Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper believes that another performance like the one his side showed on their last outing at Huish Park will see them end their winless run of five matches.
The Glovers host Dagenham & Redbridge, who sit two points and two places above them in the National League Premier table, on Saturday, having drawn 1-1 at against Aldershot Town at Huish Park last weekend.
Speaking ahead of the match, the boss said: “We played really well, creating some good chances and we were committed and I thought we deserved to win the game. If you are scraping 1-0 wins and not playing well, you are going to start losing game, but if you are performing like we are, with the spirit and commitment we have, we can go and win lots of games.
“It is just another game for us, you cannot win every game and you go through periods as a team where you do not win some games. It is (the media’s) job to make a thing out of it and it is my job to get the team to get performances and if we do that, the wins will come. But we are still picking up points and that is the main thing.”
Cooper said that full-back Alex Whittle was suffering from a shoulder injury sustained in the goalless draw at Sutton United and could be a doubt for the weekend. However, Bristol City loanee Raphael Araoye is back training with the side having been missing with a dead leg in recent matches. The towering defender played and scored for his parent club’s Under-21s on Monday.
Forward Harvey Greenslade is also back in training having been missing since the end of August with a shoulder injury. There was no update given on the fitness of either full-back Michael Smith (hamstring) or midfielder Josh Sims (knee), who were both involved in the pre-match warm-ups but not in the squad against Aldershot.
Cooper spoke highly of on-loan Port Vale winger James Plant, who joined on loan until January last weekend, and came on as a second half substitute for Whittle last weekend.
The manager said: “When a chance to get a player of James’ quality at our level, you have to try and get him. We have been chasing for a long time and we got the nod we could do it and he showed in his performance what an asset he can be. We had another young (loan player) in Ciaran (McGuckin) at the top of the pitch, who was very good and scored a great goal and set up two other brilliant chances for the other forwards.
“He has pace and he carries the ball, the other wide players we have are intricate players, but James is a runner and he complements the other players we have. We has two foot and can play on both sides either at full-back or down the wing, so he is a great acquisition.”
Dagenham fielded a much-changed side as they competed in their first outing in the National League’s pointless new competition designed as a fig leaf for the footballing authorities’ willingness to give in to the Premier League’s complaints of fixture congestion and scrap replays from the FA Cup first round onwards.
They drew 5-5 against Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s before ‘losing’ on penalties for an additional bonus point due to the ridiculous rules of a ridiculous new competition which benefits no-one other than the game’s richest sides.
Two players who have featured in the Daggers’ first-team, defender Christian N’Guessan and striker Reece Grego-Cox, both went off injured in the match. On Thursday, the Londoners announced the signing of Peterborough United’s transfer-listed central defender Romoney Crichlow, who has featured once for Posh this season having started last season as a highly-rated centre-back.
Cooper is not giving too much credence to the visitors’ exertions in midweek and predicting a tough match against a side which drew 1-1 at home to Solihull Moors last weekend, but have picked up just six points from their six matches on the road this season.
The Glovers’ boss said: “They changed a lot of their team and give minutes to some of the boys that needed it. Some of their starting players played as well, but I do not expect them to be any weaker or stronger. They have some good, experienced players and they can cause problems on their day with Junior Morais and Josh Umerah up front, they are a handful at this level.”