Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley believes their latest pre-season opponents Wycombe Wanderers can set “a benchmark” for his side as they continue to prepare for the new National League campaign.
The Glovers lost 3-2 in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Saturday against a side which included a number of players with significant first-team experience with winger Mason Obeng and Luke McCormick on the scoresheet.
Wycombe’s starting XI including summer signing ex-AFC Bournemouth defender Steve Cook, who has more than 500 League appearances, as well as first-team players midfielders Luke Leahy and Josh Scowen and defender Dan Casey. Their scorers were Leahy, midfielder Caolan Boyd-Munce and striker Bradley Fink, who all played over 30 times in League One last season.
Speaking to the club’s social media after the match, Rowley said: “Every manager says the same after these games, you obviously want to win because there’s two goals and 22 players out there, so naturally we turn up to try to win. But, naturally when you try to share out minutes and build up a programme for all of these lads to be fit come Game 1 (of the new season), these second halves can look a bit broken, some of these boys play in positions they won’t throughout the season. Despite all of that we managed to stay on script, played some really good football and it was a good game for us.
“The level of sharpness we have seen from (the Wycombe) boys is a bit of an eye-opener and that is not me talking badly about any of our boys. That is a benchmark for us to get to, some of their organisation from pressing and defending was excellent, so this will be a great game for us to watch back and something we can learn and improve on.”
The Glovers’ starting XI was: Jos Barker, Jordan Norville-Williams, Joe Gubbins, Hayden Muller, Jack Kingdon, Mason Obeng, Zain Westbrooke, Johl Powell, James Daly, Luke McCormick, Slavi Spasov. At half-time, goalkeeping coach Matt Gould replaced Barker with Brett McGavin coming on for Westbrooke in midfield, then on 65 minutes defender Loick Ayina, wing-back Archie Davies and striker Stephen Walker replaced Kingdon, McCormick and Spasov.
There were two further changes before the end with Joy Mukena replacing Norville-Williams and Dan Ellison coming on for Gubbins with ten minutes remaining. There was no sign of any of the trialists which have featured in previous friendlies.
Being behind-closed-doors, we obviously had no eyes on the game and therefore the standard details around formations, performances are not possible, but Rowley spoke positively of the experience for his side.
He added: “There was some talk today about me adding some motivation for the lads because there was no crowd here, but I don’t think the game needed that, it had a bite to it. They are top professionals (at Wycombe) so they are never going to not do things properly and from minute one they pressed us aggressively and they looked at different ways to still get in. There’s loads for us to learn and improve on, but I thought it was a really good exercise.
“Both teams were trying to play, both teams left a lot of space behind them and when you do that you need up with other teams in on your goals a few times and they did that, as did we. But there was also some really good spells of control from both teams, it is going to be one of those games where we watch it back and learn loads and try to improve. I think maybe a handful of games in our league will look like this, but it was a really good work out against a side at the level that a lot of our lads want to get to.”
There was praise for winger Obeng who has impressed in pre-season since stepping up two levels of the football pyramid having joined from Southern League side Walton & Hersham in the summer.
Rowley said: “The lads have really taken to Mason, he has had a rapid climb in these last few years and he did not look out of place at all today. One things he does not get enough credit for is his work out of possession, he is so sharp and agile, his defensive shape is good, he presses well and that ends up creating a lot of counter attacks for us and him to be involved in. He took his goal excellently and he was one of our better players today, but there was a lot of really good performances.”
The pre-season campaign rolls on to National League South side Farnham Town on Tuesday night. They were beaten 2-0 by EFL new boys Rochdale on Saturday and will provide a different type of test for Yeovil as they build up to the opening National League fixture of the new season at Scunthorpe United on August 8th.
Rowley said: “I am really positive about (the new season), as I have been since the first training session, I think we have a really good group, their ability and attributes are exactly what we wanted and their characters are good. Pre-season is a bit fake because you are not having to leave anyone out of squads, you have not lost two games in a row, and that is when you see different parts of people’s characters. For these past four weeks, I think the changing room is a good one and it will get better the more they get to know each other.“