Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley said he is hoping that injury and illness to midfielder Dakari Mafico and defender Joy Mukena will allow his side to play a more simple game as they take on Woking tonight.
Cardiff City loanee Mafico has returned to his parent club for treatment on an Achilles injury whilst Mukena woke up on Tuesday morning suffering from flu and is only among the substitutes in Surrey.
The lack of depth in the Glovers’ squad is underlined by the appearance of the ill defender alongside two under-18s players, defender Jaydon Biss and midfielder Ollie Hughes, for a fixture where Yeovil are looking to pick up much needed league points.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins ahead of kick-off, Rowley said: “We have simplified how we are going to do things and I really feel the boys are in a good place and the reaction (to the defeat at Boston) has been positive, obviously it means nothing as we have got to go out there and deliver and run and fingers crossed that at 10pm it has been a good night for us.
“We are going to defend in a back four when we are out of possession. Joy (Mukena) has woken up with the flu, so we only have three recognised centre backs although Finn (Cousin-Dawson) is going to be playing in midfield tonight. We are low on numbers at the minute and injury and illness has not been too kind to us, but the changes might be a good thing to reset a couple of ideas and principles and we have made the game plan a little easier tonight.”
The Glovers go in to the fixture seven points adrift of the National League Premier Division relegation places, albeit with at least one game in hand of every team below them, and looking to turn around back-to-back defeats and get the necessary points to survive.
Asked if he was confident they could do it, Rowley said: “I am confident. We have had a very turbulent season, I say ‘we’, I have only been here three months, but the lads have had a turbulent season. I am the fourth manager which has stood here and probably bored people every week, but it has been a very tricky season. It is not easy having four different managers and being asked to do four different things, play multiple different shapes, those are not excuses, that is facts and reality. No successful team in world football would have that and we need to fight for every point we can and we are going to do that. I am confident we will do that and hopefully get a decent time to rest, reset and come back for what I am sure will be a much better season next season.”
The manager also revealed that Mafico had been forced to turn down the chance to link up with Wales’ Under-21s squad due to the injury.
He said: “Dak has got tendonitis in his Achilles. Sadly for us, we heard a few days ago that he was going to be missing for three games due to a Wales (Under-21s) call-up which is great for him, sad for us. Injury has kept him out of that international call-up, so he has gone back to Cardiff for the next week and, as much as it would have been great for him to go on an international camp, he was going to miss three games for us. It might mean now if we can help him with this Achilles problem, he might only miss two games for us.“