Yeovil’s ‘total focus’ on Latics fixture

Tom Eaves

YEOVIL manager Gary Johnson hasn’t allowed his gaze to stray too far from the father-and-son meet-up on Saturday.

The Glovers were this week drawn to face Manchester United at home in the third round of the FA Cup — provided they can get past League Two outfit Accrington Stanley in a second-round replay on Tuesday night.

Attentions have naturally been drawn to the tantalising prospect of Louis van Gaal’s men arriving at Huish Park early next year.

But with the team so perilously-placed in Sky Bet League One — they are 23rd, only a point clear of the foot of the table — Johnson senior, his assistant Terry Skiverton and coach Darren Way are only too aware of the importance of the task at hand.

“The good thing for us two is that it’s taken the focus away from father and son,” said Gary Johnson, who was involved in a verbal spat with a Glovers supporter after their unconvincing 1-1 at Accrington last week.

“We’ve got three important games before the New Year, leading up to Manchester United, including Accrington.

“Oldham are going well and Terry and Darren won’t allow me to lose focus. Of course I have to talk about Manchester United, you can’t go ‘I’ll worry about it later’ because people will think we don’t care.

“Our total focus in our training and in everything we do is Oldham first. We’ve got to get a few walking wounded back if we can because it’s a heavy period and we haven’t been lucky with injuries this year.

“But, when we get them all back and we can pick our best team we can show more then than what we are now.”


THE FORM . . .


Following relegation from the Championship, Yeovil have won only five of their 23 matches to date, though three of those victories have come away from home.

Recent wins over Crawley in the FA Cup and then at Notts County — a game in which the Magpies played for just over an hour with 10 men, after Gary Jones’ dismissal — haven’t really papered over the cracks.


PLAYER GUIDE . . .


The defensive line-up features no fewer than four loan players, giving some indication as to Yeovil’s difficulties this season.

Goalkeeper Jed Steer is being borrowed from Aston Villa, while none of defensive trio Ben Nugent (Cardiff), Stephen Arthurworrey (Fulham) or Jordan Clarke (Coventry) are fully-fledged Glovers.

Winger Sam Foley has emerged as a rare bright spot in a poor season so far and Clarke has also impressed in his short stint to date.

Up front, Athletic will do battle with former youth-team player Tom Eaves, who is also on loan at the club from Bolton.

He is expected to start in place of veteran forward and regular Latics scourge James Hayter.

On-loan Crystal Palace defender Ryan Inniss sits out the game, which forms the second of his three-match ban.


EXPERT VIEW . . .


Chris Sweet, Western Gazette: “There have been one or two unfortunateperformances in among some gutsy displays in November. It is a difficult time at the moment at the club and some fans feeling a little disgruntled.”


LINE-UP . . . 4-5-1


Steer; Clarke, Arthurworrey, Nugent, Smith; Dawson, Edwards (c), Berrett, Gillett, Foley; Eaves.