It’s fair to say since Yeovil Town and Wealdstone played out a 2-2 draw in Huish Park’s first competitive match of the season, things have not exactly gone as expected for either side.
For our hosts on Saturday, a bright start saw them win five of their first nine fixtures following promotion from National League South last summer, only to quickly peter out.
After a 1-0 win at Halifax Town in early November, they lost eight of their next 13 matches in all competitions and lost boss Dean Brennan, who guided them to promotion, in acrimonious circumstances.
He left under a cloud accusing chairman Rory Fitzgerald of making his position “untenable” after failing to get a deal he said he was promised when he turned down a chance to leave for an unnamed “very ambitious club.”
Stuart Maynard, who was Brennan’s assistant last season, took permanent charge and, to add injury to insult, shortly after the club chose to furlough players in a bid to stay solvent.
The result has been a dismal second half of the season which leaves them languishing third from bottom of the table.
They have suffered four consecutive defeats, including a 7-2 defeat against Hartlepool and a 6-0 hammering by Maidenhead United in their last two home games.
FROM THE MANAGER
Speaking after a 2-0 loss at Aldershot Town last weekend, manager Stuart Maynard described his players as “dead on their feet” and said the squad was “down to bare bones”.
He added: “There’s nothing we can do, it’s not that the players are giving up or ‘throwing the towel in’ at all, they are giving everything for the club and don’t have any more left.
“You look at other clubs and they can change it, we don’t have that luxury so we have to keep going with the lads, we will keep working hard as a group.
“We will keep going collectively and we will give our all for the football club from now until the end of the season.”
TEAM NEWS
Wealdstone could see the return of defender Riley Harbottle and goalkeeper George Shelvey, both on loan from Championship side Nottingham Forest, who have both missed the last two games through injury.
Craig Fasanmade, who is on loan from National League South side Hungerford Town, is also likely to return o after completing his three-match suspension.
However defenders Nikola Tavares, George Langston and Josh Meekings are all out and forward Dennon Lewis picked up a knock in Saturday’s defeat to Aldershot which makes him a doubt.