Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said that forward James Daly is “fresh” for tonight’s visit to FA Trophy finalists Southend United.
The forward, who has seven goals this season including two in his last three outings, was a second half substitute in the 2-1 defeat at Gateshead at the weekend, but has been brought back in to the starting XI in Essex.
He is joined by Southampton Under-21s loanee Will Merry, who appeared as a 62nd minute substitute on Saturday, in the line-up. The pair replace Millar Matthews-Lewis, who is named on the bench, and the suspended Finn Cousin-Dawson.
Speaking about the changes to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins ahead of kick-off, Rowley said: “The plan was to rest James Daly in the first half at Gateshead, he got through ridiculous running distance at Wealdstone (last Wednesday), even when we were down to ten men he was acting like two players for us. He was really tight and tender on Saturday, so we felt it would be stupid to wheel him out against Gateshead and in this game and on Friday (against Truro City), so we decided to pick the Gateshead game as a rest for JD with an eye on getting him fresh. He is fresh, he feels good tonight and will be ready to go.
“Will comes in for a debut, I liked what I saw from Will at the weekend. He is a technical footballer who has grown up in a great academy at Southampton, he carries the ball superbly and is a good athlete. I feel like on this pitch and with the way Southend are quite front-footed and are going to put us under pressure, we need people who can not only run in behind but carry the ball well and he is definitely one of those.”
Southend are sat in the National League Premier Division’s final play-off place with games in hand over the teams around them and will be on a high having booked a place at Wembley in the Trophy final with a win at Southport, the team which put the Glovers out in the quarter-finals, at the weekend.
Asked whether the high of success would work in his side’s favour tonight, Rowley added: “We will see. We both had similar travel at the weekend and had a similar type of game and had similar rests. We had a couple of good results before Saturday and I feel we are in good spirits in terms of clarity and shape, we are trying to keep things as straightforward as we can.
“We are coming up against a team (in Southend) which has play-off calibre players, they have a big squad, good manager, so this is going to be a very difficult game, probably one of our toughest in recent months. We are going to have to be at our best to get anything here, but I have a good feeling we could be at our best.
“We have a good group of lads who have been through a lot of turmoil this season. I am the fourth manager who has stood in front of them trying to motivate them, but I can honestly say they are good professionals. Regardless of the game, they are trying to run and trying to win. Sometimes we perform well and sometimes we don’t, that is natural, but we are looking for whether we can work really hard and can we play well tonight.“