendly at Exmouth Town four days earlier.
Last season, they scored 51 goals in 46 league games making them the joint second-lowest scorers in the National League Premier Division.
Speaking to the club’s own social media after the match at Sherborne, Cooper said: “All you can do is keep creating chances, but at the minute it is about fitness and getting our positioning right. That will come with the players we have got, we will start converting those chances.
“It is really difficult because the pitches are really dry and sticky at the minute and it is hard to get the ball moving and it suits a team that is lower down the pyramid because they can get bodies behind the ball. When the sun went down and there was a little bit of dew on the ground, we were able to move the ball really quickly in the second half. We conceded a rubbish goal but when a team puts ten or eleven men behind the ball to break it down, but we were okay in the second half.
“I was pleased-ish with the second half, but as on Saturday (in the 1-0 win at Exmouth Town) we should have scored more and we should have scored more tonight but if you give a team the chance to sit behind the ball and give them a soft goal it is difficult. I think it is important that we try and support the local community in terms of playing these games, but we need them to get some water on the pitch and get a referee that wants the game to flow. Everyone has come to see football, not the referee blow his whistle, but I suppose he needs time to get the rustiness out as well.”
Yeovil started the match against the Wessex League Premier Division side, who play four tiers below them, with a young side including trialists ex-Swindon Town academy striker Abu Kanu, Plymouth Parkway forward Kieran Edworthy, and midfielder Teo Kurtaran, who was playing in Polish football last season. You can read more about the background of these trialists – here.
They were joined in the starting XI by Under-18s players defender Corey Koerner, midfielder Ollie Hughes as well as first-team players goalkeeper Matt Gould, defenders Kyle Ferguson and Finn Cousin-Dawson, midfielders Josh Sims and Lewys Twamley and striker Harvey Greenslade. There were nine changes at the break with trialist ex-Bristol Rovers’ midfielder Luke McCormick among those introduced.
However, it was Sherborne who took the lead in the 53rd minute before Williams and Wannell scored to prevent red faces caused by something other than the warm weather for Yeovil.
Cooper said that he had rested striker Tahvon Campbell, who scored the only goal at Exmouth four days earlier, due to the hard pitches along with trialist Jevani Brown, the former Bristol Rovers and Exeter City striker, who played in the first friendly.
The manager said: “The biggest bonus is we got through the game without any niggles. We rested Tav tonight with everything being so hard, his knee was a bit sore, Jev(ani Brown) had a little knock so we rested both of them, but we got through without any niggles. First half we played a younger team and some trialists and it was a bit slow and lacked some tempo and in the second half, even though we conceded a sloppy goal we played a lot better and should have scored some more.”
Yeovil travel to face National League South opposition in Chippenham Town in their third friendly on Saturday with the weather predicted to hit 30 degrees in Wiltshire by kick-off at 2pm.
Cooper said: “The weather is going to be 30 degrees for the next five days, so we have to try and deal with that because we are playing at 2pm on a Saturday. Hopefully there will be some water on the pitch and it is not too hard, but we will look forward to that.“
Where are the goals going to come from?
See that the excuses have started already. Mr Cooper said the pitch was really dry and sticky!! Can it be both? Oh yeah “sticky ” must be due to all the bull…t pouring out of Mr Cooper’s ???? New owners please get rid before it’s too late
New season, same post match.
Cooper doesn’t put bums on seats. Horrid style of football.
Watched last nights match and was very very boring. Normal service resumed! Already.
Football is classified as entertainment industry. Style of football played isn’t entertainment.
Mhm what goals? After the penalty Tav took earlier i don’t see many goals coming from him and we can’t just rely on Jarvis and Jevani for goals we need more hungry for goal strikers