Crowd Trouble As Yeovil Town FC Suffer Defeat Away At Hemel Hempstead
The opening day of Yeovil Town’s campaign in the National League South ended in ‘doom and gloom’ as whilst the team, despite a good pre-season, lacked firepower at the front, with a defensive mix-up at the back costing them a goal on the 78th minute.
Meanwhile, the game was marred by crowd trouble in the Yeovil fans’ away end, and the referee had to stop play as young Yeovil supporters threw missiles on the pitch.
Despite a lot of pre-season hype, after the club was finally taken over by local man Martin Hellier, on and off the pitch, Saturday ended in disappointment with more than 800 Yeovil fans travelling to Hertfordshire.
On the pitch, the Yeovil team looked lacklustre and nowhere near a promotion challenger, although it was their first outing in the NLS and having to play on a 3G plastic pitch, with a long season ahead.
It wasn’t, though, what supporters of the club expected, especially as skipper Josh Staunton had said in a pre-match interview,’ This season we know at the back if we concede a goal, we have the firepower to score two or three back’ whilst Staunton wasn’t available today, he didn’t look evident in the performance.
Fans were clearly disappointed off the pitch as crowd trouble erupted in the away end before supporters started throwing missiles on the pitch, forcing the referee to stop the game.
It will be a matter now for the FA to investigate and a possible fine for the club for not being able to control their fans, whilst sanctions could be taken for travelling away fans for future matches.
Whilst the issues were a small minority of younger supporters, the disturbances ruined the day for loyal older supporters.
Peter Coombs, who travelled up today from Crewkerne, told Global247news: ‘The performance was poor, it was very disappointing, and Cooper will need to turn it around quickly; we have four home games coming, and he needs to get the team firing otherwise, the pressure will be on him and fans will soon be calling for him to be sacked.
‘It was sad to see in this modern day a small minority of fans causing trouble; the issue to me looks to be the poor security at the club, which the club needs to sort out; the issue to me is there are not enough ‘older head’ fans on the terrace to control the young ones.
Despite the crowd issues, Manager Cooper said after the match, talking to BBC Somerset, Mark Cooper said the support was fantastic and the players didn’t deliver what they deserved. Said they did not fire at the top of the pitch and was frustrated at the ‘calamitous’ goal they conceded. Said it might give them a kick up the backside they need at this level.
Those words from Cooper, though we’re not much consolation for one supporter Greg Taylor who tweeted: ‘£75 for an Uber to the ground £15 ticket £100 booze £15 food £105 Uber home Lost 1-0 to Hemel Hempstead absolutely f****** priceless I think a part of me died today