Weston Super Mare

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Yeovil Town boss Mark Cooper paid tribute to Morgan Williams as he went from villain to hero after scoring the winner in a 2-1 home win over Weston-super-Mare at Huish Park tonight.

The defender headed home an 83rd minute goal to grab a vital three points having been at fault for Weston’s first half goal in the first half on a night that second-placed Worthing slipped to a 4-1 defeat at Welling United.

That means the Glovers moved 13 points clear at the top of National League South table going in to Saturday’s trip to third-placed Chelmsford City.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall said: “You see again tonight that another team have come here with no pressure, with really good players and they can go and express themselves and I thought Weston were brilliant tonight in the way they played.

“We started great, played some brilliant football and got in front and then conceded a rubbish goal. Morgs got done, I just said to him that his character and personality has won us that game. He refuses to give in and he goes and gets the winning goal.

“Fair play to Toddy (assistant manager, Chris Todd), because he works really hard with Morgan and Jake Wannell on the set-pieces and it’s another one tonight that got us over the line. You can talk about how well you have played but it’s a winner from a set piece again and we have scored a lot of them and winning teams score from set pieces.”

The boss challenged his side to do more to put their opponents to the sword after creating a number of chances to make their win more convincing, as they had in the 1-0 win over Havant & Waterlooville last weekend.

Cooper said: “The only thing I am a little bit peeved about is the fact we create so many chances and we are not putting them away at the moment. We are having to rely on one or two goals when we should be scoring four and that gives the opposition a chance. If you look at the gilt-edged chances today through Youngy (Jordan Young) and Stevo (Jordan Stevens), they get brilliant chances and we are relying on a header from a centre half to win us the game.

“We miss a lot of chances, look at Youngy’s chance, he is in the six-yard box and he dribbles it out of play when he can just roll it under the keeper. But you have to remember what they have done, as well as what they haven’t done.

“You also have to remember that these players have to deal with the expectancy every game that they have to win and the opposition are not getting relegated or promoted and that is a really dangerous recipe to play against a team which has so many technically-gifted players on a really good pitch. So credit to our boys. I thought in the last seven or eight minutes when we went 2-1 up, we defended our box brilliantly.

“I’m so pleased for our boys, I am really proud of them because they stood up once again.”

Mark Cooper revealed striker Olly Thomas could return “in the next ten days.”
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil named only four substitutes on the bench tonight and Cooper admitted he did not want to bring on striker Frank Nouble, who arrived with the game tied at 1-1.

He is hoping to have midfielder Charlie Cooper and left-back Alex Whittle, who were not in the squad through injury and illness respectively, back for the visit of third-placed Chelmsford City on Saturday, when they will be without the suspended Jordan Young. He is also hoping on loan Bristol City striker Olly Thomas is close to a return for action.

The manager said: “We didn’t want to lose Frank as well as Youngy, so we tried to get some rest back in to Frank’s legs tonight. The idea was not to use him and save him for Saturday, but we have had to put him on.

“He made a big impact when he came on with a great run and shot. I am hopeful Whittle and Cooper will be fit to play on Saturday which gives us a big lift and adds to those numbers and I think Olly Thomas will be back within the next ten days.

“I thought that was more like it tonight from our fans. There was an energy from them and it made for a good atmosphere and they have got as big a part to play now as us. I have been speaking about it for weeks, not in a conceited or arrogant way, but successful clubs have that real energy between players and fans and it was there tonight.“

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Yeovil Town match winner Morgan Williams has said some half time words of encouragement helped the Glovers grab all three points against Weston Super-Mare.

Williams’ late winner sent the Glovers 13 points clear at the top of the table, but it wasn’t without being tested for large parts of the game.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Ian Randall after the game, the defender said; “I think I needed it, after the start, I didn’t play too well today, but, the result is what matters and we got that.

Today was probably my worst game possible, but credit to the players and the gaffer and all the staff, they all backed me at half time and just said ‘you’re better than that, you know that’ and they just gave me the confidence to go believe and Toddy even said it to me, he said ‘you can go and redeem yourself by getting a goal’ and that’s what I did”

Morgan Williams celebrates his 83rd minute winner against Weston-super-Mare.

The corner that saw the winner scored came from Sonny Blu Lo Everton, one of many players who had been creative, without being ruthless, but a moment of quality was all it took

“It’s a beautiful ball, we’ve got players with that quality, and we’ve just got to get on the end of it, obviously Jake Wannell has got on the end of a few lately, so it’s my turn to try and catch up with him”

“It’s not always going to be pretty, teams come back and have a game plan to sit back against us and it’s hard to break them down, but we’re finding a way to win and that’s the most important thing, 

We had a few chances and we knew we should have taken them, we did it in the end and we’re really happy with that.”

Morgan Williams celebrates with the travelling fans at the end of the match against Worthing away.

The win, combined with Worthing slipping up 4-1 at lowly Welling means that the Glovers are now 13 points clear at the top of the NLS, with a game in hand… (if Truro ever get round to sorting a date out), the news trickled through to the group at full time.

“Absolutely buzzing, but the changing room was just saying we have got to focus on ourselves and just keep winning games… we’ve just got to focus on Chelmsford now, try and beat them on Saturday and keep going.

We’ve got a real tight group, the staff are close with us, we know what we have to do and we just keep churning out games, big games coming up, but we’ve just got to go game by game, we’ll look at Chelmsford and focus on the rest of them after.”

 

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Morgan Williams was the hero with an 83rd minute header to take all three points in a 2-1 home win over Somerset rivals Weston-super-Mare at Huish Park, but who was your Man of the Match tonight?

Who was your Man of the Match against Weston-super-Mare?

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A second half Morgan Williams goal earned Yeovil Town a gritty win in the all-Somerset clash with Weston-super-Mare at Huish Park on Tuesday night.

The Glovers made a perfect start when Sam Pearson opened the scoring after 50 seconds but the visitors pulled level when Jacob Cane took advantage of a mix-up between Williams and Joe Day to lift the ball over the keeper with 23 minutes played.

It took until seven minutes from time for Williams to head home a corner to maintain a magnificent home record with yet another win.

Here’s how Ian saw it from his spot in the stands…..

First half

Yeovil Town were forced into changes and named just four players on the bench. Jay Foulston came in for Alex Whittle who missed out completely, Will Dawes came in for Dylan Morgan and Jordan Stevens started in place of Frank Nouble. 

It took less than a minute for the Glovers to open the scorning. Neat interplay between Young, Smith and Stevens saw the winger played through into space on the right hand side and his low delivery was flicked home by SAM PEARSON. 1-0

 

The familiar pattern of patient play emerged following the goal with Yeovil probing their opponents and in the 12th minute green shirts flooded forward and Matt Worthington drew a save from Max Harris after being played through. 

In a game Yeovil had total control of, a moment of misjudgment by Morgan Williams allowed JACOB CANE to get in behind the Glovers backline and loop the ball over Joe Day into the back of the net to equalise.

Three minutes later, Jordan Young came close to restoring Yeovil’s advantage after a cross from Will Dawes, but his left-footed effort was wide of the mark.

The equaliser seemed to spark a bit of life into Mark Cooper’s side as they upped the tempo around the Weston box. They had to keep their wits about them though, as a fierce left-footer from Rex Mannings flashed wide of Day’s post.

Yeovil regained control again, with patient play. But as Weston prevented Yeovil playing through the lines, the Huish Park crowd grew restless and the composure began to fade. A loose long pass from Williams allowed Weston to get forward, but the final ball was lacking.

A late set piece after a Jake Wannell foul got the hearts racing a bit, but the header from Humphries was high and wide.

Half time: Yeovil Town 1 Weston-super-Mare 1

Second half

Neither side many any changes at half time and Yeovil came out stronger of the two teams. It wasn’t until the 54th minute when a decent chance opened up. A good ball over the top found Sam Pearson who had to cut back onto his left foot. Pearson sliced his effort wide when he had support from Dawes to his left.

Another chance came soon after with a dangerous ball into the box that a falling Jordan Young couldn’t connect with inside the six yard box.

The gloves of Joe Day were called into action moments later from a stinging Dayle Grubb shot.

On the hour mark, Stevens drew another save from Harris with a low shot, but he had options square to him as well.

Young crept through inside the box and instead of shooting when the chance was there, he tried to round the keeper and couldn’t bundle in. Yeovil’s number 7 appealed for the penalty, but the referee waved them away.

In the 62nd minute, Mark Cooper introduced Frank Nouble for Jordan Stevens and in the 69th, Will Dawes made way for Dylan Morgan.

There was a nervy moment for Yeovil when Wannell conceded a free kick in a promising position for Weston. After what felt like an eternity, Grubb skied it into the away end.

Nouble got the supporters going with a ranger from distance with his left foot that had Harris panicking. He composed himself and parried away as Alex Fisher put on the pressure.

Yeovil regained their lead from another set piece special in the 83rd minute. MORGAN WILLIAMS rose above everyone to power a header past Harris in front for the Thatchers! 2-1

After the goal, Weston took control as they searched for a leveller. Yeovil were penned back and were defending for their lives at times.

The Glovers held on scored another valuable win!

Full time: Yeovil Town 2 Weston-super-Mare 1

Match Details

Venue: Huish Park
Date: Tuesday 20th February – 7:45pm

Competition: National League South

Pitch: Held up in places and showing a little wear and tear in goal-mouth
Conditions: A cold, clear night under the lights

Attendance: 3,390 (208 away supporters)

Scorers: Sam Pearson 1, (1-0), Jacob Cane 23, (1-1), Morgan Williams 83, (2-1)

Bookings: 
Yeovil Town: None
Weston-super-Mare: Jacob Cane 

Referee:  Shelby Elson

Yeovil Town (4-2-3-1)

Substitutes: Dylan Morgan (for Will Dawes 69), Frank Nouble, (for Jordan Stevens, 62), Alex Fisher (for Jordan Young, 77), Josh Owers (not used).

Weston-super-Mare: Max Harris, Keiran Thomas, Jason Pope (for Jordan Bastin 64), Raphael Arayoe, Lloyd Humphries, James Dodd, Jacob Jagger Cane, Dayle Grubb, Robbie Willmott (Sam Avery, 90+3), Marlon Jackson, Rex Mannings (Bailey Kempster, 83). Substitutes (not used): Jamie Soule, Alex Fletcher.

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Striker Frank Nouble has been rested for tonight’s all-Somerset clash with Weston-super-Mare in National League South at Huish Park tonight.

Manager Mark Cooper said the 32-year-old was being taken out of the starting line-up with a visit to third-placed Chelmsford City coming up on Saturday.

Dylan Morgan also drops to the bench with Jordan Stevens and Will Dawes brought in to a pacey line-up to face the Seagulls. The other change sees left back Alex Whittle, who has come off early in the previous two matches, replaced by Jay Foulston.

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset reporter Ian Randall ahead of the game, Cooper said: “We don’t want to lose Frank and (Jordan) Young for the weekend, so we have Dawes on the left with Pearson up top with Youngy in behind him and Jordan Stevens on the right.

“We think (Alex Whittle) has some kind of virus that makes him light-headed and when he gets to the stage he has exerted himself we can’t carry on. So we have to give him a week’s rest to see if it settles down.

Alex Whittle.
? Gary Brown

Cooper also insisted that has said the season will had “loads of trials and tribulations” yet to throw at his team and reiterated his comments after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Havant & Waterlooville that the Huish Park crowd can play a major role in the rest of the campaign.

He said: “We have to keep going, it’s still February. (The fans) still have a massive part to play, they have to get behind us, we need that. They can roar us on to where we need to go to. Massive, not passive.

“We’ll find out (whether this is a derby or not) when the game starts and see what the atmosphere is like.“

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Yeovil Town have named a speedy forward line and only four substitutes for the visit of Somerset rivals Weston-super-Mare to Huish Park this evening (7.45pm kick-off).

Jordan Stevens, who has appeared off the bench in the previous two matches, makes his first start since returning from a long-term injury and is joined by Will Dawes in an attack including Sam Pearson and Jordan Young with Dylan Morgan and Frank Nouble dropping to the bench.

The other (widely expected) change sees Jay Foulston slot in for Alex Whittle, who has gone off early in the previous two matches, at left-back.

On the bench, Nouble and Morgan are joined by Josh Owers and Alex Fisher.

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Yeovil Town put their unbeaten home record on the line once more when 16th place Weston Super-Mare pay a visit to Huish Park on Tuesday night..

This may, or may not, be considered a Somerset Derby, both sides to lie within the county boundaries, but ‘Derby’ might be pushing it a bit.

Yeovil Team News

Picture Courtesy of Gary Brown

The Glovers are hoping to build on their 1-0 win over Havant and Waterlooville on Saturday.

In terms of team news; Jordan Young is available before sitting out the next two away games after this midweek match up, the forward picked up his 10th yellow card at the weekend.

It’s expected that Alex Whittle will be missing though, he’s been forced off early on each of the last two outing for the Glovers, Jay Foulston a likely replacement in the starting line up. Whilst it’s expected that Charlie Cooper could be involved in a match day squad for the first time in a while.

The Glovers are still missing a trio of significant forward options with Rhys Murphy, Jake Hyde and Olly Thomas all out through injury.

Weston Team News 

Reuben Reid. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The Super-Mare’s (I couldn’t think of their actual nickname when writing this) will bring a certain Reuben Reid with them to Huish Park.

Reid had two spells as a Glover and has nine goals in 26 appearances for Weston this season, however, hasn’t been named in a match day squad during February.

Other than Reid, Dayle Grubb leads their goal scoring charts with seven for the season in the league. 

Speaking after his side’s 2-1 win over Hemel on Saturday, Weston boss Scott Bartlett said;

“These are the games that you look forward to, these are the games that you want. Yeovil are doing really well, I’ve worked with Mark for a long time and they’re having a fantastic season… I think sometimes at home it might more difficult for Yeovil, than it will be away.

Teams are coming there to shut up shop, but we won’t do that, we can come and have a right good go, we know how strong they are, powerful they are, how good their squad is, Mark is an excellent coach, they’ll be really well drilled, they’ll know everything about us, we can go there as a club and give it our best shot.

It’s certainly a game we are looking forward to, after we’ve played that one, I hope they can go on and get the job done and go up, because they’ve had a difficult time as a club over the last period.”

 

 

When We Last Met.

Yeovil went to Weston Super Mare and picked up a 3-2 win earlier in the season, goals from Jordan Young, Jamie Sendels White and Frank Nouble giving the Glovers all three points away from home.

 

Elsewhere in the NLS

Aveley and Maidstone met on Monday night, but on Tuesday, the other promotion contenders are in action too;

Bath host Truro, Worthing head to Welling, Chelmsford travel to Hemel Hempstead, St Albans are away at Dover, Braintree host Tonbridge whilst Torquay are playing…. sorry, we said promotion contenders, didn’t we?

How To Watch/Listen

The best place it at Huish Park itself, tickets are available right up until kick off.

BBC Somerset and Three Valleys Radio will have live commentary, whilst the game is also available on National League TV for £9.50

 

 

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Yeovil Town’s home match with Weston-super-Mare on February 20th will be streamed on National League TV, the league has confirmed.

From now on in, the league will not be streaming every match in National League North and South outside 3pm kick-offs after the league decided subscribers had not been at sufficient number, whilst conveniently ignoring the refunds it has had to pay out due to a sub-standard service.

However, the fixture at Huish Park is one of two National League South matches selected for streaming along with Torquay United’s trip to Farnborough Town.

In fact, Gary Johnson’s side will have three matches streamed during the month of February, with their visit to Maidstone next Tuesday and the visit to Taunton Town on 13th February also showing….if you’re bored.

One assumes the larger fanbase of both the Glovers and Torquay meet the standards of the National League – let’s hope the calibre of their streaming matches up.

The streamed fixtures in full….

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An away win, the first in 220 days. Three away goals in a winning league match away from Huish Park, for the first time in nearly two years. It was a thriller alright, Ben had the stream on, here’s what he took away from the game.

Five conclusions were tough… it could have easily been ten! But we’ve whittled it down. 

Firstly, let’s talk about Jordan Young.

According to Mark Cooper post match, we parted with somewhere in the region of £5,000 to secure his services last season. 

At the back end of the 2022/23 season, we had a kid with bags of potential, down on his luck, getting to grips with the full time game. He looked raw but like he had something about him, what I saw last night was probably the best 60 minutes I’ve seen of him in Green and White (well, Yellow and Black).

He’s got a set piece delivery to match plenty of those who have smashed a dead ball for the Glovers, but I saw more than that, a fight to get the ball off his team mates, to be direct, to give defenders a nightmare, but also a desire to do his defensive work too.

He’ll probably admit he got bullied off the ball at times last season, but he’s clearly gaining strength, he’s clearly a confidence player and his confidence must be sky high right now. He’s fast approaching ‘first name on the team sheet’ status.

Let’s watch that free kick again shall we? – You don’t save those.

I watched on the stream and whilst initially had radio coverage on as well, I quickly realised that the camera and microphone positioning allowed for a real insight into Mark Cooper’s touchline style. So I listened, and learned two things.

Firstly, the Weston super-Mare fans situated near the dugout need to wash their mouth out with soap… some very fruity language on show, at times it bordered on abusive actually – Nouble, Worthington and Cooper all coming under regular fire far beyond what I would call ‘normal’ football style ‘banter’ (I hate that word).

But seriously, someone at WSM should remind their fans, that camera and microphone picks it all up… 

Anyway, I digress, Mark Cooper still kicks every ball, still makes every header and really offered a hands on approach to his coaching.

He, at times, literally helped Jamie Sendles-White through the first half, screaming where to be, where to move. Being out of position at right back would have been new to him and he got all the help he needed and put in a very solid display during the first 45.

Cooper claims the assist to Young’s free kick (above) shouting at JS-W to make sure Young took the spot kick and not allow Murphy to pull rank, he kept the team motivated and kept reminding them of the basics; “Face Up”, “Shape”, “Sprint back in”, “Less turnovers lads”… stuff that might seem fairly trivial, but for me shows he’d be out there himself if he could.

Mark Cooper in discussion with captain Josh Staunton during the 2-1 home win over St Albans. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Frank Nouble – the Green and White Berbatov?

We’ve maybe been slightly critical of Nouble on the podcast over the last couple of games, but I really tried to watch him closely in this line up. There were times he frustrated, there were times he seemed to go quiet and times he could arguably have done a bit better with what was given to him in the way of service, but then… Bang. Goal.

One he had to be strong for, one he had to get spot on under the pressure he was facing, and finished it off well from close range.

I think, there’s no doubt in my mind he’s got all the qualities to be a real force at this level, I’m not sure he’s a back-to-goal striker, I think we want to see him ball at feet, running at players and making it really difficult to win the ball from. 

But, much like Berbatov, quiet spells, drifting in and out of games all look strange, but if he takes the chances that come his way, he could easily find himself up towards double figures in no time at all. Almost without anyone noticing.

Let’s have his goal too shall we?

Squad depth, rotation and doing the dirty work in places you wouldn’t normally.

Last night we started with a central defender at right back, a right back at the heart of the midfield three and ended with Matt Worthington in an attacking left position and all whilst managing several players on Yellow cards.

It hadn’t really hit me until last night, just how stretched this season will become. Games aren’t 90 minutes, last night went well over 100, seven Glovers players were booked, taking a couple of them to within touching distance of a ban. 

Minutes in the legs will need to be managed, both Jordan Young and Rhys Murphy were probably brought off with their fitness just been looked after and most, if not all of the team were really flagging towards the end.

If Jake Hyde has a sore calf and JS-W has an achilles concern then that’s two more people to think about. It was great that Josh Owers came in and played so well, but we will certainly need our full squad. We may need to ask about Will Dawes, the only one of those with a squad number not to make a first team squad so far, we may even need to ask about Scott Pollock – spotted back training at Alvington yesterday – every squad member is going to do a lot of pitching in, playing out of position and being asked a lot of. 

That’s fine, but it’s going to take some man management, we don’t want benches going unfilled, we need our full range of options if we are to achieve our goals this season.

Jordan Young celebrates his first goal for the club.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Finally, 850 fans and everyone of them deserved that moment.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m gutted to be so far away this season, but watching (and listening) to the game last night, the fans were exceptional. It was noted post match by all three of Cooper, Staunton and Young how important you are. 

We’ve continued to sell away tickets in our numbers this season, I’m sure that’ll continue and so long as you keep doing yourselves and the club proud, you’re helping. You’re 100% helping.

Is it a cheesy, cliche to say you got the team over the line… maybe, but there’s no doubt in my mind, that big crowds, crowds within touching distance of the pitch can make a difference, can get their support into the minds of both sets of players.

Oh how I wanted to be in the away end on Tuesday, to watch our team play good football at times, to keep a decent enough side at arms length for periods and to be honest, pick up about as comfortable a 3-2 win as is possible, on another day that game ends 6-1 and no one bats an eyelid.

On to Eastbourne!

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Yeovil Town goal scorer Jordan Young spoke to the Glovers’ YouTube channel following the 3-2 win over Weston super Mare on Tuesday.

“I’m definitely happy, it was a good start to the game, happy with the result, we made hard work of it, but we got there in the end.”

Young also claims an assist and a pre-assist (if that’s even a thing) as it was his set pieces which saw the other two Glovers goals, he was delighted to contribute.

“Coops wasn’t playing today so, I had to take them from both side which was fine, we got off to a flying start, wen’t 2-0 up and we probably should have done better to see the game out easier than we did – if we don’t concede in the first half, we go in 2-0 and it’s comfortable”

“I want to play every game that I can, it’s been a bit tough, but I’ve got there in the end.”

There was credit for Weston’s approach, the newly promoted side gave a good fight in the search for a way back into the game.

“They’re a good team, started really well, when we went 2-0 up and they scored, they had a lot of pressure towards the end of the first half especiialy, but we came out, got the goal and then it was comfortable, we probably should have made it 4-1.

“It’s tough, we don’t want to end games like that, we want to end games in control and better than we did, but we got there in the end.”

The final, and main word was (again) for the fans, 850 additional players making sure the Glovers recorded their first away win in 220 days.

“Every game we’ve played, especially at home, but obviously away too, we had a good 800 (850, Jordan actually ?) here, it’s massive, it get’s us over the line at the end.”