Mark Cooper: Yeovil manager criticises the club's recruitment

Yeovil's defeat by fellow strugglers Gateshead means they have now lost eight of their last 14 National League matches

Yeovil manager Mark Cooper has criticised the club's recruitment policy after his side were thrashed 4-0 by fellow strugglers Gateshead, to leave them deep in relegation trouble.

The defeat leaves Yeovil five points from safety in the bottom four of the National League table with six games to go.

The Glovers have now won just once in their last 14 games.

It was also the third consecutive match they have failed to score.

"We haven't done the right thing, we haven't reacted the right way to what we needed to do before the transfer window shut, in my opinion," Cooper told BBC Radio Bristol.

"I've been promoted out of this league as a manager and I think I know what a good National League player looks like. Obviously some people didn't think that I knew that."

Cooper took over at Yeovil in October on a two-and-a-half-year deal. He has previously managed 10 clubs across the English Football League and National League and led Forest Green to promotion to League Two for the first time in 2017.

Yeovil were placed under the stewardship of SU Glovers in early March, with former owner and chairman Scott Priestnall said to be leaving the club once the deal was completed.

Yeovil have scored only 32 goals in 40 matches this season, the lowest in the division by a distance, with Cooper speaking earlier this month about the lack of attacking threat in his squad.

"In any business if you don't get your recruitment right, you're in for disaster, you're always playing catch up. Hopefully it's a lesson for everybody that in future, wherever we are, the recruitment needs to be solid," Cooper said.

"I think the reasonable, proper fans understand and know what's going on. I wanted to come and build this club, like I did at Forest Green for five years and make it into a proper football league club. But you need support and you need backing for that."

'Borderline embarrassing'

Yeovil next face Aldershot Town away on Friday, the first of a run of six games in April through to the end of the campaign, but Cooper is not resigned to relegation.

He also defiantly said he would not walk out of the club.

"There was no way I was going to walk out on the players," Cooper added.

"I probably should have done after the Eastleigh game [Yeovil's last win on 7 March] but I know that we have a couple of of fighters in the changing room and we've got to try and regroup and go again."

Club captain Josh Staunton echoed Cooper's belief that Yeovil can avoid the drop this year even though they are running out of time.

"We can't keep saying next game, next game, next game because sooner or later the games are going to run out," Staunton said.

"We've been saying that for 10, 15 games. It's about characters and probably we're lacking that."

The centre-back, who joined Yeovil in August 2020, said the performance against Gateshead, who move up to 19th in the table, was "borderline embarrassing".

"We're getting beaten without putting up a fight and that for me is the most disappointing thing," Staunton added. "That's not a reflection of me as a person, that's not what I want my team to do that's not what the manger is setting us up for and that's not what I came to Yeovil for.

"I definitely didn't come to Yeovil for this. I feel like I've really let the whole infrastructure down, really."