Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said he is still looking to boost his squad with further first-team members carrying knocks in to Tuesday night’s trip to Woking.
The Glovers added striker Millar Matthews-Lewis on loan from Burton Albion last Friday and the boss admitted he is continuing to hammer the phone in a bid to strengthen further.
He revealed that on loan midfielder Dakari Mafico is carrying “a slight knock” and central defender Joy Mukena had a hamstring issue following the 2-1 loss at Boston United on Saturday.
Asked on Monday whether he hoped to add to his squad further, Rowley said: “Behind the scenes we’re working literally 24/7. The phone doesn’t stop ever, trying to find the right players, trying to find players that can help this current squad. We’ve lost a lot of players in recent months for a variety of reasons: injury, transfers, people having to almost even retire from football.
“We’re thin at the moment, we’re not as deep as we want to be, so we are looking, but in mid-March it is so difficult to find players. So we’re just going to keep working on that and see what we can do.“
The trip to Woking pits the Glovers, who have lost their last two National League Premier Division fixtures, against a side which unbeaten in their last four matches under the caretaker charge of a management team including former Yeovil players, Dale Gorman and Jake Hyde.
The Cards have an in-form striker in loanee striker Olly Sanderson who has five goals in his last four matches having joined from Premier League Fulham, where Rowley coached earlier in his career and the Glovers’ boss is well aware of his talents.
He said: “We’re going to have to just be the best version of us (to get anything from this game). We’re going to go out and work on some out-of-possession stuff (in training) today to really understand how and when to get the ball back. Then when we’ve got it, we’ve got to be good, but I do feel like there’s spells in games where we are looking good in possession and we are getting to the other team’s final third quite often. We just obviously need to capitalise on that and start scoring some goals.“
Striker Matthew-Lewis managed 12 goals for Hemel Hempstead Town in National League South in the first half of this season, earning him a move to the EFL with Burton, but has not played since the end of January. The 21-year-old appeared as an 78th-minute substitute in the defeat at Boston United.
Rowley said: “With Miller, it’s just going to be about trying to get him up to speed. You have got to make decisions with new players, if you throw them in from the start of the game when the game is fast and they’re not fully match fit, they’re obviously likely to blow up quite early. Or you bring in players when the game’s a bit slower and tired legs, it’s probably more suited for that to him at the moment. But look, team hasn’t been picked for tomorrow. We need to continue looking into Woking and how we’re going to attack them, so we’ll see if he gets a start (on Tuesday).“