Bath City

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Yeovil Town extended their lead at the top of the National League South to 13 points with a narrow win at Somerset rivals Taunton Town.

It was a fourth goal in as many games from striker Frank Nouble which sealed the points to give the Glovers’ victory in their game in hand over a number of their rivals in the division’s top seven.

Here’s how it went down in the county town….

First half

A bright start from the visitors saw good link-up between Matt Worthington and Sonny Blu Lo-Everton with the latter’s effort cleared off the goal line by former Glovers’ loanee Zac Bell, signed by Taunton on loan from Bristol City earlier in the day.

Soon after, nice passing saw Yeovil break forward at pace with a move involving Jordan Young and Lo-Everton, but it was full-back Michael Smith who the ball broke to on the edge of the box and his effort was easily held by Dan Lavercombe in the hosts’ goal.

Michael Smith fires in to the gloves of Taunton keeper Dan Lavercombe.

With 18 minutes gone, a foul by Jordan Young on Peacocks’ striker Ross Stearn earned him a yellow card. From the resulting free-kick, Lloyd Irish’s ball found Ollie Chamberlain on the left side and he played a dangerous ball in to the box which was headed away Frank Nouble. Nothing much to trouble Joe Day in the Yeovil goal yet, but Taunton certainly not rolling over here.

When they were in possession, Yeovil struggled to shrug off their claret and blue shadows. The home side harried their opponents in a way they were completely unable to in the Boxing Day game at Huish Park. Not a one-sided affair this.

With half-an-hour gone, a nice ball forward by Senior was laid off nicely by Lo-Everton, but Young could not get in ahead of Lavercombe.

There was a heart-in-the-mouth moment on 39 minutes when Joe Day fumbled a long ball in to the box with a number of Taunton players in close proximity. The referee awarded a foul to the keeper who was perhaps a touch fortunate.

The half-time whistle sounded with Yeovil massively ahead in the possession stats, but Taunton’s game of pressing their visitors paid off.

Half time:  Taunton Town 0 Yeovil Town 0

Second half

A gear change  was required from Yeovil to press home their advantage and manager Mark Cooper introduced top scorer Rhys Murphy in place of the quiet Courtney Senior at the start of the second half.

Following a bitty opening five minutes a lovely ball forward by Matt Worthington picked out Frank NOUBLE who broke in to the box and fired an angled shot past Lavercombe. 1-0 to the visitors.

Frank Nouble celebrates his fourth goal in as many games.

On 63 minutes, a great bit of link up between Lo-Everton and Murphy  saw the midfielder jink his way in to the box, but he could not get a shot away to test Lavercombe.

Moments later a mistake by Zac Bell gifted possession to Murphy who showed all his striker’s instincts who hit it first time and he lashed an effort which Lavercombe did well to turn on to the bar to keep it out. What an effort from the bagsman, deserved a goal.

As the game closed towards the 90th minute, Murphy went down in what seemed like an innocuous clash, judged by the experts in the home crowd as time wasting. But, worryingly for those in the away end, the top scorer went off shortly after, replaced by Jake Hyde.

Hyde was straight in the action to head home a looping free-kick from Worthington, but his effort went over the bar.

It was a hard-fought win, but a win nevertheless. Job done.

Full time: Taunton Town 0 Yeovil Town 1

 

Match Details

Venue: Wordsworth Drive
Date: Tuesday 9th January – 7.45pm

Competition: National League South

Pitch: Uneven and a bit bobbly.
Conditions:  Cold. Very cold.

Attendance: 3001

Scorers: Frank Nouble 50 (1-0),

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: Jordan Young 16, Rhys Murphy 71, Jake Wannell  75, Michael Smith 90+5
Taunton Town: Dan Ball 20, Nat Jarvis 58

Referee: Niall Smith

Yeovil Town (4-5-1)

Substitutes: Rhys Murphy (for Courtney Senior, 46), Will Dawes (for Jordan Young, 76), Jake Hyde (for Rhys Murphy, 87), Jamie Sendles-White (not used), Josh Owers (not used).

Taunton Town: Dan Lavercombe, Zac Bell, Nick Grimes, Dan Ball, Ollie Chamberlain, Lloyd James, Nat Jarvis (for Marley Rose, 61), Rabby Tabu Minzamba, Ross Stearn (for Evander Grubb, 78), Cameron Evans, Marcus Day (for Louie Slough, 70).
Substitutes (not used): Callum Dolman, Lloyd Irish.

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper admitted his side were not at their “fluent best” as they picked up another three points with a 2-0 home win over Bath City.

Goals from Jordan Young and Frank Nouble’s tenth of the season saw them extend their lead at the top of National League South to ten points with a controlled performance against the visitors who have promotion ambitions of their own.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall after the match, the boss said: “Bath tried to sit in and make it difficult for us, we had lots of possession in the first half and we just had to be patient and pull them about a bit because they were very well organised.

“We managed to score a lovely opening goal which meant they had to change about a bit and go 4-4-2 and then it was just about controlling the game in the second half. They had to go for it and they put Cody Cooke on and played lots of diagonal balls which I thought we dealt with marvellously, scored a second goal and our subs came on and made a difference and we looked really solid.

“Sometimes you can’t be so fluent but you have to manage the game and I thought we did that really well.”

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

The game’s moment of pure quality led to Young’s opening goal after 13 minutes when a beautiful ball from Nouble picked out Michael Smith on the right of the penalty area to slot a ball across the box for Young to convert.

Cooper added: “It is a trademark goal for us where we isolate their full-back, play a ball in behind and have a cut back and our players know where the ball is going. It is a great goal.”

Nouble added a second with 13 minutes of the game remaining when he was in the right place in the six-yard box to prod home from a well-worked corner.

In the second half, Cooper introduced Jay Foulston who played as one of three central defenders in a back five to counter a lot of direct play from the visitors.

The boss said: “He was Johnny on the Spot and that goal came at a good time for us and calmed us down a bit. We changed the system in the second half to counter a lot of long balls forward and then we went back to our standard formation and we saw it out very comfortably.

“We said at half-time that Bath were not going to make it easy for us. They are very well-organised, it’s a local derby with a big crowd and I told the players that the worst score we should finish with was 1-0 and we had to make sure we kept a clean sheet.

“We were not at our fluent best but you can’t do that every week because there is another team on the pitch trying to make it difficult for you. They had lots of long balls, bounces in the box, but I thought we defended it really well.”

The manager described Nouble as “a talisman” for his performance which earned him the sponsors’ Man of the Match against Bath. His second half strike was his third in as many games.

Frank Nouble celebrates putting Yeovil Town 2-0 ahead.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

Yeovil have now picked up 25 points from a possible 27 at Huish Park and have only drawn three matches at home this season against fellow promotion hopefuls Maidstone United, Chelmsford City and Hampton & Richmond.

Cooper said: “We enjoy playing here and you can see that from the results and the performances. It is a happy camp all round.”

The Glovers now prepare to travel to struggling Taunton Town, who have been forced to ship out a number of first-team players due to well-publicised financial difficulties in the county town, on Tuesday night looking for another win.

“It’s just another game,” said Cooper, “we can’t look at what is going on off-the-pitch, we just have to pick a team that is fresh and can go and run about and try to get another result.”

On the additions from the other side of Somerset, he added: “If you don’t pay your players and do the right things, then you do risk losing them, so we could have profited. That’s the law of the land. These players were on our radar for a while, so when the chance came we jumped on it.

“We sit in the office for ten hours a day with all our data metrics and analysis and look at players. You are always trying to evolve the playing side and Dylan and Jay are helping us evolve as a squad.

“They are two players who are really good ages and the experience is probably at the top end of the pitch which is probably why we are scoring so many goals.“

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Goals from Jordan Young and Frank Nouble earned Yeovil Town a 2-0 victory at home to Bath City in front of another bumper crowd at Huish Park today.

But, who in green-and-white was your Man of the Match?

Who was your Man of the Match against Bath City?

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Yeovil Town extended their lead at the top of the National League South table back to ten points with victory over Bath City at Huish Park.

The home side opened the scoring after Jordan Young finished off a great move involving Frank Nouble and Michael Smith in the only real action of a tepid first half, before Nouble took his tally to ten goals for the season when he tucked home a second in the 77th minute.

With second-placed Hampton & Richmond beaten at Braintree Town and Worthing going down to fellow play-off hopefuls Chelmsford City, the results went in the favour of the table-topping Glovers.

First half

Mark Cooper made one change from the Boxing Day win over Taunton Town with Rhys Murphy replacing Will Dawes, as he did in the early stages of that game. New signing Dylan Morgan was named among the substitutes for the Glovers having signed from Taunton during the week.

After a quiet first ten minutes, Yeovil opened the scoring with their first attack after 13 minutes. A great ball from Frank Nouble found Michael Smith out on the right of the penalty box and his beautifully-cushioned ball in to the danger area was met by Jordan YOUNG who slotted it past Slav Huk in the visitors goal. Knife. Butter.

Yeovil Town celebrate Jordan Young’s opener.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

But in all honesty that was about all there was in terms of goalmouth action for the opening half-an-hour. The nearest the visitors came to offering a threat on Joe Day’s goal was on 33 minutes when former Glovers’ loanee Ewan Clark ran at Alex Whittle and got a shot in from the edge of the block which was turned down the bar by Charlie Cooper.

Day was in action with four minutes of the first half remaining, Clark’s free-kick was met by the head of defender Jordan Dyer, who also had a spell on loan at Huish Park, which the keeper patted over the bar for a corner which came to nothing.

If you are a fan of watching the ball get passed without any purpose, this was the game for you. Neither side really offering a great threat going forwards. Control, I guess you could call it.

An advantage at the interval.

Half time:  Yeovil Town 1 Bath City 0

Second half

Bath came out for the second half with a bit of fizz but without really creating any real threat on Day’s goal and with six minutes of the half played visiting manager Jerry Gill decided he had seen enough and brought on striker Cody Cooke.

A coming together between Charlie Cooper and Tom Smith after 55 minutes saw a booking for both players from referee Elliott Swallow. From the resulting free-kick, a right wing cross from Joe Raynes found the head of Cooke and the ball hit his strike partner, Scott Wilson, in the face giving Alex Whittle the chance to clear.

That seemed to liven up the home side with a break forward involving Murphy, Courtney Senior before it broke to Cooper 25 yards out and his effort was fumbled around the box by Slav Huk with 58 minutes played.

Immediately after Yeovil made their first change with Jay Foulston replacing Courtney Senior whilst for Bath Clark was replaced by Oscar Thorn. Foulston went in to the left side of a back three with Smith and Whittle pushed in to wing-back positions.

On 66 minutes, Thorn came close when his hooked shot from Thomas’ left-wing cross past the post with the aid of a deflection off a Yeovil defender. The visitors are definitely asking the tougher questions.

Murphy had done a lot of running, a lot of it without the ball. Lo-Everton joined the three behind Nouble

On 71 minutes, tug on Scott Wilson by Jake Wannell gave Bath a free-kick on the edge of the box and Dan Hayfield fizzed one just past the post, rippling the side netting to the extent some in the away end thought it was in. It wasn’t.

But six minutes later, it was in…..in the other net as Yeovil doubled their advantage. A corner from Whittle was met by Wannell at the back post as Huk stayed on his line, the header landed at the feet of Frank NOUBLE inside the box and he could not miss from close range.

Frank Nouble celebrates putting Yeovil Town 2-0 ahead.
Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

New signing Dylan Morgan was immediately introduced with his new side two goals to the good. He replaced Jordan Young.

With two minutes of the six added on at the end of the game, Morgan found a position at an acute angle inside the box but his shot hit the outside of the side netting.

That table’s looking pretty, isn’t it?

Full time: Yeovil Town 2 Bath City 0

Match Details

Venue: Huish Park
Date: Saturday 6th January – 3:00pm

Competition: National League South

Pitch: Soft, but held up well considering the recent heavy rain
Conditions:  Dry and cool

Attendance: 5,032 (616 away supporters)

Scorers: Jordan Young 13 (1-0), Frank Nouble 77 (2-0)

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: Charlie Cooper 55, Dylan Morgan 87, Alex Whittle 90+5
Bath City: Scott Wilson 20, Luke Russe 25, Jordan Thomas 50, Tom Smith 55, Danny Greenslade 85

Referee: Elliott Swallow

Yeovil Town (4-4-2)

 

 

Substitutes: Jay Foulston (for Courtney Senior, 60), Sonny Blu Lo-Everton (for Rhys Murphy, 68), Dylan Morgan (for Jordan Young, 78) Josh Owers (not used), Jake Hyde (not used).

Bath City: Slav Huk, Joe Rayne, Dan Greenslade, Jordan Dyer, Kieran Parselle, Ewan Clark (for Oscar Thorn, 60) , Dan Hayfield, Tom Smith, Jordan Thomas, Scott Wilson, Luke Russe (for Cody Cooke, 51).
Substitutes (not used): Jack Batten, Chris Lines, Elliott Frear.

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Yeovil Town have made one change from the Boxing Day win over Taunton Town as they prepare to face Bath City at Huish Park this afternoon (3pm kick-off).

Top scorer Rhys Murphy replaces the injured Will Dawes, who he replaced in the sixth minute of the last fixture after Dawes suffered a dead leg.

New signing attacking midfielder Dylan Morgan, who joined from Taunton this week, is named among the Glovers’ substitutes.

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New Yeovil Town signing Dylan Morgan will be a good fit for the Glovers’ attacking system, according to manager Mark Cooper.

The 21-year-old became the latest player to make the move across Somerset from Taunton Town in a deal announced on Thursday and is expected to be available for this weekend’s home match with fifth-placed Bath City.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the match, Cooper said that the former Swansea City youngster had scored as high on the club’s data analytics as forward Jordan Young and Bath’s promising winger, Jordan Thomas.

He also said he expects midfielder Jordan Stevens to return to training later this month and confirmed Scott Pollock, who is yet to kick a ball for his employers this season, was involved in training and hinted he will be loaned out later this month.

Cooper told BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah: “When you are recruiting you are trying to make the group better long-term. Dylan scored really highly on the data metrics that we have devised which are specific to the way we play; we have a database of players that we look at which is constantly changing and he was up there with Jordan Young and Jordan Thomas on the data.

“So when we had the opportunity to act on it with the (financial) trouble Taunton have had, it was always something that we were going to do try and make happen.

“We have a real clear identity to the way we play and the three players behind the front player have a licence to go and create and enjoy themselves. The only caveat is that when we lose the ball they have to sprint ten yards back in alongside the midfield players, whoever is in the wide areas (when we lose the ball) has to sprint back in.

“But when we have possession they have real licence to go and drift about and get really good positions and that is what Dylan does. He gets in good positions and he can go past people and he can score.”

Scott Pollock in action for Yeovil Town last season.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Pollock was signed by the club’s then-‘stewards’ SU Glovers, fronted by now-York City owner Matt Uggla, in March and played seven times as the club were relegated from the National League Premier last season. But, he has undergone surgery whilst on the Huish Park payroll this season meaning he has not featured.

Cooper said: “We have Scott Pollock who was signed by a previous regime on data, different data. Scott is doing some training and it will probably be another two weeks before he is match fit and then we will be looking for some opportunities for him to go and play some games.”

The boss said Stevens was “penciled in” to return to training on 27th January having been missing with a hamstring injury since the beginning of November, and confirmed long-term injury victim, defender Jamie Sendles-White, was back in training.

In other news this week, striker Malachi Linton returned from his loan spell at Taunton, only to be loaned out to W*ymouth on Wednesday. The former Wycombe Wanderers forward made nine appearances for the Peacocks, five of which came off the substitutes’ bench, scoring three times.

Cooper said: “We have a really competitive frontline and I am surprised Mal did not get more game time than he did at Taunton with their struggles, but I think he will get more game time (at W*ymouth) and that will do him good. Hopefully he does really well.” We’ll agree to disagree on that last point, Mark.

Malachi Linton in action for Taunton.
Picture courtesy of Debbie Gould/Taunton Town FC.

Having not played since the 4-1 home win over Taunton on Boxing Day due to the postponement of the reverse fixture at Wordsworth Drive due to a waterlogged pitch, Yeovil now face two games in three days with the visit of Bath and the rearranged fixture with the cash-strapped Peacocks.

Cooper said: “We would have loved to have played (at Taunton on New Year’s Eve), but we can’t help the state of Taunton’s pitch or the amount of rain we have had. The problem we have had is trying to get on grass, we have managed to do that today which has enabled us to have a bit of a freshen up and get some good work in to the players.

“We have two games in a short space of time and then we have an eleven-day break, so we want to really attack the two games which are coming up.

“When I go and watch teams play, it is like night and day when they play against us. There is naturally an added incentive when you come (to Huish Park) to play or when we play (away) and have big numbers behind the goal and the atmosphere is different, it raises the opposition players’ performance.

“That is part of being a big club, we have to deal with that first before we deal with the quality in the team we are playing. (Bath) will get a lift from the crowd on Saturday and play our stuff.

“I went to watch them play (in a goalless draw with Chippenham Town) on New Year’s Day. It was a tight game, not a lot happened, but they got seven points out of a possible nine over the festive period, so they are in a good position and I am sure it will be a good game. We know what they bring, they have good attacking wide players and forwards but if we play like we can we are a match for anyone.”

The Romans, who were long-standing rivals with the Glovers during the sides’ time together in the Conference and Southern League, are in good form having not lost since a Morgan Williams strike was the difference between the two sides just under a month ago.

Cooper expects former Glovers’ player and now Bath manager Jerry Gill to set his side up to cause problems at the weekend, but is confident in the ability of his side which sits seven points clear at the top of National League South.

He added: “Jerry is doing a great job, so there is a lot of rivalry in this game. At 3pm it is eleven-v-eleven. Everyone else is getting het up about the gap, we might get four games called off and someone might catch us but we can’t do anything about that. All we can do is play games that are in front of us, we play those games and worry about the rest after that.

“All we know is we are in a good moment, we are calm and we are looking forward to playing. If we play like we are, we will win some games of football there will be some we play really well in and get some bad luck or a bad decision, but we can’t do anything about that. We just have to try and get something out of the game – but in our last few games we have looked strong and powerful and we deserved to win those games.”

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The Glovers picked up three big ones on Wednesday night with a single Morgan Williams goal the difference between Bath City and Yeovil.

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Yeovil Town make a number of changes for the League game against Bath, the most notable is a first start of the season for Alex Fisher.

The front man hasn’t started a game since last season after recovering from a double leg break suffered against Southend United.

The full team is as below.

 

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Yeovil Town Badge on huish park

Yeovil Town will be looking to get back to winning ways after getting knocked the FA Cup on Sunday evening.

The good performance against Wrexham AFC will hopefully inspire the Glovers squad to turn around their slight dip in form. Even with being in the cup at the weekend the Somerset side remain top of the National League South five points above second with a game in hand.

Bath City however dropped to sixth in the league after a loss to Chelmsford, a game in which they led 2-0, against ten men. The Romans are also in a poor run of form having not picked up a league win since the 11th November – comfortable 3-0 victory over Aveley.

With both side looking to regain their early momentum, it will be a tough away trip for the visiting Yeovil squad.

Yeovil Town News

Manager Mark Cooper spoke after the Wrexham game about how his team wanted Wednesday to come. He said: “There is no disappointment from us today, it’s just pure positivity and desperate for Wednesday to come along. We’re desperate to play.

“I know we wanted we wanted to push the game back but we feel we could play again now.”

Some good news has come the Glovers way, after it was announced centre-half Morgan Williams has extended his stay at the club until 2026 which will no doubt be boost for defender. Williams, 24, also spoke about how “the focus is now on Bath” after the defeat in North-Wales.

Rhys Murphy will be ruled out of the game as he will serve his one match ban for accumulating five yellow cards, Jamie Sendles-White is still out injured.

Rhys Murphy
? Those White Lines / AFC Stoneham

Bath City News

After their 2-3 defeat on Saturday boss Jerry Gill was very damning about his sides performance. He said: “Brutally honest, the better side won. I don’t think we lost in the right way today. It was night and day what we’ve been…we have to react on Wednesday.”

Twerton Park, the home of Bath City.

With a sellout at Twerton Park, the ex-Glover also spoke about how special the game will be for everyone involved. He said: “TP [Twerton Park] under the lights is always special, but this one will be electric.

“When I see a packed out packed popular side as you walk up the tunnel, I get a feeling of pride and passion that only Twerton Park can give you.”

The Romans have a number of talented players but Cody Cooke is one that stands out. The forward has bagged seven goals this season but has been in prolific form recently, scoring five in the last five games.

First choice goalie Will Buse is ineligible to play against his parent club, meaning Slav Huk will start, but there will be two former Glovers in the Bath squad; Jordan Dyer spent a short amount of time on loan at Huish Park from his former club Bristol City, whilst Ewan Clark spent a stint at HP.

Scott Wilson, who has a fair few goals this season, did spent a short time on trial at Yeovil the pre-season before last.

Scott Wilson,

The Last competitive meeting between the two sides was the 2022 Somerset Men’s Premier Cup Final. Yeovil Won, 3-0.

 

Yeovil Town and Bath City have a storied history together, thanks to the Ciderspace Archive you can see the full results of competitive meetings between the two Somerset giants, simply by clicking HERE.   – 

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Bath City have voiced their “disappointment” at the decision to push the National League South fixture with Yeovil Town back by 24 hours.

The Romans, who sit third in the table, will now welcome the table-topping Glovers to Twerton Park on Wednesday 6th December.

Yeovil requested the move after television scheduled pushed their FA Cup second round tie at Wrexham to the Sunday before.

In a statement, Bath said: “It is with disappointment that we have to announce another change in the date for our home fixture against Yeovil Town.

“The National League have determined that the match should be postponed and moved to Wednesday 6th December.

“Yeovil requested that we move the match which we, for legitimate logistical reasons declined. However, the National League have determined that the match should be postponed.

“Tickets remain valid for the new date, and refund requests can be made by contacting the club.”