What an eventful week! Unfortunately, from my point-of-view the needle has mostly swung in a negative manner for The Shaymen. It came as no surprise to most, I’m sure, with the terrible run we are having at Roots Hall to see True Grant save an 84th minute chance for Southend only to find it ricocheted off Mackenzie Maltby to put The Shrimpers 2-1 up. The 80-odd supporters that braved the weather and those that tuned in from home and abroad thought, ‘here we go again…’. Six defeats in a row, 3 scored and 14 conceded in Essex, but a resilient Town equalised in what felt like a win due to this terrible run.
The result did come at a huge cost though with the discovery that the hamstring issue sustained by Max Bardell will rule him out now for 4 to 5 months. An ever-present in John McGrath’s side this season, Bardell had to that point played every second of League football (and all but one National League Cup fixture too). With AJ Warburton already unavailable due to a broken jaw and the stop-start nature of Dylan Crowe’s career at The Shay so far, the Right Fullback position could become a ‘square pegs in round holes’ headache for McGrath. Thankfully Raheem Conte was able to feature Tuesday night against Barrow after being subbed in the 2nd half Saturday due to an injury woe of his own, otherwise a huge responsibility would fall onto the shoulders of Deniche Hill in the short term. Both Bardell and Conte have staked a real claim to this point to be my Player of The Season, and I wish Max the speediest of recoveries.
So, a credible draw with walking wounded came the final whistle and into Tuesday night against Barrow. They were 1-0 up at the weekend at home to Forest Green Rovers before an abandonment due to the weather and a run of five consecutive wins in the League. Town stood up well to the physicality the Cumbrians posed which was also aided by, shall I say a ‘lenient’ viewpoint towards it by Referee Michael Barlow. Conor Carty can certainly feel more aggrieved than usual and the less said about Raheem Conte’s second yellow, the better.
Despite this, Ben Tollitt bagged his 7th and 8th goals of the season and True Grant had the best showing I’ve seen from him so far. There was still a debate once more online amongst supporters about the first Barrow goal and Grant’s role in it. Did True save it? No, would Sam Johnson had saved it? Maybe, but would the big man have got down quickly enough to it? is Sam Johnson our current starting Goalkeeper? No. John McGrath has come in and made this decision early on and stuck with it. The Irishman has worked previous with Grant and assessed that is the ‘type’ of Goalkeeper he wants to play in his team and its style. He seems to be conceding to a lot of wonder strikes, but still had, until recently, the most clean sheets in the league. Has he conceded some soft goals? Yes, has he conceded unfortunate goals? Yes (think back to the second Southend goal last Saturday), has his distribution been excellent and then at times put the team under pressure? Yes, to both – that’s the nature of being between the sticks!
I still believe what was said at the Q&A in that Johnson (and he also mentioned Shaun Hobson in the same vein) has improved/adapted their way of playing since he came in. Yes, McGrath and his team did speak of Johnson in such glowing terms last Thursday evening knowing he was going out on loan to Solihull until January, but that still does not necessarily change or alter what they said. The loan move gives Johnson more minutes and experience playing that way and should anything happen to Grant in the meantime (recall or injury), we can also recall Sam – he is still a Halifax player. The club has also put Kobie Mathers on a deserved contract in the meantime which is a solid move. He can cover until Johnson can come back, or should True Grant vacate the club for any reason, he can step in as a number two. Who knows, he may even play and become our number one!
There is still part of me that can’t quite believe we lost to Barrow on Tuesday and it left me stunned the next day for sure. The momentum swung once Barrow scored the first referenced earlier. The changes made were done at the right time, at 2-0 up bringing Will Hugill in the shore up Midfield was wise as was subbing Crowe for Hill. In Hindsight (it’s always 20-20!), the team could have done with Amari Morgan-Smith introduced earlier. We saw why Barrow were on the run they are and whilst one of the most undeserved wins in recent memory, they still won and that won’t matter one jot to them.
I have no doubt Yeovil will pose a similar, if not harder challenge today and a warm welcome to everyone who have travelled up from Somerset and beyond for this 12.30 kick off – thanks DAZN. The Glovers are 4th but can jump up to 2nd with a win today. They are the 3rd highest scorers so far (36) and boast the joint 2nd meanest Defence (18 alongside Barrow, Town with 20 have the joint 4th with Alty). Both clubs have locked horns on a regular basis in their Non-League campaigns. Like Southend last week when the two had a period where they did not meet (between 2003 and 2019), it was mainly due to Yeovil rising through the leagues whilst The Shaymen battled with financial hardships and had to fight back up from demotion. There have been 12 meetings since The Glovers dropped back into Non-League with 5 wins, 3 draws, and 2 defeats with 11 scored and 10 conceded for The Shaymen.
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