Marmon calls for ‘complete revamp’ at Yeovil following relegation

Posted Sunday, April 28, 2019 by PA

Yeovil caretaker manager Neale Marmon believes the club need a ‘complete revamp’ after their relegation to the National League was confirmed with a 2-2 draw against Northampton on Saturday.

The Glovers were 2-0 ahead at half-time through goals from Tristan Abrahams and Jake Gray at Sixfields, but that lead was wiped out by Omar Sowunmi’s own goal and a calm finish from Daniel Powell.

It went from bad to worse when relegation rivals Macclesfield took the lead at Port Vale and, with Yeovil unable to find a late winner, their 16-year stay in the English Football League came to an end.

“It was a good first half from us but their manager would have had a real go at half-time because they were sloppy,” said Marmon, who replaced Darren Way last month.

“Our central defence was dodgy at the start of the second half and we conceded two quick goals and suddenly they’re right back in the game again.

“We came back and had our chances at the end but it wasn’t to be. Our mentality isn’t that strong at the moment and conceding the second goal straight after the first put us on the back foot.

“They’re a very, very young team who aren’t used to being down at the bottom and they’ve lost a lot of games, so we haven’t picked up confidence over a long period of time.

“There needs to be a complete revamp. There doesn’t need to be big squad changes because otherwise you don’t get any consistency but we’ll sit down with clear heads and think about the situation.

“Hopefully the takeover deal will go through this week and we can start from a new beginning.”

Northampton manager Keith Curle was left deeply unimpressed by his side’s first-half display and particularly their defending for the first goal, when Joe Powell fouled Sowunmi for a spot-kick.

“The first half was embarrassing,” he said. “The second half is something like where we need to be but I wouldn’t say I was proud of them fighting back because it’s a minimum requirement to run around.

“If you grab somebody around the waist with both arms and they go to ground, the referee can interpret that as you dragging them to the ground.

“We’d appeal for it in the other box, so it’s naive defending and there’s no need to defend in that manner. It means you’re trying to take a shortcut and you’re not focused on your job – where the ball is and where your man is.

“You can’t grab someone around the waist and drag them to the ground or give someone the opportunity to go to ground but that’s a learning curve.

“The second goal was from a throw-in and it was embarrassing. It wasn’t even clever play or movement, it was basic defending.”