Last time the two teams met: Saturday 26th December 2020, Torquay United 6 Yeovil Town 1 – National League
Torquay United gave their fans the perfect late Christmas present, as they hit Yeovil Town for six to strengthen their lead at top of the National League. The Gulls avenged their 6-2 defeat against the Glovers on Boxing Day last year by recording their biggest ever win over Yeovil in the process.
United were ahead in the fifth minute when Armani Little curled a home free-kick from the edge of the box, after he had been felled by Yeovil’s Charlie Lee.
Four minutes later, Danny Wright doubled the Gulls’ lead when he turned home a Ben Whitfield cross with an angled effort to score his eighth goal of the campaign.
On 21 minutes, United further extended their advantage when a downward header from Sam Sherring, following a corner from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans, took a deflection off Lee before finding the back of the net.
Unfortunately Little’s afternoon ended prematurely as he limped off in the 34th minute and was replaced by Josh Umerah.
Umerah then played a key role in the Gulls’ fourth as he kept the ball in play on the right hand side, which enabled Aaron Nemane to race through and score while the Glovers’ defence were expecting a goal kick to be given.
In the 39th minute, Wright was also forced to exit the field to play and Jake Andrews took his place.
Early in the second half, Yeovil reduced their arrears on 49 minutes, after Albi Skendi bundled home following a goal-mouth scramble.
United restored their four-goal cushion four minutes later when Nemane fed Whitfield on the left, and his low cross found Lemonheigh-Evans who flicked home his fourth of the season.
Moments later, Chris Dagnall missed a golden opportunity to pull another goal back for the Glovers after Shaun MacDonald parried a shot from the edge of the box from Emmanuel Sonupe.
With seven minutes to go, Kyle Cameron added the Gulls’ sixth as he nodded home a free-kick from Andrews.
Manager: Darren Sarll
After enjoying a nomadic career as a central midfielder in South East non-league football, it was as a coach that Darren Sarll would really make his mark in the game.
Sarll began his coaching career with Stevenage in the 2006-07 season before moving on to Brentford as youth team manager on the eve of the 2008-09 campaign. During the course of that season, following Andy Scott’s appointment as first team manager, Sarll worked with Scott as first team coach and also managed the Bees’ reserve side.
In the 2011-12 season, he followed Scott to Rotherham United where he was employed as head of player development before returning to Stevenage as head of youth and then working as first team coach under Teddy Sheringham. In the wake of Sheringham’s dismissal in February 2016, Sarll was appointed as caretaker manager before taking charge on a full-time basis.
He left Stevenage in 2018 and briefly worked as a youth team coach at Watford before he was appointed to succeed Darren Way as Yeovil Town manager in the summer of 2019. In his first season in charge he led the Glovers to the National League play-offs, where they were beaten by Barnet at the quarter final stage.
One to watch: Courtney Duffus
After starting his career as a youth team player with Cheltenham Town, Courtney Duffus joined Everton as an academy player in 2014. He spent three years with the Toffees without making a first team appearance, before joining Oldham Athletic in 2017. However, Duffus, who has represented the Republic of Ireland at Under-21 level, only made nine appearances for the Latics in all competitions before joining League of Ireland Premier Division side Waterford – initially on loan before making the move permanent in 2018. He then joined the Glovers in January 2019, and formed a prolific goal scoring partnership with Rhys Murphy in the 2019-20 season, which saw the Glovers reach the National League play-offs.
Last time out for Yeovil:
Possible line-ups:
Torquay (4-4-1-1)
Shaun MacDonald
Sam Sherring – Gary Warren – Kyle Cameron – Dean Moxey
Aaron Nemane – Adam Randell – Asa Hall – Ben Whitfield
Connor Lemonheigh-Evans
Josh Umerah
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Yeovil Town (4-4-2)
Adam Smith
Gabriel Osho – Max Hunt – Luke Wilkinson – Carl Dickinson
Albi Skendi – Charlie Lee – Matthew Worthington – Lawson D’ath
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