Defender Jake Wannell will be available for Yeovil Town’s trip to Welling United this weekend having recovered from a hamstring injury.
The 29-year-old, who joined from National League South rivals Taunton Town in the summer, has missed the club’s last two matches – the FA Trophy exit at Torquay United and the league draw at Chippenham Town – with the injury he sustained in the 4-2 home win over Farnborough.
On-loan Bristol City defender Duncan Idehen has slotted in to the centre of defence alongside Morgan Williams for the past two games, but boss Mark Cooper confirmed on Thursday that he expects to have Wannell available for selection.
He said: “Jake Wannell is now fit. He had a scan yesterday and he trained today and hopefully he has no reaction tomorrow and he’ll be good to go on Saturday. That is a bonus for us because we thought it was going to be maybe four weeks, but he’s back. That gives us real strength in that department with us having Duncan (Idehen), so that is good news.”
Welling sit third-from-bottom of the division after a tricky start to the season, but are unbeaten at home since the start of September. They enjoyed success in the FA Trophy on Tuesday night, winning 8-7 on penalties against Taunton at Park View Road, where the Glovers had a spy up against them in the form of on-loan striker Malachi Linton, who scored one of Taunton’s spot kicks.
Cooper said: “He’s told us exactly what they thought, they have threats. We have done as much due diligence as we can and we will try and negate their threats, but when we do what we really do we take some stopping.”
The manager said the mood in the squad was good despite dropping two points on the road courtesy of an own goal from Morgan Williams in the 89th minute at Chippenham on Tuesday night. A attempted clearance from Idehen deflected off the unfortunate Williams and in to the net.
But, Cooper said his side let their opponents “off the hook” having missed a number of opportunities before substitute Jake Hyde put them ahead after 77 minutes in Wiltshire. They had 11 shots on target including nine in the first half alone.
The boss said: “When you play a team which gets everybody behind the ball and defends really deep, you have to take those chances because if you score then they have to come out and try and score. We let them stay in the game and when it’s 1-0 they always feel they have a chance and we let them off the hook.
“Duncan (Idehen) done fine in the games he has played. There is no problem defensively. The goal on Tuesday is a complete fluke, if you tried to re-enact it 1,000 times you would never be able to do it. But we were really wasteful at the other end of the pitch whether that was the finish, the selection of pass or the cross, we were really wasteful. It happens to the best teams, every team has days when it doesn’t go for them – but we still got a point.”