Defender Morgan Williams will be missing for Yeovil Town’s trip to newly-promoted Boston United this weekend, manager Mark Cooper has confirmed.
The boss said the centre half was suffering concussion after getting “a stray elbow off the ball” in the 1-0 defeat against Rochdale at Huish Park on Bank Holiday Monday, and expects him to miss this weekend and the trip to AFC Fylde the following Saturday.
He confirmed he expected left-back Alex Whittle, who missed both the Glovers’ matches over the Bank Holiday weekend, to travel to Lincolnshire this weekend, and it would appear Williams’ absence gives summer signing Finn Cousin-Dawson an opportunity.
On the former Bradford City player, Cooper said: “He has a tough combination to break in Williams and (Jake) Wannell, he coming in to a new area, it has not worked that smoothly for some of the boys who are getting used to how we do things. When he gets his opportunity, he has to take it, and that is the same with any player, it is about seizing the opportunity and making sure you are doing your job in a game situation.”
Following the defeat on Monday, Cooper said he needed to “do a bit of work in the transfer market” and bring for more experience to his squad.
Asked about this on Thursday, he said: “We need players with a bit of know-how to get things done when we are on top. To make sure we can kill teams off or if we are defending a lead, making sure we don’t make a silly error to not defend our box properly, we have to get those details right.”
On whether he expected any incomings imminently, the boss added: “I have nothing to say, we are always looking to improve the squad.”
Having gone down 3-1 away at Gateshead last Saturday, Yeovil were undone by a 91st-minute winner from Rochdale on home soil on Bank Holiday Monday. Meanwhile, this weekend’s opponents, Boston United, picked up the result of the weekend with a 2-0 win away at big-spending York City.
Cooper said he thought his side played well for the first hour of the game on Monday, without taking the opportunities to kill the game when they came.
He said: “There was only going to be one team that was going to win in the first half and that was us. Then in the last half-an-hour when we couldn’t score, they sensed a bit of blood and we committed a crazy (mistake which led to a) goal. It is frustrating, we need to be more ruthless and have that ruthless edge that we will need at this higher level. We are frustrated with the game and the result.
“It is always important to get points and win games. I am not going to get too bogged down with results, it is about performances and our performances have not been bad, they have been good. But we have to find that ruthless edge when we get these opportunities to kill teams off.”
On Boston, he said: “They had a great result at York, but we have to concentrate on the things that make us good. We are not going to throw everything out of the window because Boston beat York and we lost to Rochdale. It is alright showing your have fire in training, but you need to show it when the referee’s whistle goes and you get an opportunity to showcase your ability. It’s about executing whatever your job in the team is, we have seen loads of players who are really good in training, this is about nailing it when they are on the pitch.”