Yeovil Town will travel to the Hollywood hills of Wrexham in the Second Round of the FA Cup.
The tie will be played on the weekend of 2nd-3rd December with the home game against Slough Town in National League South needing to be rescheduled as a result.
The first round of the FA Cup is upon us and it will see Yeovil Town host possibly their hardest opponent yet, in high flying National League team Gateshead FC. (Storm Ciaran dependent)
The inform Town will be looking to upset the odds against a very strong Tynesiders team, but the prospect of extending the winning streak to 11 games as well as the Huish Park faithful should be enough to spur on the Mark Coopers men.
Gateshead recently lost manager Mark Williamson to MK Dons and have been under the stewardship of ex-Newcastle United keeper Rob Elliot. In his two games in charge so far, Elliot has one point from six.
Manager Mark Cooper believes Gateshead will pose a difficult test. He said: “I like watching them in my spare time. I would say they’re the one of best if not the best pure football teams in the National League.
“They’re very similar to Notts County…If you take Chesterfield out of it, they’re the toughest test we could have got from the National League.”
The former Darlington man is hoping for a result either at the weekend. He said: ” We just spoke to the staff and if it’s nil-nil then one of us is going to run on to the pitch to score an own goal. It will be the worst thing for both teams with the amount of games coming up.”
A slight dilemma for Cooper could be up front where the recent purple patch from Jake Hyde has seen him rise into contention among the front line. With the likes of Rhys Murphy and Frank Nouble also competing for a similar role it will be a nice problem to have for the 54-year-old.
Jordan Young also spoke about the upcoming tie. He said: “We know how good they are but it’s similar to the Southend game, it’s a good chance to show what we can do.” Young also spoke about how “good a feeling” it would be to get to the second round of the Cup and compared the Cup fixtures to a “nice day out” as it takes your mind away from the league.
Jamie Sendles-White is the only player missing through injury.
Rob Elliot feels the FA Cup will provide the perfect challenge for his young side as they make the long trip down to Somerset. He said: “By no means are we taking them lightly, it’s probably one of the toughest games we could’ve got, in terms of the travel, their form and the potential conditions. But I like that.”
The former Premier league shot stopper has “a lot of respect for Yeovil” and feels the Glovers are a “very good team” with “good, experienced players.”
FA Cup mode ??#WorClub ⚪️⚫️ pic.twitter.com/OPsuhGHaDl
— Gateshead FC (@GatesheadFC) November 1, 2023
Town fans will know all about the exploits of the majority of this Gateshead squad after that fateful Tuesday night last season. The danger man so far this season for the Tynesiders has once again been frontman Marcus Dinanga who has netted 12 goals so far. Other key men for the National League side include Luke Hannant and Louis Storey. Greg Olley returns after sitting out his one game suspension.
Gateshead are without Carl Maganay (Injury), Robbie Tinkler (Injury).
It’s becoming a regular occurrence, another Yeovil player makes the official Vanarama team of the week.
But, when you’re a centre half and you thrash a 2nd minute goal into the back of the net against higher division opposition… what do you expect?
Jake Wannell listed below, with some others who also did good things in the FA Cup.
Yeovil Town will host National League side Gateshead in the First Round Proper of the FA Cup.
The Tyneside team sit in sixth place after the opening two months of the season and went down 3-1 in their last visit to Huish Park – but also thumped Mark Copper’s side 4-0 in the North East as they plummeted to relegation.
The tie will be played on Saturday, November 4 meaning the National League South match at Dartford will need to be rearranged.
Yeovil booked their place with a 2-0 win over Southend United in the fourth qualifying round at Huish Park on Saturday thanks to goals from Jake Wannell and Jordan Young.
The draw was made by former Manchester United full-back Paul Parker and Jobi McAnuff, a former Wimbledon and Leyton Orient midfielder, on ITV1 on Sunday afternoon.
These highlights are good… very good… the Glovers are in the FA Cup first round proper for the 53rd time in their history and here’s how they got there.
In. The. Hat. Again.
Yeovil Town progressed to the First Round of the FA Cup with a couple of absolute belters from Jake Wannell and Jordan Young against Southend United at Huish Park on Saturday.
Watch them again here.
We’re in the hat, ball number 71, let’s go!!!
Who gets your vote as MOTM from the Glovers’ Cup Upset win over Southend?
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Despite seeing Yeovil Town score two fantastic goals, goalkeeper Joe Day has happiest to end today’s FA Cup win over Southend United with a clean sheet.
You can listen to whole interview at the bottom of this article.
The on-loan Newport County keeper made a couple of vital interceptions to keep the visitors out whilst stunning strikes from defender Joe Wannell and frontman Jordan Young booked a place in the competition’s first round.
It is only the keeper’s second clean sheet since arriving at Huish Park at the start of September, with the other coming in the competition’s previous round, a 2-0 home win over Didcot Town.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the fourth qualifying round win, Day said: “As much as the goals were fantastic, for me to see the players in front of me show the maturity of that performance took the pressure of a team that is doing really well in the league above was really pleasing to see us cope with it and cope with us well.
“They had a lot of possession but that was our plan. We wanted to stay compact and defend our box and we wanted to enjoy defending.
“The Gaffer (manager, Mark Cooper) is probably the happiest man here because the work he has put in this week on the training ground really showed today.”
The 33-year-old was not being drawn on who he wants in the next round of the competition with his parent club in the hat when the draw is made at 2.30pm on Sunday.
But, he was pleased to make it seven wins in a row with the victory and had a word of praise for Will Buse, the Yeovil-born keeper who he replaced in the starting line-up, for his contribution in keeping him on his game.
Day said: “Performances have been really strong and results have been really good. All I wanted to do was to bring a bit of experience to the squad.
“Will Buse is a fantastic young goalkeeper and he shows in training how good he is. I hope he can learn a lot from me and vice versa, I always like to pick things up from every goalkeeper I work with.
“With Phil (Osborn), the goalkeeper coach, we have a really good goalkeeper’s union there, a strong bond and hopefully we can keep this run going and keep building on more clean sheets.”
Here’s the full interview with Joe Day and Sheridan Robins
Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper is dreaming of one of the game’s big boys coming to Huish Park in the third round of the FA Cup.
The boss saw his side book their place in Round 1 with a 2-0 win over National League side Southend United and they will be Ball 71 in tomorrow’s draw – televised on ITV1 at 2.30pm – with the likes of Derby County and Portsmouth among the possible opponents.
But, with an eye on progressing in the competition, Cooper admitted his preference would be to one of the smaller sides left in the draw on home soil on November 4, when the tie will be played.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins after the match, Cooper said: “You can get your Derby’s or your Portsmouth’s, but I would love to get to the third round and get a real big one.
“For that to happen, we need a bit of luck with the draw. I have not seen any results, but I would like one of those lower than us at home. I’m not taking anything for granted but I would love to get to the third round.”
Having gone ahead after just two minutes thanks to a stunning strike from defender Jake Wannell, the Glovers had to withstand an onslaught from a Southend side which have won seven of their opening matches in the division above and only sit fifth-from-bottom virtue of a ten-point deduction due to their well-documented off-the-field issues.
Cooper said: “We had a really good start and got a goal in front against a really good team who ask questions of you with the way they play.
“So we had to be a bit different structurally with the way we changed three or four times in the first 20 minutes to get us a bit more comfortable out of possession.
“Once we went to a back five and got some help in front of our full-backs so they weren’t one-v-one all the time.
They had plenty of the ball, but I thought we looked comfortably structurally and defensively.”
For the second consecutive week, the boss praised his players for delivering the type of performance he and his coaching staff had worked with them on in training during the week, including seeking to nullify Southend’s top scorer Harry Cardwell, who has eleven goals already this season.
Cooper said: “We did a lot of work on defending crosses because they are lethal with Cardwell. We had a set way with how we had to defend against him and trying to make sure crosses with in-swingers rather than from the byline that he could attack.
“They were more difficult (crosses) for him to get power on and we gave Joe Day more room to come and work in and I think you saw Joe come and claim or punch a lot of balls in that area we had left clear.
“Defensively as a group we defended deeper, but we always looked at threat (on the counter attack). The second goal was a clinical counter attack.”
Wannell, who scored his fourth goal with a thunderous early strike, was singled out for praise, with the boss adding: “He was brilliant today. He has never really been coached at any real level and he’s starting to show the work myself, Toddy (assistant manager, Chris Todd), and Marcus (Stewart, striker coach) have done with him.
“He’s starting to pick it up and he looks an accomplished defender now and obviously he has added goals to his game as well.”
Having deservedly gone in a goal up at half-time, Yeovil were faced with another attacking onslaught from the visitors and were indebted to a couple of important stops from ‘keeper Day before Jordan Young added a second on 67 minutes.
Cooper said: “Defensively as a group we defended deeper (in the second half), but we always looked at threat (on the counter attack). The second goal was a clinical counter attack.
“Jordan got his confidence and a bit of arrogance about him, which I love. He has to be like that because he is really difficult to play against, he has such a low centre of gravity and twists and turns and he can be really pleased.
“The pleasing thing with him is he is looking like he can last games now whereas before he was 60 minutes and he got cramp and now he looks really robust.”
With Huish Park still celebrating the second goal, the manager withdrew top scorer Rhys Murphy and Will Dawes, replacing them with Jordan Stevens and Bristol City loanee Zac Bell, as he sought to close out the game. On 83 minutes, club captain Josh Staunton replaced Frank Nouble to added even greater defensive solidity to the side.
Cooper said: “If you are 2-0 up, until there is a minute left you never feel safe. We put Jordan (Stevens) on because Frank (Nouble) and Murph (Rhys Murphy) had run themselves in to the ground.
“It was important we always a threat and we had Jordan late on to give us that pace and we put Belly (Zac Bell) on to look after their best player, their left winger, Jack Bridge.
“Then we put Michael Smith just in front of him and then Staunts (Josh Staunton) comes on to make sure we don’t concede from any crosses in to the box and he positions himself well in the six-yard box.”
The victory stretched the club’s winning run to seven matches (eight if you count the midweek Somerset Men’s Premier Cup win at Keynsham Town, which is a first-team fixture), a fact which was not lost on the manager.
He takes them to Worthing, who are sat fifth in the National League South table and put second-placed Bath City out of the FA Cup today, next weekend.
Cooper said: “That is seven (wins) on the trot. I don’t care what level you are at, it still takes an awful lot of doing, so full credit to the players and fans and everybody connected with the club.
“Today was the culmination of a lot of things and I think we are starting to show what we are really about as a club.
It is such a strong structural performance we looked a difficult side to play against.”
You can listen to the full interview between Sheridan and the gaffer here
Mark Cooper also spoke to the club’s official YouTube, which you can watch here
Yeovil Town play host to Southend United in what is arguably the tie of the FA Cup Fourth qualifying round this weekend.
The game see’s the top team in the National League South take on a Shrimpers team that will be looking to show their potential new owners what they can do.
The Glovers who are on a six game winning streak will be hoping the home crowd advatage will play in their favour once more.
The Essex side come into their first cup game of the season off the back of two straight wins, with their previous a 2-0 victory over ex-Glover boss Darren Sarll.
Manager Mark Cooper is hoping to “ride the momentum” created at Huish park this season. He said: “There’s a good feel about the place and a really good atmosphere when we play (at Huish Park) and we have to keep that going and ride the momentum and see how far it will take us. I am sure they have looked at us and are thinking ‘they’re not bad’.”
Cooper is under no illusion how difficult a game this will be for his team. He was keen to point out that the National League side will be boosted by fans who have “got their club back.”
The 54-year-old also made it clear that The Shrimpers wont be bothered by coming to Huish Park. He said: “Their fans have been magnificent throughout all the recent troubles, similar to Yeovil. But they can get 7,000 without trying and I would suggest they are on the way back now.
“They won’t be fussed about coming to Huish Park, we have to make it a really uncomfortable afternoon for them on the pitch.”
The Somerset sides longest serving player, Matty Worthing also gave his thoughts on the upcoming fixture. He said: “We are more than capable [of beating Southend]. A lot of the squad have played in that league [National League] and higher, so there is no fear from our perspective.
“We are looking forward to it and if we play the way we have been, it will be a great game.”
The game also see’s Rhys Murphy and Jake Hyde go up against their former team.
The only player to miss out for Yeovil is Jamie Sendles-White with an achilles injury. Jordan Stevens and Charlie Cooper return.
Boss Kevin Maher was complimentary of the Glovers when speaking to the clubs YouTube channel. He said: “Yeovil are doing ever so well and we know we’ve got to perform. They’re in a different place to when we went there last year and they’ve got some continuity with the manager.”
The Shrimpers legend has experience with teams in the South West as he was coach and caretaker manager at rivals Bristol Rovers for a couple of seasons.
The ex-Ireland youth team player was also happy to see two of his former players doing well. He said: “They’re both great lads. I’m glad to see Murph’s scoring goals and Hydey’s off the mark as well so I’m really pleased for them and it’ll be good to see them.”
Southends very own stalwart Jason Demetriou also spoke to club media ahead of the game. He said: “It would’ve been nice to get a nearer draw. We know some of the boys.
“We haven’t been as confident going into the FA Cup becasue of league form. But where we have good form now, everyones looking forward to the weekend, so it’s a positive and if we beat them will see what happens after that.”
The key man for the Essex club will be striker Harry Cardwell who has bagged 10 goals in 15 games this season, which see’s him tied for second in the goalscorer standings.
5️⃣ goals in 4️⃣ games for Harry Cardwell! pic.twitter.com/bhXGjLbSZT
— Southend United FC (@SUFCRootsHall) October 4, 2023
Southend will be without Mauro Vilhete and Brooklyn Kabongolo who are both cup tied. Luis Lomas, Collin Adeng-Ndi, Dan Mooney and ex-Town full-back Nathan Ralph are all out with injury. Midfielder Noor Husin is unavailble after being called up for internationl duty and Defender Wesley Fonguck is touch and go.