Defender Morgan Williams will be fit for Yeovil Town’s opening National League Premier Division game of the season this weekend, according to Glovers’ boss Mark Cooper.
The centre half fractured his hand after a collision with a metal fence at the side of the pitch during the 1-0 pre-season friendly defeat at Weston-super-Mare on Saturday, and appeared in Monday’s open training session at Huish Park wearing a plaster cast.
Cooper said he had no doubts the former Coventry City player would be available to face Hartlepool United on Saturday and said that full-back Alex Whittle and midfielder Charlie Cooper would also be available.
He told BBC Somerset’s Jack Killah: “It is a really dangerous area (of the Woodspring Stadium) with a metal fence really close to the touchline which I think three players collided with on the day. Morgs collided with it and fractured on the top of his hand and he has had a soft cast put on, so he will be good to play, he is desperate to play, he will not let a small break in his hand stop him, he is a warrior, so he will want to be out there and we need him to be out there.”
Neither Whittle or Cooper, who both came off against Weston, featured in training on Monday, but Cooper said: “That was just precautionary, they both got knocks at Weston and we did not want to risk him, but they will both be out there training today which gives us a bit more depth.”
The defeat at Weston meant Yeovil finished pre-season with a record of played seven, won four, lost three, but the manager said he was happy with his squad which he has supplemented with eight summer signings – read more about these HERE.
Cooper said: “It is a small squad which is what we were after, a squad with as much quality as we could get, I still think we are a couple (of players) short, but we will go with what we have got. You never know where you are (after) pre-season, until you get punched on the nose in the first round, you never really know where you are. All the right intentions are there, we have worked hard and we are going to try and put a show on at home against a really tough opposition.”
Hartlepool finished their pre-season campaign with a defeat against National League North side South Shields at the weekend, but have won five and drawn one of their other six matches, including against XIs from Leeds United, Middlesbrough and Scottish giants Rangers.
They are a club in off-the-field turmoil with the club’s supporters in conflict with owner Raj Singh, who this week wrote to all National League clubs asking them not to admit former Sky Sports’ presenter Jeff Stelling, a lifelong Hartlepool fan who stepped down as club president in protest against Singh’s protracted sale of the club.
Cooper said he was not taking too much out of the North East side’s outing against South Shields – and invited the broadcaster to join him in the Huish Park dug-out at the weekend.
He said: “I would not put too much emphasis on the South Shields game, they played a different formation and rested some players. They have got a really experienced, terrific manager for this level in Simon Grayson. He has had real success as a manager, so he knows what he is doing and they will be a really tough, uncompromising team full of good, experienced players who know what they are doing. It is going to be really tough game and we are expecting nothing else.
“A lot of clubs are in (, I look from a distance and I think Jeff Stelling is going to be sat with me in the dug-out on Saturday! It just seems crazy there is so much stuff going on, but we look like we are settled for now and let’s hope there is a period of calmness and stability with our ownership and, after Saturday, that Hartlepool have that as well.”
Cooper also called on Glovers’ fans to get behind his side as they look to avoid the same result as last season when Hartlepool ran out 1-0 winners on the opening day at Huish Park.
He said: “We need the fans to make it a really difficult place to play for the opposition and hopefully they can get behind us from the first minute because it makes a hell of a difference at Huish Park. The supporters underestimate how much of a part they have to play in this project, they are such a big part because if they are at it, it gives the players such a lift. If they are not and there is a lot of apathy about, it becomes a lot easier for the opposition to play their stuff and make it difficult for us. I always say it, whatever (our supporters’) feelings are, get behind the players during the game and, if they are not happy afterwards, they are within their rights to boo and call us what they want.“
Will YTFC allow a welcome JEFF STELLING banner. Will fund it if so. Absolute football legend who has confirmed he is coming