Mycampusplug
Breaking News: Yeovil Town Manager Slams Referee for Not Red-Carding Hartlepool Defender
Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper felt Hartlepool United defender Tom Parkes should have been sent off in the opening exchanges of Saturday’s clash.
Pools, in competitive action under boss Darren Sarll for the first time, were decidedly more physical and combative than they have been in recent memory, amassing five yellow cards in Somerset.
The first of the bookings came not long after referee David Rock’s whistle had signalled the start of the contest when Tom Parkes launched into a sliding challenge on Jordan Young to thwart a Yeovil counter-attack.
Cooper, who played for Pools between 1996 and 97, scoring nine goals in 31 games, felt the experienced defender got off lightly and told the assembled press afterwards that he felt Parkes had been lucky to remain on the pitch.
“I thought there should have been a red card after a minute,” he said.
“I thought it was a horrendous tackle.
“If it had been 15 minutes later in the second game, it would have been a straight red.”
The former Tamworth, Forest Green and Barrow boss did offer Pools some, rather begrudging, praise and hailed them as a “team of men”.
That would surely have been music to Darren Sarll’s ears, with the new manager having worked hard all summer to assemble a team capable of physically dominating their opponents.
Cooper said: “I thought there was nothing in the game, it was a tight game.
“They’re a team of men, very physical.
“They’re a team of blokes.
“I thought we dominated the ball for large parts without offering very much in the final third.”
Pools looked the more threatening side in the second half, with the forward line of Mani Dieseruvwe, Adam Campbell, Joe Grey and Luke Charman all causing the Glovers problems.
Nathan Sheron and Adam Campbell both forced saves – albeit fairly regulation ones – from Southampton loanee Ollie Wright in the Glovers goal, while Joe Grey had an effort well blocked before debutant Jack Hunter opened the scoring with a venomous strike.
Yeovil, on the other hand, created very little, with captain Matt Worthington’s speculative effort, which was well held by Joel Dixon, the closest they came in the regulation 90 minutes.
The hosts fashioned one glaring opportunity deep into seven minutes of added time when Dixon fumbled a cross after colliding with Manny Onariase but substitute Harvey Greenslade blasted his last gasp attempt over the bar.
Even so, a frustrated Cooper felt there was little to separate the two sides after a disappointing return to the National League for Yeovil.
“I think they had two shots,” he said.
“The ball went quickly to Dieseruvwe, he’s a handful.
“I thought we had all of the ball but, in the final third, we didn’t produce.
“We had chances in and around the box to produce a bit of quality, and when you’ve got (Jordan) Young, Frank (Nouble), (Aaron) Jarvis, (Sam) Pearson, (Harvey) Greenslade, you expect one of them to produce something like their guy (Jack Hunter) did.
“We missed an open goal at the end. You’re not going to get any better chances than that, it was a tap-in and we had to score.
“That was the difference between the two teams today.”
Pools continue their campaign with the visit of well-fancied Southend, who drew 1-1 with York at the weekend, while Yeovil travel to Braintree for what is being touted as a sell-out clash.
