Ben Barrett (Page 6)

York City go in to the final day top of the pile after a 3-0 win over a patched up Yeovil Town side who finish their away day schedule with a bit of a damp squib in North Yorkshire, here are Ben’s Five Conclusions.

We showed relatively good discipline in defence.

York have an abundance of quality in every department and move the ball with such ease and pace in the opposition half the result itself was probably no great shock. But, with so many players missing and literally nothing to play for, I was pleased with how the back three (or five) and those in front of them kept their shape and discipline in the first half to nullify the waves of attack – for the most part – not pretty, but it really was the only way we could go about it.

Tired legs, tired minds.

We’re knackered. Properly knackered, and I know we’ve been saying it for weeks (months?) but I think this was the first time I’d seen tired minds too. We didn’t play to the whistle for the first goal (more on that in a moment), and assumed the play would stop for the second ball on the field, countless times we lost a battle and you could see it take that little bit longer to fight back into position. We made two or three excellent blocks in the area by players who had made the error to create the chance for York. Effort remained high, execution wasn’t always there.

The ref wasn’t very good.

In a game with such an imbalance, you need an official who keeps things level. Mr Drysdale played the occasion more than once.

The two ball situation was odd because both were in the same area of play, should Yeovil have played to the whistle? Yes. Should there have been a whistle? Probably. Would there have been a whistle if the teams attacking were reversed? Almost certainly.

Josh Stones got a yellow card for an early challenge that fit an ‘orange card’ on another occasion that’s given as a red. There’s definitely contact on Will Merry in the penalty area, he makes a lot of it, but it’s a penalty. Ollie Banks got three or four final warnings before finally getting booked for being a constant menace off the ball, there was a definite handball in the build up to the second goal. Sour grapes, yeah sure, but the least you want is a level playing field. It’s hard not to feel harshly treated.

Page showed what we might have been missing.

What a pleasant little cameo from Jonathon Page. Some neat little touches in midfield, a real little terrier attitude in the battle, against some giants he more than put himself about and you have to wonder if he might have been something of an asset all along had he been fit.

Merry showed why he’s an option beyond this season

Will Merry didn’t really get into the game first half, playing right in front of the dugouts, he had a tough time getting on the ball, but in the second period he really upped it getting at the York defence on a number of occasions. The more I see of him the more I think he’s exactly the sort of player who we should be looking at to supplement our attack next season, glides with the ball, attack minded and has a physical element to his game too.

I could write about Jed Ward being ridiculous for the level, but you knew that. I could write about 200+ fans in the away end who drew praise from the home side’s press pack at the end of the game, but you knew that. I could talk about our injury problems mounting up again with McCoy-Splatt’s shoulder popping out, but you knew that.

I’m exhausted (you knew that too), the lads are exhausted, the gaffer is exhausted, let’s get this post-season friendly against Solihull out the way and get next season rolling… after a little nap though, yeah?