October 2023 (Page 11)

Another round of FA Cup Qualifying done and dusted then, and Yeovil got the job done against lower league opposition once again, this time in the form of Didcot Town.

Tom was perched in the Screwfix stand watching over proceedings, this is what he thought of yesterday’s match…

Menacing Murphy! This man doesn’t know how to stop scoring does he? A tidy penalty from the 32 year old took his tally to 8 for the season, and 5 in his last 3. Murphy’s on a roll, and he’s hitting the levels he showed from his first spell in green and white, reminding us of just what a talented striker we have on our hands. Wonderful movement, as well as keeping the Didcot keeper busy with plenty of shots made him my personal man of the match, among plenty of candidates.

Will Dawes is here! A topic of conversation among Yeovil fans (or at least the fans I’ve been around) has been the absence of Will Dawes. After coming down with glandular fever, following a good pre-season, the winger’s introduction to the first team picture has been delayed longer than most fans would’ve wanted (myself included). But in the 64th minute, we finally got our first competitive glimpse of Will Dawes, and he was… good! Sharp in possession, and busy off the ball, he slotted in seamlessly on the left hand side with Josh Owers for support. Perhaps we’ll be seeing more of him in the coming weeks, with some potential fixture congestion coming our way.

Jake Wannell’s getting better and better. Today I saw a defender who was confident in every decision he made, excelled in a good defensive line-up, contributed to our first clean sheet in a month and also made some good passes. That defender was Jake Wannell, and at risk of forgetting/missing a fixture or two, I don’t think I’ve personally seen a bad game from him in a Yeovil shirt. A ball over the top in the first half for Rhys Murphy was almost perfectly weighted, and absolutely would’ve been a goal if Leigh Bedwell hadn’t come to collect in the Didcot goal. Great defensive work as always from the number 6, and long may it continue!

Individual excellence got us over the line. There were some bright spots yesterday for Yeovil, with the aforementioned Jake Wannell and Rhys Murphy being two of them, but that seemed to be the tale of the tie, as I can’t say I was particularly inspired by the overall performance. Nothing really stood out to me (except for the individuals) as far as a team performance goes, it was professional, it did the job and that’s as much as I can say. Perhaps my expectations were too high following the Stoneham fixture, but at no point did it feel like ever reaching those levels, even if Yeovil did dominate the first half in its entirety.

Didcot are no pushovers. As much as I’ve gone on above about Yeovil not being great, we must also give credit to the visiting Didcot Town, who did well to hold off the possession-hungry hosts until a somewhat unfortunate penalty handed Yeovil the lead. They demonstrated courage, and tenacity to keep the score at 2-0, and in the second half, they really began to take the game to Yeovil, forcing Joe Day into action on multiple occasions. Didcot can go home with their heads held high, and credit to the 75 travelling supporters who made their way down from Oxfordshire to watch today. Good luck for the rest of the season to Didcot Town!