Told you so

I first said it back in May and I've been repeating it on and off ever since - I didn't expect Danny Schofield to still be here by the time the transfer window closed on the first of September. Sure enough, he's gone, signed for Millwall on a 2-year deal for an - guess what? - undisclosed fee. I've ranted about the club's ludicrous obsession with secrecy regarding transfer fees before, so for the sake of my blood pressure I'll say no more on that subject for now. It's not like the bastards are taking any notice anyway.

As for the effect of Danny leaving I can't see how it doesn't leave us weaker. He's one of the few players we had with that nebulous virtue of flair. Yes, he is inconsistent. Yes, he tends to disappear from games for long periods. No, he can't tackle his way out of a paper bag. But he does have a certain attacking nous that you just can't teach, and on his day he is as good as anyone in this division, even if his day doesn't come along as much as anyone would like. He's very versatile, able to play on the left or right wings as well centre-midfield and even up front at a pinch, and for a club like ours with a small squad that versatility is very useful and will be missed. It leaves us with Scott Murray, the permanently injured Aidan Downes and the mysterious disappearing man aka Danny Hutchins as our only options on the right, at least until Andy Lindegaard is offered a longer term deal when his initial month has expired, as no doubt he now will be. I don't know about anyone else but none of those options fill me with a huge amount of joy. I hope Skivo will be able to bring someone else in on loan in a week's time to cover the gap - rumours on the Bristol City message board yesterday were suggesting Gavin Williams could be on his way here on loan - but I'll believe that when I see it. Regardless of that it now appears certain that defensive midfielder J-P Kalala will be offered a contract to pad out our midfield. I was lukewarm about the possibility of Kalala signing when he first came back to the club, but I'm coming round to the idea now. There's no doubt that we need more steel in the midfield to protect the back four, J-P can do that and he's youngish, fit and not liable to break down with injury - good enough for us.

However it seems to be one step forward, two steps back, both on and off the pitch at the moment. The team lost at Huddersfield on Saturday but by all accounts put in an encouraging performance against an expensively-assembled and in form side. They travelled to Bournemouth last night hoping to build on that but failed miserably, losing 2-1 to the L2 outfit, a scoreline that flattered the Glovers according to those there. It's not all doom and gloom, for a start it was only the Football League Trophy and not a league match, but with only one win in all competitions so far this season then a positive result this Saturday at home to Swindon becomes more and more important. Important not so much in terms of league position, but important in terms of giving belief to both team and fans that this season can be about something more than a grim struggle against relegation.

With all that in mind I was surprised to see Skivo criticising some of his players in the press today. Stefan Stam, Jon Obika and to a lesser extent Sam Williams were all singled out by the gaffer as falling short of expectations, as was the team that played on Tuesday night generally. Criticising individuals can be a dangerous game, as countless managers have found in the past. It's not something that previous successful Yeovil bosses have done overmuch, both Gary Johnson and Russell Slade in particular spring to mind as preferring to keep criticism of individuals in-house, at least as far as the press was concerned. Nothing wrong of course in giving players a bollocking when required, but I do wonder about the wisdom of doing it quite so publically to individuals so early in the season - especially when one of the players concerned is the club captain and the other our top goalscorer from open play.

Gambling corner: The Glovers are 6/4 for the win on Saturday, 23/10 the draw, 9/5 a Swindon win. One of my unwritten rules is that whenever we are odds against at home then I'll always bet on a Yeovil win, therefore that's where my fiver's going this week. I must write down all of my unwritten rules one day, but if I did that they wouldn't be unwritten any more, would they? I'll get my coat. Running total: -£2.00p