On loan defender Ben Radcliffe has ruled himself out of Yeovil Town’s fixture at Southend United after feeling a re-occurrence of a hamstring injury which has troubled him in his career.
The 22-year-old has impressed since signing joining from Crawley Town on a deal until January and was taken off early in the second half of the 3-2 home win over Tamworth on Monday.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Mark Stillman ahead of kick-off in Essex on Saturday, Yeovil manager Billy Rowley said: “Sadly Radders pulled up with an injury a couple of days ago. We were unsure if he’d play, and this morning that he’s kind of ruled himself out. He’s had some hamstring issues in the past, so he knows the feeling it gives him and we’ve decided not to take that risk on him.“
The Glovers have brought defenders Archie Davies and Jordan Norville-Williams back in to the starting line-up after they began on the bench on Monday. Defender Jack Kingdon, who has not featured in the squad for the past couple of matches, is named on the bench at Southend.
The lunchtime kick-off sees two sides who have started the season well face off. Southend have lost just one of their opening five fixtures whilst Yeovil have made an unbeaten start to the new campaign with three wins and two draws in their start.
Asked what kind of a game he was expecting, Rowley added: “I think there’s gonna be a lot of good footballers on show, a lot of talent. There are plenty of players that can hit different types of passes – diagonal passes, rapped balls into strikers – so So I think for a supporter that likes the tactical side of the game, I think it’s gonna be a really enjoyable watch. I don’t know if it’s gonna be super end-to-end, I think it’ll be a little bit more, little bit more chess than cat and mouse but with a lot of technique on show.
“We’re playing against a team that finished in the play-offs last season in front of their home support, but why not come here and try and spoil the party and play our way? We don’t want to come here and just survive and sit in and be boring. We want to try and get after them and upset them.“