If W*ymouth – who picked up a winning draw at Huish Park in the week if their fans’ reaction is anything to go by – were bang out of form facing Yeovil Town, this weekend’s opponents, Solihull Moors, are bang in form.
In their last four matches, they have P4 W4 D0 L0 and scored 15 goals without reply.
Now, for context, those wins came against National League North side Southport in the FA Trophy and then bottom club Dover Athletic, two late goals at Torquay United and then Altrincham who were down to ten men after 22 minutes, but Neal Ardley’s men arrive in Somerset on the crest of a wave.
A striker who knows a lot about this part of the South West – see below for his manager’s review of the Westcountry – is Andrew Dallas, another player in form.
The former W*ymouth loanee has got 11 goals in his last four games, including all five in the 5-0 win over Dover and a hat-trick against Southport, and alongside him is an experienced head in Danny Newton, a player Glovers’ boss Darren Sarll will know from their time together at Stevenage.
The visitors will be without midfielder Jimmy Ball who made the move in to the Football League with Rochdale on transfer deadline day last week.
Anyone who attended the away game at Damson Parkway may remember him being a booking – it was an ‘orange card’ – for retribution against Tom Knowles, who he presumably blamed for his team-mate Jordan Cranston being unable to keep his hands to himself.
The fact Ardley was substituted Ball minutes after the booking tells you the boss thought his man got away with one there.
FROM THE MANAGER
It would seem that Solihull manager Neal Ardley has no plans to take his summer holidays in the Westcountry given his review of his side’s last visit to this part of the world – a 2-0 midweek win at Torquay – and his thoughts on a return visit down the M5 on Saturday.
Speaking after his side made it two wins in two for the week against Altrincham last Saturday, Ardley said: “We don’t mind Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, but when you do that for two weeks running it’s quite tough physically and mentally.
“We’ll have a breather now and then we’ll start preparing for Yeovil because Yeovil away and Torquay away they are horrible, horrible places to go.”
Well, not sure we think an awful lot of the Jaguar Land Rover plant around your place either, Neal, but anyway!
However, the Moors’ boss made the point that his side need to pick up wins against the teams below them which they have done in their last three league games – Dover, Torquay and Altrincham – have lost to Stockport and Bromley, who were above them in the table, in the two before that run.
Ardley added: “If you can win the games that you are expected to win like these last two at home, and you’ve got to grind out the ones that are tough like Torquay away and Yeovil away and try and pick up points.
“Everyone has to play each other, teams like Notts County, Wrexham, Chesterfield and Stockport, everyone has to play everyone.
“In some we have come up short and in others, Boreham Wood and Halifax, we have won them, but you have to win these games to stay in there.”
TEAM NEWS
Two players who will certainly not be around to trouble Yeovil Town this weekend are striker Justin Donawa and defender Callum Howe, who are both long-term injury victims.
Donawa broke his leg just before Christmas and has undergone surgery whilst Howe has not featured since the start of December as he makes his way back from a long-term lay off.
Other than that, it’s a fairly clean bill of health available to Moors’ boss Neal Ardley going in to the weekend.
FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS
A striker either side will be hoping to rediscover their scoring touch against their old employers this weekend.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
In the green-and-white corner, Glovers’ striker Adi Yussuf has not found the net since his brace in an FA Trophy win over Woking in mid-December – sorry, Adi, we can’t give you the own goal against W*ymouth on Tuesday.
His record as a Solihull player is pretty similar to that for Yeovil – either excellent or average. In the 2018-19 season he scored 17 times as Moors reached the National League play-offs, earning him a move back in to the Football League at Blackpool where he failed to hit it off.
So much so, he was loaned back to Moors in September 2019, making his debut in a 1-0 defeat to Yeovil – the Luke Wilkinson 7/7 performance, yes – and managed just one goal in 11 appearances.
Equally, Adam Rooney‘s three-game loan spell at Huish Park in 2007 was equally anonymous.
He failed to pull up many trees in League One whilst on loan from Stoke City, but when on to be prolific north of the border with Inverness and then Aberdeen before repeating that form with Salford City.
He’s made 18 appearances this season, scoring three times, but his last goal was back at the start of December.
Other players with a foot in both camps include:
- Josh Neufville (Solihull – September 2019-January 2020; Yeovil – December 2020-June 2021)
- Wes McDonald (Solihull – 2018, Yeovil – 2018-2019)
- Jack Storer (Yeovil – 2017, Solihull 2017-18)
- Jake Edwards (Yeovil – 2003-04, Solihull – 2008-10)
- Lee Morris (Yeovil 2006-08, Solihull – 2011-2012)