Josh Staunton (Page 4)

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

Yeovil Town midfielder, Josh Staunton spoke to the club’s YouTube channel after the defeat to Wealdstone saying the game was a “really hard one to look back on“.

Staunton was speaking to club media manager Sam Collard after the game and admitted it’ll take some time to get over a defeat of that nature.

He said: “We looked completely disjointed probably from start to finish, the goals were very bad timing for us, we found ourselves in the game, but we weren’t playing well, we had no harmony”

“Second half, we mounted and effort, but to be honest, we let everyone down.”

Speaking out conceding just before the half time interval, Staunton said they had no one other to blame but themselves.

He said: “We were probably the masters of our own downfall, we were guilty for the two goals we conceded were poor goals and to be honest, they just summed the performance up.”

Looking forward, he admitted that it won’t be easy, but that the team knew what they had to do as they prepare for a trip to Eastleigh on Saturday.

Staunton added: “This will be a hard one to let go, because we were so devoid of any flow or creative spark, it makes it very difficult to galvanise a group… we’ve got to focus on the next one and hopefully we can move on from this, find some sort of flow, some sort of rhythm to our play and push forward.”

 

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Josh Staunton could be back in contention for tomorrow’s National League fixture with Solihull Moors at Huish Park, according to manager Darren Sarll.

The midfielder missed the last two games after through injury fortnight ago and had been expected to miss three matches, which would put him out until the visit to Wealdstone on Tuesday night.

But, Sarll said he was expecting Staunton to be putting him “in a position” to consider him for selection in the Glovers’ training session on Friday.

Speaking ahead of that match, the manager said: “Josh is going to train today (Friday), so I think there is going to be a very difficult conversation today at 2pm between our physio.

Josh Staunton, who has missed the past two matches through injury.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

“Josh is a very demanding patient, he wants to get to the next bit yesterday and knowing him he will train this morning, get through it and then he’ll knock on my door and saying ‘I’m ready to go.’

“There should be more of a scientific process of coming back to play, but when you have got players like Josh Staunton who are ready to play with pain.

“I’m going to hold on to see how he does in training, knowing Josh he’ll be smashing in to things before the session has even started and he might put me in to a position (where I have to consider him) for tomorrow.”

He also revealed that midfielder Matt Worthington was “feeling tight” after coming off in the 67th minute of Tuesday night’s 1-1 derby draw with W*ymouth and would need to be reviewed ahead of the visit by Solihull.

 

Midfielder Lawson D’Ath can help to create more chances to get our strikers firing, the boss said.

The 29-year-old made his first appearance after nine months out through injury as a 67th-minute substitute against W*ymouth having re-signed until the end of the season.

Sarll said: “If you look at the creation of chances, we have tried to add to that by bringing Lawson in and even on Tuesday night, his passing, the way the ball arrives in front of the player just right. So many opportunities this season have been passed up because we have not got that creative timing right, so I am hoping as Lawson gets fitter and accustomed to game time, he will give us that.”

He quickly added that he believed the former Reading youngster was “nowhere near fit enough to start a game” yet.

Solihull Moors strikers Danny Newton and Andrew Dallas were both players that Darren Sarll spoke with about coming to Yeovil in the summer.

Newton played for the manager at Stevenage and joined this weekend’s opponents instead, whilst Dallas was also someone who the boss looked at.

He said: “I know Danny very well, I brought him to Stevenage from Telford, and he was a player we spoke with and we would have liked him with us. Andrew Dallas was someone they acquired from Cambridge for a fee which was out of our capabilities. I don’t know Andrew, but I know Danny, he did really well for me at Stevenage coming out of National League North and in to the League. They are in good form and Neal (Ardley) is a very experienced coach and a good guy, so these are tough games but they are the ones we have applied ourselves well in the past. I am looking forward to this one more than I was on Tuesday, it’s a good game for us.”

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

Josh Staunton is the most important player to the future of Yeovil Town Football Club since Terry Skiverton.

That’s a statement isn’t it? I’ve said it, heck I’ve written it down for you the humble reader of the Gloverscast.

You’ve read the headline, you’ve taken the click bait and now you’re waiting to see what I have to say for myself.

Well, I stand by it.

Skivo hung up his playing boots in 2010.

Since then, the Glovers have been okay, been very good and been utterly rubbish sometimes all at the same time.

We hung around in League One, got out of League One, fell back through League One before treading water in League Two and eventually well, here we are a non-League club again.

During that time, there are maybe only a couple of standout moments and teams, the main one of course being winning promotion to the Championship.

I’d argue that, of course, the 2013 team was full of these incredible players, but for me, it felt like a team who had won the Lottery. Marek Stech in goal, Ed Upson, Paddy Madden, Luke Ayling, Joe Edwards, Sam Foley, Jamie McAllister and so on and so forth.

How many of those players, honestly, at that point in time had their next five years planned out at Huish Park? Arguably, none.

We’d have wanted them all to stay but they were snaffled up, pushed out, on too much money, sold for big bucks, given opportunities at clubs they could only dream of playing for just a few months before that group got together.

Josh Staunton rises highest to a header. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

My argument here is that if you said to me, Josh Staunton has signed a deal at Huish Park until the summer of 2026, I’d not only believe you and I’d know we’d be able to build maybe more than group around him. The last player we could honestly say that with… Terry Skiverton.

Skivo marshalled our 2003 side out of non-League, he led the rampage through League Two, and even that incredible 2007 side to the League One play-off final against all odds..

The Yeovil sides that dropped out of League One with a whimper or sleep-walked out of League Two had a couple of good players and maybe if I’d have written this at the moment of relegation in 2019, this blog would have had a similar feel to it about Carl Dickinson – but he wasn’t exactly reaching his peak years.

Then there’s that first non-League side.

I’m still staggered Darren Sarll found the group he did in less than a month after being appointed, but knowing that group as we now do, I’m not surprised he galvanised them to a play off spot.

It wasn’t to be for Stuart Nelson, Luke Wilkinson, Dicko, Lee Collins, Charlie Lee, Rhys Murphy and Co., and, of course, only one of those names still plays for us.

Yeovil Town defender Luke Wilkinson.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Wilkinson isn’t exactly old at 31, he’s got a few more seasons left in him at this level, he could probably give the EFL another crack if the chance came along.

But, here again, Josh Staunton is just 26.

His best five or six years are just starting now.

He’s a leader, a midfielder, a central defender, he’s fronted up to the media after losses, and is right now the first name on the team sheet as something of standard setter.

Gloverscast CEO Ian spoke of how his arrival off the bench in the FA Trophy game against Woking from the bench– to protect the already booked Luke Wilkinson – helped change the game. We noticeably missed him in the only 45 minutes he wasn’t on the pitch.

His comeback story from being given a “20% chance of playing again” last season is, quite frankly ridiculous – even our Hollywood friends in North Wales wouldn’t write that script.

The idea of loyalty in football to the level Skivo has shown Yeovil is all but gone, it would be bonkers to think any player from this generation would be with this club until 2042 in some way, shape or form.

But in the following scenarios at the end of this season, with the next four or five campaigns in mind, does this current Josh Staunton not make every single one of them better?

  • We don’t go up, we fall short by 15 points finish 12th and have to rebuild with most of the squad leaving this summer.
  • We don’t go up, we lose the play-off final on penalties, we have to pick up this dejected young squad who would have never felt football anguish like it before.
  • We do go up, (yay!), but our best players are snapped up by rich non-League clubs and those more geographically suitable to their families.
  • We do go up (yay, again!) and we keep the bulk of this squad together.

In each of those four scenarios, Josh Staunton provides the on or off the pitch leadership we haven’t really seen since… you guessed it, Skivo.

So, yeah, sure we’ve all made fun about how much I think of Josh this season and how much we clearly missed him last season.

But if we turn the year with a new owner, or start to plan for 2022-23 counting every penny in just the same way we have this campaign, the first signature we should aim for is that of our number 32.

Not just short-term either, let’s set our stall out early as he is likely to be the mainstay of this side well beyond Wilkinson, Reuben Reid and Mark Little – the three elder statesmen of the group.

Staunton has (at time of writing) played just 24 league games for us, he’s about half way to playing more games for us than any other side in his career.

He can lead this side for 100 more games easily, maybe into the Football League and certainly through rocky patches ahead.

There will not be many 26-year-olds at this level with 150 games already behind them and playing at the level where 150 more are perfectly feasible.

Sign him on. He’s the present and future of our team, we cannot throw this chance away.

It has always taken a certain type of player to play for Yeovil. We’ve heard the stories of Staunton joining the other injured players last season in playing a key role in getting the side through the end of the campaign and we’ve seen him don the captain’s armband on a few occasions this term too.

Qualities are not always easy to define, but you know what I mean. We’ve had loanees that ‘get it’ and some that don’t, we’ve had plenty of permanent signings come and go without so much as a shrug of the shoulders, we’ve had short term flashes of brilliance… we haven’t had all those positive attributes wrapped up into one person, one leader who can shape what this football club looks like for the next generation… since, you know who.

I cannot stress this enough, Josh Staunton is the most important player to the future of Yeovil Town Football Club since Terry Skiverton.

Editor’s note.

I have gone back and forth with writing and publishing this, I’m fully expecting a level of ridicule and outrage, but the reason I’ve gone with it, is that, I want to start the chat about getting contracts sorted beyond this season and quite how our squad looks in the medium to long term and I believe Josh Staunton has every attribute Skivo had and we should everything in our power to harness that.

If Staunton isn’t the most important player to YTFC, why? Who else has affected us (or will affect us) on the pitch in that same time frame?

Let us know! 

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Josh Staunton.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town midfielder Josh Staunton fronted up to the media after the 3-0 Boxing Day defeat to Torquay United and couldn’t hide his disappointment  at the result or performance.

He told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “We weren’t anywhere near our best today, but we were still competing for probably 65 minutes, and then we’re disappointed at the ending, because we’ve been finishing games so strongly, the way we’ve come to the end of the run is really disappointing.

“I think it’s important as a group, we don’t feel like it’s the end of the world, it gives us a chance to start a new run. We’ve got a chance to put it right after New Year’s Day”

When asked about the impact of Sonny Blu Lo-Everton’s red card on 64 minutes with the game still goalless, he said the team could have responded better.

He added: “I think that’s where we have to take a bit more responsibility, remain calm, I think we lost our composure and that’s something which we haven’t done the last two months even when we’ve faced a bit of adversity, we’ve stood up to it, and today we didn’t.

“We let the red card (for Lo-Everton) really affect us, not in terms of numerical advantage, but in terms of mentality on the pitch. It’s something which we can’t allow to happen again.”

Staunton was questioned on what he and the side would take away from the defeat and he was adamant that the team would be stronger for it.

“You learn from every loss and every win, and unfortunately today, we’ve learnt the hard way. It’s a good lesson for us as a group, in terms of – we went behind against Woking but managed to come back – but we just lost our composure and lost our cool and it just goes to show, at this level, you can’t afford to have those days.

“Even for 65 minutes we weren’t at our best, but still competing, and we were in the game. We didn’t agree with things on the pitch and it’s cost us today. It’s important we learn those lessons that not everything is going to go our way, but we remain as a group and stand up and face them head on.”

Attention turned to the reverse fixture with Torquay again in the Glovers’ firing line, this time at Huish Park next Sunday.

“We take every game on it’s merit, but it (playing Torquay again so quickly) adds a bit of fuel to the fire, because, just like when we played Weymouth (in the FA Cup) we’ve got a point to prove.

“It’s disappointing, we haven’t got the game on the 28th to have a quick rebound, so we have got to hang fire for a week, but it gives us chance to right some wrongs in training, work hard and get back to what we have been doing previously.

“The most important thing is that we don’t get too down after today, because over a campaign you have ups and downs and today, we’ve had one of those downs.”

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The last-minute equaliser against local rivals W*ymouth was the turning point for Yeovil Town this season, according to Josh Staunton.

The midfielder-turned-defender said the late leveller from Tom Bearwish in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie in October force the players to look at themselves.

Having won the replay in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, the Glovers have won seven, drawn two and lost one of the last ten matches.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup second round tie at home to

Josh Staunton disagrees with Brad Ash of Weymouth

Stevenage, Staunton said: “I think when we played W*ymouth here and conceded in the last minute, we learnt a lot about each other  and it was a platform to build on.

“It was a case of we go one way or the other and we stood up to the test and we have grown as a group.

“The belief we have now is something we were lacking earlier in the season.”

The stand-in skipper, who opened his goal-scoring account with the first in the 2-0 win at Wrexham in midweek, said he felt “like a proud father” to his young team-mates.

He added that he felt the team had “found the emotional maturity” they needed to get through games.

He added: “We don’t get too carried away when we win and we don’t think we’re going to get relegated when we lose.

“We’ve found a way to get those results and momentum is a massive thing in football, when you are riding that wave you need to take riding it.”

 

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Yeovil Town stand-in skipper Josh Staunton has hailed the spirit of the team after a 2-0 win at big-spending Wrexham.

He scored his first goal for the club after 64 minutes at a wet and windy Racecourse Ground and put in another solid performance against one of the division’s promotion favourites.

The win stretches the unbeaten run to nine games and sees the Glovers unbeaten throughout January with 10 points from their last 12.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins, Staunton said: “Money buys you certain things, but we are here for Yeovil (Town) Football Club and the spirit and heart we have that is priceless.

“We have been showing that this last month with some results where we have dug in, tonight we stood up where we needed to and we have come out with a result regardless of resources.

“I have been in teams where there has been a lot more experience, but the heart in some of those young lads, especially key players like Mossy who are not Yeovil players like Mossy (Dan Moss) who is not (a contracted player).

“You can’t ask for much more, they have been giving everything and when we have been tested with a small squad, every player has stood up and you can’t ask much more.”

Staunton was full of praise for his defensive team-mates who were excellent against a star-studded Wrexham frontline including big money summer signings Paul Mullin and Jake Hyde.

He added: “I thought the back four were excellent today, young Hunty alongside me and the two full-backs.

“Morgan Williams stepping in at left-back was a different class, some of the headers he won at the back stick and even just coming inside on his right foot was excellent.

“It is not easy stepping in when you have been out in the cold, coming back from injury.”

 

 

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

Yeovil Town’s stand in skipper, Josh Staunton has been given a place in the Vanarama Team of the Week for the FA Cup.

The Glovers saw off Yate Town 5-0 in the first round proper, with Staunton not only keeping a clean sheet, but also providing an assist for Adi Yussuf’s goal.

Yeovil with host either MK Dons or Stevenage in the 2nd round in early December.

The Glovers have now gone three games without conceding with both Woking and Solihull also failing to breach the defence.

 

 

 

 

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Josh Staunton has told his Yeovil Town team-mates they have to look at themselves after conceding an injury-time equaliser against local rivals W*ymouth.

The Glovers’ skipper said the team had “not been good enough” in recent matches and had missed an opportunity to put things right and book their place in the FA Cup first round proper on Saturday.

The 93rd minute strike from Tom Bearwish saw the fourth qualifying round finish in a 1-1 draw at Huish Park.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins, he said: “Second half we have to look at ourselves as a group of men and ask why we went away from something that was working in the first half.

“We are disappointed to concede after holding on for so long, but we should never have given the a chance.

“There is no hiding place for us at the moment, the last four or five games has not been good enough and today was a chance to put it right and we didn’t do it.”

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

The 26-year-old, who played in the heart of defence alongside Max Hunt, said failing to add to their one-goal advantage in the second half was the major factor behind not winning the game.

Staunton refused to make excuses for the late equaliser saying to blame it on a lapse in concentration was “a cop out.”

He said: “We have to take ownership, those pivotal moments are fine margins.

“I put it down to going in to our shells at the wrong times, we have to get in to a mentality where someone is going to come and win that ball.”

The skipper said his team-mates now have to go in to the replay at the Bob Lucas Stadium, which is expected to be played on Tuesday night, and be prepared to go at W*ymouth.

He said: “We have to go there and put our foot down and show to them we are Yeovil and we are going to do what we do.

“The dressing room is hurting and sometimes from moments like that groups shine and we have to make sure we go in the right direction.

“The replay is the perfect opportunity to show and put three or four past them and show them that they go lucky here today.”

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Josh Staunton has said it is “a massive honour” to wear the captain’s armband in the absence of Luke Wilkinson.

The 26-year-old, who has also taken the skipper’s spot in the heart of defence for the last two games, said the responsibility is bringing out the best in him.

Speaking to the Gloverscast’s Ben Barrett ahead of the weekend’s fixture with Notts County, Staunton said: “To be handed the armband for a club like Yeovil is a massive honour and I feel proud every time I have done it.

Josh Staunton in the thick of it against King’s Lynn Town.

“I have really enjoyed it and always felt it brings the best out of me, when I was under-23 captain I seemed to find an extra per cent in me.

“I’m delighted to be wearing, I like the responsibility.”

Despite being on four yellows cards and only one away from a suspension, Staunton said he will not change his whole-hearted approach.

He added: “I think all my bookings have been for tackles and I would much rather that than be done for dissent.

“As a player you are if you are committed you are going to get a few. I don’t change my approach, I don’t go out there thinking I can’t get yellow carded.

“You still have to make sure you are making the right decisions and the team has to come first, if I have to take a yellow card for the team and miss Tuesday night (at home to Altrincham) so be it.”

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Josh Staunton.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil Town’s Josh Staunton took to social media following the Glovers’ 2-1 defeat to Boreham Wood to praise the performance of the side despite the result.

Dale Gorman’s opener was cancelled out by an own goal before Adi Yussuf was sent off just before half time.

Boreham Wood scored a winner midway through the second half with the Glovers unable to equalise despite a number of late chances.

Staunton, who was captain in the absence of Luke Wilkinson and Mark Little, said on Twitter;

“Always a hard pill to swallow after a loss. Especially after battling away with 10 men. Thought the boys were excellent second half and we were unlucky to come away empty handed in the end. The fans were amazing, we appreciate the support!”