Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper said he has no concerns about his side’s home record as they prepare for their tenth game of the new season this weekend.
The Glovers have four points from their opening five National League Premier matches at Huish Park, the fourth-lowest points total in the division, but have the third-best away record in the division having got three wins and one defeat on their travels.
They head to Oldham Athletic to face a side which have also only won once in front of their home crowd this weekend looking to extend their impressive form away from home.
Speaking about the home form on Thursday, the manager said: “We have gone up a division and it is a massive jump, which we knew it would be. We thought we deserved to win against Altrincham on Saturday, it was probably our best all-round performance.
“We have had a solid start and if you add another two or three points to our total it is a really good start, so I do not want to make a big thing out of (the home form). We are not bothered where we win the points, we just want to win them.
“It is a utopia to win home and away and we have teams that come here and know that if they do not concede in the first 20 minutes, sections of the crowd will get agitated and it becomes more difficult.”
The boss was speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday ahead of the announcement of the signing of young Rotherham United striker Ciaran McGuckin which came out at 6pm on the same day.
The only absentees will be injured forward Harvey Greenslade and on-loan Bristol City defender Raphael Araoye who has been missing since coming off with a dead leg in the win at Boston United three weeks ago.
Cooper said the Glovers were still waiting to get an update from Ashton Gate about the 19-year-old’s fitness and was asked if he would have to consider an alternative signing if the absence continued, he replied: “Possibly.”
Oldham won 3-1 away at Woking last weekend having picked up five draws and one defeat in their previous six matches and will be looking to use that victory to lift them as they look for their first victory at Boundary Park since an opening day win over newly-promoted Braintree Town.
The Latics are managed by the experienced Micky Mellon who played alongside Glovers’ boss Cooper when the pair were at Bristol City at the start of their playing careers in the the late 1980s.
The Yeovil manager said: “When the fixtures come out, you look for games like Oldham away because you know it will be a great atmosphere and a really good game of football.
“I played with Micky as a young boy at Bristol City in the 1980s, he has a great managerial career and won promotions with Fleetwood and Tranmere. We have beaten each other in the play-offs, so there is a lot of respect there. Micky will play to win. They have a squad of players that are probably above the level and at a club like Oldham they know they have to win games of football, otherwise the crowd at not happy – similar to Yeovil.
“I think they will be grounded and they will know it is early in the season because if you put a couple of wins together and you are in the play-offs. We are only a point off the play-offs and the world is going to end in Yeovil apparently. They will be aware they have had a decent start.”
The Glovers failed to score in their last two outings, a 1-0 defeat against Solihull Moors and last weekend’s goalless draw at home to Altrincham, having netted seven times in a 3-1 win at Boston and a 4-3 success at AFC Fylde in their previous two matches.
Cooper said: “We scored seven goals in two games at Boston and Fylde and we kept the same forwards for the Solihull game and didn’t spark at all. I should have freshened the team up (against Solihull) but when you have the euphoria of winning late on at Fylde you think that momentum will carry you through and it didn’t. I should have changed something and freshened something up, so I learnt something there. The longer the forwards play together, the connections will get better.”
The boss also said that he had learned a lesson from his decision to rest a number of players for the FA Trophy tie at Torquay United with his side on a run of 14 wins in all competitions last November.
Asked whether he would consider resting players for upcoming cup competitions this season, Cooper said: “I will pick the team that will win games of football in every game I play. I learned last year that we had a terrific run of 14 games unbeaten and then we decided we needed to rest one or two for the Torquay game in the FA Trophy and we got beat. I don’t think I would do that this year, I will try and get as many people out there as I can which drives competition because people know they are not going to just get a game because you feel sorry for them. They have to earn the opportunity and when they do it get, they have to take it and I think that has to be the starting point to getting a really competitive group.”
This season, the Glovers enter the FA Cup at the fourth qualifying round stage with ties played on October 12, and the FA Trophy in the third round at the start of December.