Yeovil Town are back at Huish Park after three matches away with Dagenham & Redbridge the visitors.
The original fixture was postponed when following Storm WhatsHerFace blowing half the county of Somerset away.
Not much has changed since then in truth, the Glovers still sit midtable, with plenty of very decent “all guts, no glory” performances and more draws than a large Ikea warehouse and Dagenham still flirt with the play offs.
The Daggers sit 10th, seven points behind Notts County who occupy the all important seventh spot.
In terms of actual form, the visitors have actually only picked up one more point than Yeovil in the last five games, a 3-0 win over Maidenhead last time out and a 1-1 draw vs Woking in that time.
The Glovers of course have been picking up stalemate points for fun; five of the last seven Yeovil games have ended all square.
Goals (or lack, thereof) has been the talking point at Huish Park, Dagenham don’t have that problem, 53 league goals this season, that’s not a million miles off double Yeovil’s tally of 28.
Only one has made double figures though, that is Paul McCallum, who scored when these sides met earlier in the campaign… a 1-0 win for Yeovil… it’s enough to make your brain hurt.
He got a brace when they last played, but that was a week ago, against Maidenhead, he and his team-mates had a Saturday off as the Glovers lugged it up to Nottingham and back to be pegged back at the death by Notts County.
FROM THE MANAGER
Daryl McMahon is all too aware of what awaits his side at Huish Park telling the Barking and Dagenham Post:
“Darren (Sarll’s) teams are hard to play against, they always are, they’re always aggressive. Going down to Yeovil is always a tough game, but it’s another game in this division we look forward to.”
Whilst club captain and former Glovers’ loanee Angelo Balanta said:
“Yeovil will be tough. They’re below us in the table but they gave us a good contest and made it tough for us.
“They’re very resilient the way they go about their business and defend their goal really well.
“I think it will be similar but we’ve got to do what we’ve been doing, performing well and hopefully get the result.”
TEAM NEWS
McMahon is hoping to welcome a couple key players back into the fold, including a name Glovers fans will recognise, he should have Angelo Balanta (calf) and Matt Robinson (concussion) back in contention this week.
A FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Yeovil Town captain Luke Wilkinson and midfielder Josh Staunton seems likely to be the only players with experience of playing for both sides starting this weekend.
The central defender played 65 times for Dagenham following his release by Portsmouth in 2010.
He had a couple of spells on loan at Boreham Wood and one at Dartford during his time at Victoria Road before departing for Luton Town in 2014.
Staunton arrived in Essex following his release by Gillingham in the summer of 2016 and made 37 appearances as they reached the Conference play-offs missing out to eventual winners Forest Green Rovers.
Despite playing in most positions in defence, Staunton was allowed to leave and joined Woking for the following season and then moved to FC Halifax Town from whom he joined Yeovil in summer 2020.
Another in the green-and-white corner is Lawson D’Ath, the playmaker working his way back to fitness after nine months out through injury.
He had a 21-game spell on loan in Essex in the 2013-14 season.
Likely to be missing through injury is the visitors’ talismanic forward Angelo Balanta who was an unused substitute in Yeovil’s 2-1 League One play-off final win over Brentford which secured promotion to the Championship in 2013.
If you’ve not heard it, check out our podcast with former Yeovil Town press officer Jimmy Healey for a great story about Balanta’s celebration – here.
The Colombian had a spell at Bristol Rovers, helping them out of the Football Conference in 2015, before moving to Carlisle United, Boreham Wood and eventually arriving at Dagenham in October 2018.
There is a possibility of seeing ex-Glovers’ midfielder Joey Jones who played the first half against Spennymoor last weekend before being replaced at half-time.
He spent his youth career at Arsenal and Leicester but having signed for Yeovil in 2013 after playing in a behind-closed-doors friendly he failed to make an appearance.
In January 2014, he was loaned out to Woking who he eventually joined permanently at the end of the season and when on to play 162 times for the Cards.
He arrived at Victoria Road, via Eastleigh and Salford City, in November 2020.
Other familiar faces to both sets of supporters include….
- Rhys Murphy – Dagenham (2013-15), Yeovil Town (2019-21)
- Mitch Brundle – Yeovil Town (2012-13), Dagenham (2019-21)
- Jake Howells – Yeovil Town – loan (2015), Dagenham (2017-18)
- Gavin Tomlin – Yeovil Town (2008-10), Dagenham (2010-12)
- Matt Harrold – Dagenham – loan (2004-05), Yeovil Town (2005-06)
- Kirk Jackson – Yeovil Town (2002-04), Dagenham – loan (2004)
- Paul Terry – Dagenham (1999-2003), Yeovil Town (2003-07)