Yeovil Town are back at Huish Park looking to bounce back from Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at home to Welling United, their first of the season on home soil.
They take on a Chippenham Town side which suffered heartbreak in their match at the weekend going down to an injury time winner at Hampton & Richmond at the weekend.
The Bluebirds had taken an early lead through midfielder Tom Owens-Evans before being pegged back in the second half and then Alex Gibson-Hammond snatched the three points in the sixth minute of injury time.
Yeovil Town Team News
The big injury news for Yeovil Town is the anticipated absence of influential full-back Michael Smith, who was forced off after just 16 minutes at the weekend.
Manager Mark Cooper admitted the Northern Irishman would be “a doubt” for the midweek match and the question is who will replace him if he is, as expected, unavailable.
Jay Foulston, who spent the 2019-20 season on loan at Chippenham from Newport, came on to fill in on the right side of defence in what proved a difficult afternoon for him.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.
Will Dawes, who was not named on the bench against Welling having picked up a knock in the goalless draw at Aveley last Monday, is an option if he is available, as is captain Matt Worthington, who has filled in that position already this season.
Up front, on loan Bristol City youngster Olly Thomas came off the bench with some effect in the closing stages of Saturday’s loss and will be a consideration for a starting place. However, having only recently come back from injury himself, Cooper may decide it is too soon for him to be thrust in to the frontline.
Both Worthington and midfield colleague Charlie Cooper have now passed the cut-off point for a suspension for ten bookings, meaning their slates have now been wiped clean.
Chippenham Town Team News
Manager Gary Horgan said he believed his side more than matched fourth-placed Hampton & Richmond at the weekend, but admitted defeat was a bitter pill to swallow.
The boss is hoping that his side can pick themselves up as they go up against the National League South leaders.
Speaking after the game he said: “We always go in to games looking to win them. We have had a tough game here and put an awful lot in to it against a side with huge ambitions and we have more than matched them.
“We will try and do that again on Tuesday and see where we are in terms of bodies and everything else and then we will go there with no fear, as we always do.”
Midfielder Alex Bray has returned on the bench in recent weeks having had a spell on the sidelines with injury and could be in contention for a start, but defender Eddie Jones is still expected to be missing through injury.
Defender Nathaniel Williams is available to Horgan having sat out the last two games through suspension.
The Bluebirds sit in 16th place in the table and their form away from home is equally mid-table having won one, drawn one and lost two of their last four games on the road. The losses came on Saturday at Hampton and at Tonbridge Angels with a draw at in-form Slough Town on February 17th and at win at Dartford four days earlier.
We’ve met before
Back in November, a Jake Hyde goal gave Yeovil the lead in Wiltshire before an error from Jordan Maguire-Drew saw him gift Chippenham possession in the middle of the park.
The Bluebirds flew forwards and a header from on loan defender Duncan Idehen deflected off his defensive team-mate Morgan Williams to hand the home side a point.
Around the Grounds
In Tuesday night’s other matches, second-placed Chelmsford City face a tricky trip to a Maidstone United side with strong ambitions of securing a place in the play-offs.
Worthing will be looking to bounce back from a shock 3-1 defeat to Taunton Town at the weekend as they take on Farnborough.
Hampton host Welling United, still high from their successes at Huish Park, St Albans City travel to Weston-super-Mare, Braintree host Dartford and Bath City face off against Hemel Hempstead Town at Twerton Park.
Aveley snuck back in to the division’s final play-off spot at the expense of Bath with a 2-1 win at home to Tonbridge on Monday night.