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Yeovil Town midfielder Josh Staunton has said that whilst a play-off charge is unlikely (but not impossible), it was still up to the group to find the motivation to finish the season strongly.

“I think it comes down to us as a group of players, with the manager, we are not going to be allowed to sit on our laurels and just float through the end of the season.”

“We’ve had a difficult run in ourselves, where we haven’t produced result like we wanted to, even if sometimes the performances have been really good.”

“It’s now a case in pride is us as a group and finish as high up the table as we can and you never know, in this league, if you can put a run together like we did before Christmas, maybe we can make a really late challenge. But I think it comes down to pride, we have to go out there in every game with the intent to win and take club as high up the table as we can, finish the season positively and that gives us a way to carry it through to next season.”

With regards to Saturday’s game against Grimsby, who are themselves flirting with the play-offs, Staunton thinks that it could act as a catalyst for a positive run.

“Every game at this level is hard, as we’ve seen… we played well when we went up to Grimsby, we just couldn’t score.

“It was probably the start of our good run, Grimsby away (Editor Note: we went 11 unbeaten after) so I think we go into it with positive thoughts, we played well against them last time, we were just lacking goals, if we can get an early one, it’ll change the atmosphere around the place, atmosphere in the dressing room and some of that belief might come back.”

There was no question about his ongoing hernia problem which was referenced after the game on Tuesday, but the fact that Sam got him to do press duty suggests he should be fine for the game.

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The victory over Yeovil Town at Blundell Park in October appears to have been the worst thing that could have happened to Grimsby Town.

A penalty from striker Lennell John-Lewis, who has now been loaned out to York City, and a late second from strike partner John McAtee kept the Mariners top of the National League.

But, following that result, they won just one of the next 11 matches including seven league defeats and exits from both the FA Cup – at the hands of lower league Kidderminster Harriers – and the FA Trophy.

In comparison, the defeat on the east coast sparked Yeovil who turned a run of eight games without a win in to an unbeaten streak.

A defeat at a resurgent Southend United blotted Grimsby’s otherwise decent looking copybook having picked up wins at home to Aldershot and Woking and away at Dover.

The loss on Essex was their eighth of the season, a stark comparison from their form at home where no other team has picked up more points than the Mariners.

FROM THE MANAGER

Speaking to Grimsby Live about his side’s struggles on the road manager Paul Hurst said:

“The away form is obviously not as good as our home form, I think that’s quite normal for most teams.

“More so, it was that period where it was a difficult run of games for us where we weren’t even picking up draws when we should’ve taken something from a lot of the games.

“That’s what I would look at [as the reason for being outside the play-offs] but we’ve still got lots to play for. We said prior to the game that, irrespective of the result tonight, there’s still lots to play for and the season isn’t going to be defined this evening.

“I did say we’ve got a couple of really tough away games, I think I’d forgot that there was another one after the next one.

“The travel doesn’t make it easy but we’ve got to lick our wounds, we can’t change tonight’s results but what we can do is go to Yeovil and hopefully put on a performance that will warrant three points.”

TEAM NEWS

Striker Ryan Taylor is hoping to make his return from injury in the trip to Huish Park.

The former Plymouth Argyle man has not played since the middle of February having returned to training last week.

However, on loan Aston Villa midfielder Arjan Raikhy seems likely to miss out after limping off in the win at Dover Athletic at the end of last month.

He joins local lad Max Wright in the treatment room along with creative midfielder Jordan Maguire-Drew, who was on the bench against Southend in midweek and could feature.

 

A FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS

There’s a striker apiece with history in their opponents’ dressing room for this weekend’s fixture.

Yeovil Town frontman Adi Yussuf spent the second half of the 2016-17 at Blundell Park having been released by Mansfield Town, scoring twice in 11 times before departing to Barrow.

Tristan Abrahams during his loan spell at Huish Park in 2019.

Whereas in the Mariners’ squad, Tristan Abrahams is on loan from Carlisle United and had a 15-game loan spell at Huish Park in the ill-fated 2018-19 season, scoring just three times as Yeovil exited the Football League.

In the Mariners’ camp is also forward Joel Grant who was part of Gary Johnson’s squad in our Championship season in 2013-14 and stuck around for the ill-fated plunge through League One in 2014-15.

He departed to be a fan-funded acquisition for Exeter City before spending time with Plymouth and Swindon Town, where he was last season before joining Grimsby in the summer.

But, injury has blighted his season and he’s been put up for loan but, speaking last month, manager Paul Hurst said there had been no interest in the Jamaican international.

Other honourable mentions for having spent time with both clubs are late Yeovil Town legend Stuart Housley who played 34 times in five years at Grimsby in the 1960s before moving to Huish.

The Doncaster-born winger had two spells as a player with the Glovers followed by holding just about every other role at the club before sadly passing away earlier this year.

Phil Jevons, a hero of our Football League heyday, joined us from Grimsby Town where he was similarly popular having scored 18 times in 63 appearances between 2001 and 2004.

Still doesn’t hold a candle to his record of 42 in 84 matches in green and white. What a player!

Others who have a foot in both camps:

  • Terrell Forbes
  • Russell Slade
  • James Tilley
  • Rhys Browne
  • James Berrett
  • Diallang Jaiyesimi
  • Jordan Cook
  • Mitch Rose – yes, he’s bottom of the list for a reason.

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Ian and Dave are joined Sheridan Robins to talk about our double header at Huish Park. Apologies in advance for talking about Dagenham, but we talked about HerGameToo and the visit of Grimsby on Saturday. We also welcome @DN35 Podcast to tell us all about the Mariners and, of course, the quiz.

Thanks for listening!

Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news from Huish Park.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook, enjoy some retro content on Instagram. Leave us a review and share the pod with a pal.

WANT TO ADVERTISE ON THE GLOVERSCAST? Send us an email for our rate card.

If you want to take part in the quiz, have an idea for the website or just want to send us a message, email ian@gloverscast.co.uk

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Yeovil Town 4 Bristol Rovers 0 – Saturday 13th March 2004

When Yeovil first entered the Football League, there always seemed to be a much more tasty atmosphere to games against Bristol Rovers than Bristol City, never mind Torquay or Swindon or any of the other relatively ‘local’ games we played. Maybe it was because we were seen as upstarts, for many years the little non-league club down the road that they could pat on the head and patronise, but suddenly in 2003 we were promoted and started to get ideas a bit above our station.

Yeovil’s elevation to the Football League came at a very low time for Bristol Rovers, often the poorer cousins of the Bristol clubs. In what is now the Championship as recently as 1993, they spent a few seasons in the third tier before being relegated again to the basement division in 2001. League performances continued to worsen, as they finished 23rd in 2002 only above relegated Halifax Town, and in 2003 escaped by the skin of their teeth, finishing three points above relegation thanks to a run of ten points from their last four games. They were a long way from the club who had been home to so many great strikers down the years, such as Jason Roberts, Barry Hayles and our very own Marcus Stewart. They’ve been a somewhat nomadic club in recent times, leaving Eastville in 1986 to share Twerton Park with Bath for a number of years. They returned to Bristol in 1996 to share the Memorial Stadium with Bristol Rugby Club, which led to the pitch tending to not be in the best of condition when we played them. The rugby club left to share with City at Ashton Gate in 2014, and since then frequent rumours of development or possible relocation to a new stadium have not materialised.

The very old school Ray Graydon had come in to manage in 2002, but was not well liked for his negative brand of football and he was eventually sacked in January 2004, not long after Yeovil won the first ever league meeting between the two sides at the Mem in December. The match that was perhaps not of the highest quality was settled by a moment of brilliance from Nick Crittenden. That wasn’t the first competitive match between the two clubs though, as they had met in the Football League Trophy (at that time sponsored by LDV) in October 2001, during the brief experimentation of inviting Conference clubs to take part. Despite being in the early days of Gary Johnson’s management Yeovil gave the Gas a pretty good game, taking the lead through McIndoe in the first half. Rovers equalised with a penalty conceded by Chris Weale in the second half, before the game went to extra time and penalties. The Glovers did take a surprisingly good set of penalties from Stansfield, Lockwood, Giles (in off the post) and Crittenden, before McIndoe blasted the last one over the bar and Yeovil were out. But it was an entertaining game which gave a good idea of what Yeovil might be up against should they get promoted, at a time when they were very much a work in progress – the next two games were dismal defeats at home to Chester and away at Southport, probably the low point of the season.

By March 2004, Phil Bater was in caretaker charge. Despite being in relative mid-table and having sacked Graydon, Rovers were in terrible form, with only one win in the last ten. Yeovil had been in patchy form since Christmas, with three defeats out of the last four, and were struggling a bit to find the right combination up front to hurt better League Two defences, but on the day were far too strong for the visitors and it was a fairly comfortable win in front of a full house. In a potentially tense atmosphere, nerves were settled early on as a Terry Skiverton shot from a quickly-taken free kick cannoned back off the bar, with the rebound stabbed home by Adam Lockwood. Rovers lost their composure and realistically the game was probably over when midfielder Graham Hyde managed to get himself booked twice in the same incident, first committing a foul on El Kholti, then shoving Lee Johnson, arguing with the ref about the decision and giving a lot of abusive gestures as he was dragged off the pitch, mostly seemingly aimed at Johnson.

Just before half time, Abou El Kholti made it 2-0 with a speculative shot deflected in off Darren Way. Immediately after half time, Gavin Williams made it 3-0 with a goal in front of the away fans. Although he mis-controlled the ball at first from Gall, he showed great composure and skill to dig the ball out under pressure from several defenders and beat the keeper. Towards the end Colin Pluck made it 4-0 with a header from a Paul Terry cross, and made it clear with a universally understood gesture that he could not hear what the Rovers fans were saying to him. If there were any two players who would have enjoyed scoring in front of the away fans, it would have been Williams and Pluck.

The following season, there was more needle to be enjoyed when Rovers employed Ian Atkins, an old adversary of Gary Johnson’s since their days together at Cambridge. The two managers could not possibly be more different – Gary Johnson, who likes to play attractive passing football and treats his players like sons, compared to Ian Atkins who is the kind of manager usually brought in to save teams from relegation and acts like a sullen sergeant major. The rivalry between the two teams intensified as Atkins, fresh from two fairly decent seasons at Oxford, turned Rovers into a much better team who led League Two towards the start of the season. However, disciplinary problems cost them, as the club with the worst disciplinary record in the division racked up the red cards and suspensions, including two – which could, and should, have been more – in an infamous night at the Memorial Stadium in October 2004.

In the much-anticipated return fixture in February 2005, Atkins would accuse Yeovil plays of diving ahead of the game, claiming that nobody likes them and Gary Johnson doesn’t have the ‘bottle’ to get a team promoted, and then on the day was strangely struck down with a mysterious virus and was unable to take charge of the team as they lose heavily again, this time 4-2 as the Glovers consolidated their position at the top of League Two. The whereabouts of Ian Atkins’ bottle remains unknown.

An interesting footnote to the 2004 game is that the starting line-up that day consisted entirely of players who had appeared for Yeovil in the Conference, which was possibly a deliberate move from Johnson who even employed the same 3-4-1-2 formation he had mostly used in that title-winning season, with Lindegaard and El Kholti as wing backs as opposed to the 4-4-2 that the Glovers generally employed in League Two. That they were able to beat a mid-table side so comfortably that they could just pass amongst themselves for the last 30 minutes shows just how far ahead of the Conference his team were.

Since the departures of Gary Johnson and Ian Atkins, the atmosphere between the two clubs has been less fiery, and subsequent meetings have resulted in quite a lot of draws. Low point was probably when Gavin Williams scored the winner against us in a 1-0 Rovers win at Huish Park in 2011, and high point was definitely Terrell Forbes scoring a late winner with his only goal for the club at the Mem in 2009.

Team that day: Steve Collis, Andy Lindegaard (sub. Paul Terry 71), Colin Pluck, Terry Skiverton (sub. Hugo Rodrigues 64), Adam Lockwood, Darren Way, Lee Johnson, Abou El Kholti (sub. Simon Weatherstone 90), Gavin Williams, Kirk Jackson, Kevin Gall. Subs not used: Jon Sheffield, Adam Stansfield

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It was another disappointing night at Huish Park as Yeovil Town collapsed to a 3-0 defeat against Dagenham & Redbridge to leave them third from bottom of the home form table over the last six National League games.

Ian was on BBC Somerset co-commentary duty for the evening and here’s how he saw it…

We were masters of our own downfall. The positive of our season so far has our security at the back and the strength of our defence. We let an in-form Paul McCallum have freedom of the six yard box and didn’t close down the cross with any determination after just 6 minutes of the match. That’s not a character-trait of this side so it was unusual. To then concede a 2nd goal and in such ridiculously poor circumstances quarter of an hour later meant the game was over before half time. We know we have issues in the final third, and we haven’t scored two goals in a game since November. We shot ourselves in the foot and it felt like the players on the pitch knew the game was gone.

Striker Olufela Olomola.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

We struggled going forward again. We welcomed Olufela Olomola back to the starting line-up, but it was that familiar story of a lack of service. Conceding so early meant we were chasing the game but we never seemed to have cohesion going forward. Charlie Wakefield and Tom Knowles seemed out of sync (and totally exhausted), the midfield trio of Josh Staunton, Dale Gorman and Alex Bradley looked like the new combination that it is and never really clicked. We brought Lawson D’Ath on at 2-0 to bridge that gap between the midfield and the attack and attempt to claw back the deficit. Unfortunately, three minutes later we’re asleep on a quick throw and Dagenham put the game beyond doubt, although it was already.

Dagenham & Redbridge nailed it tactically. From kick off they applied pressure to our defenders whenever we had the ball. It took us quite a few goal kicks to cotton on to the fact that they weren’t going to let us play out from the back. Every time Josh Staunton picked up the ball from a defender there we two red-shirts on him looking to force the mistake, and they did repeatedly. At 2-0 they knew their work was done and when we did have the ball in their half, they let us keep it, perhaps knowing that we’d struggle to break their solid back line down. All in all, it was a comfortable night for Dagenham.

I’m not sure where we go from here. The last three results have cemented that we’re definitely mid-table and any run on the playoffs would need a miraculous set of circumstances. A couple of weeks ago Darren Sarll said his side’s seasons don’t peter out, last night was the epitome of a team petering out though. Unfortunately it’s entirely understandable. This squad is slap bang in the middle, most of them are out of contract at the end of the season and the vision from the boss at the top of the club is non-existent. 

I’m not sure if we ever totally freed ourselves from it, but apathy has set in again. The early goal sucked any life the supporters at Huish Park might have had, but there was a real flatness last night. Like the players, the crowd never got going and were given very little to get going about. We slept walk out of the Football League, and if we don’t drastically improve in front of the home fans on Saturday against Grimsby, there will be a perception that we’re sleepwalking to the end of the season and after that who knows what? A statement in ‘due course’ means nothing. Seven day deadlines mean nothing. If the plan to be so distant and become so unaccountable that supporters just give up, we could be close to that point. We’ll continue to clamour for clarity and at this point we need it either way.

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Darren Sarll confessed his Yeovil Town side were “well beaten” as they slumped to a 3-0 defeat at home to Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday night.

The Glovers went behind after just six minutes when Paul McCallum struck before a mistake by goalkeeper Grant Smith gifted the visitors a second on 22 minutes. Junior Morais added a third in the second half.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after more than an hour with his players in the dressing room, he said the squad had been working on trying to create more goal-scoring opportunities. with the returning Olufela Olomola at the heart of the attack.

Darren Sarll speaking after the 3-0 home defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge.

The manager said: “We have tried to change to change the page with our attacking play and trying to create more chances and get more attempts on goal.

“Whenever you do that, you reverse some of the great qualities you have on the other side of the field, so that’s a balance I need to find.

“But we were well beaten by an experienced side that were probably very happy to accept the gifts we gave them.

“We have too many learning how to create chances and if you haven’t got an immediate solution it becomes a massive problem.

“But all three goals were from turn overs of us having the ball and when the back four, when they are in such a giving mood it makes things harder.

“It underlines how that defensive shape is to us, it’s okay being open and creating chances, but you stay open for the opponent so you have to make sure you are creating a plethora of chances.

“The facts are we are not that team.”

Another blank from Yeovil means they have now scored just 28 goals in 31 National League games, conceding 33, and Sarll added that his biggest disappointment was that his side “did not implement anything we wanted too.”

He said his side have to “stare the problem in the face” as they prepare for the visit of Grimsby Town to Huish Park on Saturday.

The Glovers now have the third worst home form in the division – surpassed only by bottom club Dover Athletic and Aldershot Town – and they are fourth from bottom of the form guide over the past six matches which have heralded just three points.

Sarll said: “Grimsby is massive. We have to come and stare the problem in the face and make sure we replicate the away form.

“We will be fresher on Saturday and have more punch to us. I learnt a lot about whether the future of this team, some players can go for 40 games every week.

“We have spoken at depth and that will remain in the dressing room. Nothing too animated because I want to be balanced, I don’t want to be too damning.”

He revealed that right back Mark Little sat out the defeat having played five of the last six National League matches – completing 90 minutes for five of them – and loanees forward Sonny Blu-Lo Everton and defender Jack Robinson were both left out of the squad.

The boss said Sonny has been suffering with tonsillitis whilst Robinson has only trained for three days after returning from his latest injury.

Josh Staunton was taken off after 77 minutes against Dagenham and Sarll said the player has “a problem with a hernia.“

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Venue: Huish Park
Tuesday March 8, 7.45pm kick-off

Conditions: Rain before the match.
Pitch: Skiddy due to the rain but in good nick.

Attendance:

Scorers: Paul McCallum 6 (0-1), Paul McCallum 22 (0-2), Junior Morais 63 (0-3)

Bookings: 1,836 (23 away supporters)

Yeovil: Barnett 32,
Dagenham: Rance 45,

Referee: Adrian Quelch


Yeovil Town : (4-3-3)

Grant Smith

Morgan Williams, Luke Wilkinson, Ben Barclay, Jordan Barnett

Alex Bradley (for Lawson D’Ath, 60), Josh Staunton (for Matt Worthington, 78), Dale Gorman

Charlie Wakefield, Olufela Olomola (for Adi Yussuf, 71) , Tom Knowles

Substitutes: Mark Little, Reuben Reid.

Dagenham & Redbridge: Justham, Wright, Reynolds, Comley, Hare, Johnson, Rance, Sagaf (for Robinson, 89), Weston, McCallum (for Akanbi, 90) , Morais (for Walker, 75).
Substitutes: Balanta, Zouma.

Match Report

 

A piece of sloppy defending followed by two absolute howlers saw Dagenham & Redbridge run out comfortable winners at Huish Park.

Visiting striker Paul McCallum, whose own goal gave the Glovers the win in the reverse fixture, put them ahead after six minutes and when a clanger from Grant Smith gifted the striker a second on 22 minutes it was game over.

Junior Morais added a third in the second half from another mistake in the Yeovil back line which has been such a strength of this season and, in depressingly familiar fashion, we failed to muster anything going forward.

We loaded the bullets in the Dagenham gun and invited them to shoot us in both feet – and they did it in professional fashion.

Here’s how it played out…….

First half

Team news saw on loan striker Olufela Olomola return having missed the previous two matches through injury, he replaced Jordan Barnett who shifted back to left-back.

Mark Little dropped to the substitutes’ bench with Morgan Williams replacing him on the right side of defence.

After three minutes, Myles Weston, who caused the Glovers’ problem in the reverse fixture, took a run at Williams and fired in a shot which took a small deflection off the centre back-turned-full back and forced Grant Smith in to his first save.

That was a warning and the poor start got worse. Josh Hare got away down the other side and put the ball in for the unchallenged Paul McCALLUM to fire the Daggers ahead.

Sensing blood, the visitors kept attacking a wobbly looking Yeovil and an error by the normally reliable Josh Staunton gave midfielder Dean Rance the chance to shoot and Smith was again force in to a fine stop.

With Barnett playing his first game at left-back for a long while and Williams playing on the right, there were some unfamiliar combinations across the hosts’ side which Dagenham seemed to sense pressing us extremely high up the pitch and getting results.

Grant Smith. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Grant Smith’s free-kick with no Dagenham player around him, he’s tried to be clever and clip a ball to Williams, but did not even get past Paul McCALLUM who chested it down and fired it in to an empty net. His 12th goal of the season, he’ll never score an easier one.

Having not scored more than twice in a league game since November, the writing felt like it was being daubed on the wall. In fact, when was the last time we came back from 2-0 down to get anything? AFC Fylde away in December 2019. The last time at Huish Park? A 2-2 draw with Dagenham in October 2015.

Having executed their plan to perfection, the next stage was to frustrate their easily irritated hosts and, again, did it perfectly all the way through until half-time which was met by a few boos.

Half time: Yeovil Town 0 Dagenham & Redbridge 2

Second half

The second half saw a reshuffle in midfield with Staunton playing further forward and Dale Gorman now the man picking the ball up from deep, but as caretakers of the ball, we were lacking.
Having seen a further 15 minutes of his side huffing and puffing, Darren Sarll introduced a player more than capable of holding on to the ball in Lawson D’Ath who replaced Alex Bradley.
But, instead of that being a spark, another defensive howler gifted the visitors a third. Junior MORAIS got the wrong side of both Luke Wilkinson and Ben Barclay, who have looked so solid since the latter’s arrival, and ran through to score.
If there was any wind was left in the Yeovil sails, it was extinguished. Incidentally, the last time we came from three goals down to win a match was the 5-4 FA Trophy win at Doncaster Rovers nearly 20 years ago.
Fear not though, Adi Yussuf replaced Olomola on 71 minutes. In fairness, it was not Fela’s night. He had no service and was almost entirely anonymous.

Dagenham goalkeeper Eliot Justham probably did not need to wash his kit after this one, he hardly broke a sweat.

A miserable night.

Full time: Yeovil Town 0 Dagenham & Redbridge 3

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On loan striker Olufela Olomola returns for tonight’s match at home to Dagenham & Redbridge (7.45pm kick-off).

Olufela Olomola.

The Hartlepool United frontman has missed theast two matches having picked up an injury in the 1-1 draw at Maidenhead United a fortnight ago.

He appears to be in a front three alongside Tom Knowles and Charlie Wakefield with Jordan Barnett, who played in the forward line at Notts County last weekend, dropping back to left back.

Mark Little is on the bench so Morgan Williams switches to right back.

For the visitors, ex-Glovers’ loanee Angelo Balanta returns on the bench whilst defender Yoann Zouma is named among the substitutes.

The Frenchman is the brother of West Ham United player, Kurt, and has been out of the squad since he was caught filming his sibling kicking and slapping his pet cats.

Yeovil Town: Grant Smith, Morgan Williams, Luke Wilkinson, Ben Barclay, Jordan Barnett, Josh Staunton, Alex Bradley, Dale Gorman, Charlie Wakefield, Tom Knowles, Olufela Olomola.

Substitutes: Mark Little, Matt Worthington, Lawson D’Ath, Reuben Reid, Adi Yussuf.

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Angelo Balanta in his loan spell at Yeovil Town in 2013. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town are back at Huish Park after three matches away with Dagenham & Redbridge the visitors.

The original fixture was postponed when following Storm WhatsHerFace blowing  half the county of Somerset away.

Not much has changed since then in truth, the Glovers still sit midtable, with plenty of very decent “all guts, no glory” performances and more draws than a large Ikea warehouse and Dagenham still flirt with the play offs.

The Daggers sit 10th, seven points behind Notts County who occupy the all important seventh spot.

In terms of actual form, the visitors have actually only picked up one more point than Yeovil in the last five games, a 3-0 win over Maidenhead last time out and a 1-1 draw vs Woking in that time.

The Glovers of course have been picking up stalemate points for fun; five of the last seven Yeovil games have ended all square.

Goals (or lack, thereof) has been the talking point at Huish Park, Dagenham don’t have that problem, 53 league goals this season, that’s not a million miles off double Yeovil’s tally of 28.

Only one has made double figures though, that is Paul McCallum, who scored when these sides met earlier in the campaign… a 1-0 win for Yeovil… it’s enough to make your brain hurt.

He got a brace when they last played, but that was a week ago, against Maidenhead, he and his team-mates had a Saturday off as the Glovers lugged it up to Nottingham and back to be pegged back at the death by Notts County.

 

FROM THE MANAGER

Daryl McMahon is all too aware of what awaits his side at Huish Park telling the Barking and Dagenham Post:

“Darren (Sarll’s) teams are hard to play against, they always are, they’re always aggressive. Going down to Yeovil is always a tough game, but it’s another game in this division we look forward to.”

Whilst club captain and former Glovers’ loanee Angelo Balanta said:
“Yeovil will be tough. They’re below us in the table but they gave us a good contest and made it tough for us.

“They’re very resilient the way they go about their business and defend their goal really well.

“I think it will be similar but we’ve got to do what we’ve been doing, performing well and hopefully get the result.”

TEAM NEWS

McMahon is hoping to welcome a couple key players back into the fold, including a name Glovers fans will recognise, he should have Angelo Balanta (calf) and Matt Robinson (concussion) back in contention this week.

A FOOT IN BOTH CAMPS

Yeovil Town captain Josh Staunton.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town captain Luke Wilkinson and midfielder Josh Staunton seems likely to be the only players with experience of playing for both sides starting this weekend.

The central defender played 65 times for Dagenham following his release by Portsmouth in 2010.

He had a couple of spells on loan at Boreham Wood and one at Dartford during his time at Victoria Road before departing for Luton Town in 2014.

Staunton arrived in Essex following his release by Gillingham in the summer of 2016 and made 37 appearances as they reached the Conference play-offs missing out to eventual winners Forest Green Rovers.

Despite playing in most positions in defence, Staunton was allowed to leave and joined Woking for the following season and then moved to FC Halifax Town from whom he joined Yeovil in summer 2020.

Another in the green-and-white corner is Lawson D’Ath, the playmaker working his way back to fitness after nine months out through injury.

He had a 21-game spell on loan in Essex in the 2013-14 season.

Likely to be missing through injury is the visitors’ talismanic forward Angelo Balanta who was an unused substitute in Yeovil’s 2-1 League One play-off final win over Brentford which secured promotion to the Championship in 2013.

If you’ve not heard it, check out our podcast with former Yeovil Town press officer Jimmy Healey for a great story about Balanta’s celebration – here.

The Colombian had a spell at Bristol Rovers, helping them out of the Football Conference in 2015, before moving to Carlisle United, Boreham Wood and eventually arriving at Dagenham in October 2018.

There is a possibility of seeing ex-Glovers’ midfielder Joey Jones who played the first half against Spennymoor last weekend before being replaced at half-time.

He spent his youth career at Arsenal and Leicester but having signed for Yeovil in 2013 after playing in a behind-closed-doors friendly he failed to make an appearance.

In January 2014, he was loaned out to Woking who he eventually joined permanently at the end of the season and when on to play 162 times for the Cards.

He arrived at Victoria Road, via Eastleigh and Salford City, in November 2020.

Other familiar faces to both sets of supporters include….

  • Rhys Murphy – Dagenham (2013-15), Yeovil Town (2019-21)
  • Mitch Brundle – Yeovil Town (2012-13), Dagenham (2019-21)
  • Jake Howells – Yeovil Town – loan (2015), Dagenham (2017-18)
  • Gavin Tomlin – Yeovil Town (2008-10), Dagenham (2010-12)
  • Matt Harrold – Dagenham – loan (2004-05), Yeovil Town (2005-06)
  • Kirk Jackson – Yeovil Town (2002-04), Dagenham – loan (2004)
  • Paul Terry – Dagenham (1999-2003), Yeovil Town (2003-07)

 

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Luke Wilkinson.

Yeovil Town defender Luke Wilkinson has been given a place in the Non League Paper’s ‘Team of the Day’ following his performance against Notts County.

The Glovers may not have won, but Wilko has been listed along side Barnet’s Ben Richards-Everton and Jesse Debrah of Halifax in the mythical side’s defence.

Well in, Wilko.

The full team is as follows…