Five Conclusions

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Well, that was… a bit rubbish, wasn’t it?

Ben dialled up his DAZN stream and took in the Glovers’ 2-1 defeat to Aldershot. Here are his five conclusions.

A result that undid all the good work vs Rochdale.

Actually a performance that undid all the good work vs Rochdale

The harsh truth is that Aldershot wanted it more, the Aldershot players also played with 10 men on Saturday (for longer than we did) but they came with a plan to come out of the boxes quickly, stun us and then just never relented.

The honest thought is that, instead of fighting fire with fire, we went into damage limitation mode and couldnt get a foot into the game at all. And if I had a quid for every time we gave the ball away, by yearly DAZN subscription would have been covered twice over.

That’s about Aldershot deciding to live and die by their positive actions and they well and truly deserved every bit of it.

Finn Cousin-Dawson celebrates his goal
Pic c/o Gary Brown

For the love of Phil Jevons will someone find a striker.

Twice in the game, we had set pieces in attacking areas which Jake Wannell won in the air, twice the ball fell into the six yard box and twice, not a soul in green and white was to be seen.

Wannell’s arms went up in exasperation twice. Where is the striker who snaffles five or six a season by sticking their foot through one from 4 yards, who wants to be in the mix, where push comes to shove, where youve got to get a kick, where you’ve got to do anything and everything to get that ball over the line? Aldershot had someone like that. He won them the game.

Tahvon Campbell
Pic c/o Gary Brown

Ward and Works worth their weight.

We’ve said it a million times, here’s 1,000,001. Without Jed Ward we’d be well and truly stuffed wouldn’t we?

By his standards, he actually had a below par game, some sloppy distribution and a couple of little fumbles. But we were in the game because of him, he’s saved us so many points this season.

And a word for Works, who is diminutive in stature, but when he flashes into gear, my word there’s a player there. The sort of player we’ll see doing great things in the future and we’ll say “remember that belter he scored vs Aldershot that time?”.

Terrell Works shoots….and scores. Nice one, son.

Worried without Wannell

Jake Wannell’s tenth yellow of the season means he’ll miss the next two (vs Carlisle and Sutton)

Our defence has chopped and changed a fair bit this season, but we’re going to have FCD and two relative newbies against Carlisle and that’s got me a little nervous.

But, it does offer a chance for FCD, or perhaps Kyle Ferguson to hear the call for leadership from the gaffer and really step up. Just like they did vs Rochdale.

Jake Wannell strides forwards | Photo by Gary Brown

We’re still paying the price for early season chaos.

Its mid February and we’re having to manage the minutes of players who have come in after time out of other sides and we’re still asking a lot of a young side, packed full of exciting, but raw talent.

Four managers, four ideas, four plans, four plan As, four plan Bs and its clear we didnt start the season fit enough – I’d love to compare Aldershot’s heat maps and distance covered – and with games coming thick and fast it isn’t getting any easier. But the Rowley era has, overall, been a positive one, we’re still on a road to Wembley, we’re still closer to 11th (4pts) than we are to 21st (5pts).

It’s a massive summer ahead, get there unscathed in the league (and maybe a Trophy in the back pocket) and this defeat will be long forgotten.

Billy Rowley
Pic c/o Gary Brown

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It was a return to Huish Park after 35 days of postponements and away days and the Glovers showed they’re no slouches against promotion-chasers Rochdale. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…

We held our own against promotion hopefuls. Even the most optimistic of supporters must have gone into yesterday with massive apprehension going up against the – at the time – league leaders. Rochdale were in unbelievable form and had not dropped a single point from a winning position all season…until they came to Huish Park. We showed all the buzzwords yesterday: character, determination, spirit, camaraderie and played some good football before we were frustratingly reduced to 10 men.

Yeovil Town huddle | Pic c/o Gary Brown

Aaron Jarvis owes his teammates a Thatchers. When Jarvis replaced Campbell (who had one of his better games) the match was nicely poised, we’d enjoyed some decent chances and were holding our own but the first time we tossed the ball up for Jarvis to compete the worst happened. I thought it was sheer idiocy. We know how Jarvis competes and looks for contact but the way he led with his forearm, arm not looking at the ball gave the referee very little choice. I know he plays looking for contact and roughing up his opposing defenders, but I thought it was really poor and he let everyone down.

Referee Niall Smith gives Aaron Jarvis his marching orders

Finn Cousin Dawson stepped up. It’s often been a case of always the bridesmaid never the bride for FCD. He’s not one of the first choice centre backs and he’s been shoe-horned into the floating wingback role, so it was nice to see him get his flowers yesterday. His header to bring us back level was pinpoint perfection and he had a solid game in at right centre back. For me, he’s more dependable than Ferguson.

Finn Cousin-Dawson wheels away | Pic by Gary Brown

Mafico made another mark. What a find Dakarai Mafico is. (Hat tip to Declan Skura too) The Cardiff youngster was in centre midfield yesterday – or number 6 as the cool kids say – and he was fantastic. Brave on the ball, forward-thinking, confident to play through the lines. He did his defensive work and got us attacking too. We may only get to enjoy him this season, (although with Cardiff chasing promotion to the Championship they might let us have him back next season, right?) but the way he knits everything together between defence and attack is well beyond his years.

Dakarai Mafico | Pic c/o Gary Brown

It was a great game of football. Billy Rowley described it as ‘cat and mouse’ whilst admitting modern football can be a bit boring (hear, hear) but I thought it was an entertaining game. We played some nice football and after 35 days since we were last at Huish Park, I could see an improvement and the style beginning to come through. In the moments when we played out from the back it looked more instinctive than it has done. We did the dogged stuff for the last 20 minutes and the players deserved their standing ovation from the supporters at full time.

 

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We were up, we were down, we were level, we had it taken away at the end – life is a Rowley-coaster! Heartbreak and frustration, pride and disappointment, just a regular Wednesday night in the life of a Yeovil Town fan.

Ed Turnbull was in the away end with 124 other hardy Glovers, here are his Five Conclusions from the defeat to Boreham Wood.

The first hour showed we’ve got a long way to go

I know we went in at the break level, but that was a complete steal. I really enjoyed the way we used the ball at Telford and Altrincham, but in the first half against a stronger opposition we didn’t have any of the ball to use. And when we did get it our quality on the ball wasn’t good enough as we were suffocated by the Boreham Wood press. Right from the first whistle it felt like we were in for a long evening of bus-parking under the cosh, a still all-too-familiar feeling from 2025.

But the last half hour showed how far we’ve come

A goal and a man down away at a top 6 team in a game we’ve been on the back foot thus far, I think even the optimists amongst the hardy travelling contingent were struggling to see a way back into the game. But Billy Rowley did, it seemed. He decided attack was the best form of defence, and so it very nearly proved to be. This was epitomised by James Daly, who scored an excellent goal and very nearly topped it with a goal that would’ve induced comparisons to Gareth Bale’s against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey, albeit from the other side of the pitch (someone out there knows what I’m on about, right?!). It was very refreshing (and long overdue) to see a Yeovil side come out of their shells when up against it, rather than curling up into a ball of damage limitation with minimal success as we’ve become all too accustomed to.

We shot ourselves in the foot

The first 2 goals felt preventable, as did the red card (although I’m not sure I should complain about that, because it seemed to make us better!) – frustrating mistakes, made all the more annoying by the fact they ultimately undid all the aforementioned positives. I’ve generally been a fan of Kyle Ferguson, and still am, but I make that 3 key mistakes he’s made this season which have directly led to goals conceded (after Scunthorpe and Brackley away). Unfortunately for him, they’ve all come in games where we’ve lost by 1 goal.

Kyle Ferguson | Photo by Gary Brown

Credit to Boreham Wood though

Yeovil made mistakes, but Boreham Wood were clinical enough to punish them. And then I have to (through gritted teeth) accept Aaron Henry’s free-kick was worthy of winning the game, especially one where Boreham Wood deserved to win on the balance of chances, territory, possession and probably just about every other metric. How Abdul Abdulmalik isn’t playing in a higher league I am now even more perplexed than I was after the reverse fixture back in October. Mind you, I’m equally perplexed by how the atmosphere at a club pushing for promotion to the EFL can be so non-existent!

We can hold our heads high after that

Maybe it says something about the home support too (sorry, I’ll stop with the needless digs now), but the fact the team that had just conceded a stoppage time winner was the team whose fans clapped them for longer after the full time whistle was a telling reflection of the pride I and many Yeovil fans felt after witnessing that display once we went down to ten. That said, football’s about picking up points not being proud of how you lose. It’s not going to get easier when we welcome table-topping Rochdale 65-and-a-bit hours after the end of this match, and I worry how our smallish squad will cope with the upcoming onslaught of fixtures, but at least I feel we’ve got a team that can give us plenty of excitement (and more importantly enough points to steer clear of danger) along the Rowleycoaster that the next 3 months will be.

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Gloverscast Ben was on co-ommentary duty for BBC Somerset this weekend. He was at the J Davidson Stadium to witness the last minute winner for the Glovers. Here are his five conclusions.

Jed Ward saves Penalties.

When they document this season in a Hollywood movie or a Netflix documentary, there will be plenty of storyline that flow throughout, but one of them will undoubtedly be that Jed Ward has picked some brilliant moments to save spot kicks.

The context of the game, the fact that we’ve recovered 0 points from losing positions this season and that it was a decently hit penalty all add to that being a massive, massive moment. Breathe it in, the smell of freshly cleaned sheets

A win for intent?

It wasn’t a great game, the greasy surface, the wet weather, the two mid table sides who have been through some stuff this season kind of set that up, but I think Yeovil won the game, because we wanted to win it. Altrincham wanted to slow the game down, Yeovil wanted the ball to move forward.

It isnt that simple, it never is, but I felt like Rowley’s attacking additions have one mindset that is to get the ball to the opposition penalty area, the substitutions – again, possibly because thats all we had – were replacing energy with energy in the attacking third.

The Cardiff lads are a bit good.

Dakarai Mafico won the Gloverscast Player of the Month for January and deservedly so, im really looking forward to seeing what Perrett can bring to this side.

I loved everything he did in the final third. He’s young and raw and not everything came off, but his brain is certainly there for a high level of football.

He’s only ever thinking forward. He ran with the ball, stuck to him like glue, he’s got a nice touch in tight spots to keep the possession. My MOTM. We’ve got a couple of good ones.

We are still missing that number 9.

Tahvon Campbell got booted about before being taken off, and did a lot of real battling and would have felt every single minute of it, but without having Jarvis to call upon from the bench, we did feel light.

We’ve got a very simple tactic when the ball goes direct; the ball goes into the feet of TC, or for him to nod on and then there’s runners beyond the front man to create chances. That’s a physical job, often a thankless one, but one that looks increasingly pivotal in a Billy Rowley set up. A summer priority to make sure we have the best back to goal striker in non league at our disposal… (no, not that one Dave)

Momentum feels good.

I know there’s been a slightly broken up schedule with postponements and the focus switching between league and cup, but the numbers, right now, don’t lie. Four wins from the last five (well, three and a penalties victory), three clean sheets and the early signs of what a Billy Rowley Yeovil might look like over the next few months and seasons.

Those 201 fans int he away end headed home with a last gasp winner in their back pockets, and dare I say, are heading to promotion chasing Boreham Wood, (who have lost four of their last five) in a great mood and hoping we can cause an upset.

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It’s the last eight of the FA Trophy for Yeovil Town for the first time in 23 years – albeit 16 of those years we didn’t compete in it – after an impressive performance and 2-0 win at AFC Telford United. Dave was in the away end at New Buck’s Head to watch the Glovers side-step a banana skin and here are his thoughts.

A banana skin avoided: We had all the excuses you could hope for to slip up at Telford. Having not played for two weeks, missing a number of key players through being cup tied or injury, facing a team in great form going in to this game and on a pitch which was not exactly a snooker table. But, the game plan could not have been better executed. We threatened from the first minute and looked comfortably the better side in the first half, nullified everything Telford threw at us including making their prolific strike Matt Stenson look average, and we took our chances – well, enough of them to matter, anyway. A thoroughly professional performance.

It could/should have been more comfortable: Going forward, we looked a threat and we should have won this game more comfortably than we did. Tahvon Campbell, Harvey Greenslade and Dakari Mafico all had great opportunities to make the scoreline far more convincing. Campbell took his chance coolly, but he’s still not the one for me. In his post-match interview, Billy Rowley said the striker was “on his back” when he came off in second half stoppage time, but I am not sure where he expended his energy. Then again, he scored a goal and if he does nothing but score all season, he’ll be right by me. Not that he cares much about pleasing me, I’m sure!

Yeovil Town celebrate Tahvon Campbell’s goal at Telford – but it’s just four goals in 26 appearances for him this season.

Defensively solid: I don’t mind admitting that seeing the number of goals Telford have scored in the past couple of months, I feared for our back line. I thought we looked more solid when Finn Cousin-Dawson came on in the second half, but I was really impressed with what I saw from Joy Mukena and, if he’s not match fit, he can only improve. Jake Wannell has had his critics this season – including me – but I thought he looked composed. A clean sheet will do them the world of good with some tough league fixtures coming up.

Vote for your top performer at Telford in our Man of the Match poll – click here.

The last eight looks good: Having scraped through the last two round of the Trophy on penalties, it was good to get a convincing win in the fifth round – and have you seen who’s left in the quarter-finals? We are one of four National League Premier Division sides with the others being Southend United, Wealdstone and Woking, and then four teams from lower divisions – Horsham, Kidderminster Harriers, Marine and Southport. In a season where not getting pulled in to a relegation scrap in the league feels like a success, the Trophy feels like a great opportunity for us to enjoy yourselves. The last time we made the quarter finals was 2002-2003 when we lost at home to Burscough in the last eight – but we did also win promotion to the Football League that season. I’m sure we’d all take that, but you can almost see the Wembley arch, can’t you?

Now for some league points: Asked about whether he was looking forward to the quarter-final draw on Saturday, Billy Rowley was very quick to point out we need to start picking up league points. A trip to Altrincham is next up next weekend and, as one of the teams below us in the table, that has to be seen as an opportunity to take the momentum of a positive Trophy performance in to the league. We have games in hand over all of the teams below us in the table – with the exception of bottom club Gateshead who have played the same number of games – but getting points on the board has to happen quickly.

23 years ago and all that….

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It was a disappointing first visit to Brackley Town for Yeovil Town as they went down to a 2-1 defeat in Northamptonshire with former loanee Ben Wodskou netting the winner late in the first half. Dave was among the more than 300 travelling Glovers who made the journey and here are his conclusions.

What’s the point of possession if you do nothing with it? For long periods of this game, we created absolutely nothing with it and even more frustratingly we never looked like we even might. There were countless times when our players stopped and put their foot on the ball and looked around to see everyone in green-and-white completely static with no-one making a move to try and create something. The second half was a complete non-event with Brackley, who were ahead in the game, very happy to watch us pass it ponderously around, whilst we never seemed to have an idea of how to get through them. So slow, so lacking in intensity.

We look so fragile defensively: If you haven’t seen them yet, go back and watch both Brackley goals. Do you see anyone taking responsibility in our side? Tell me who they are if you do, because I see no-one. The first goal comes from a sloppy back pass from Kyle Ferguson but even after that Shane Byrne is completely unchallenged to tap in it. Then the second, it is far too easy for the Brackley player to win a header from the corner and Wodskou is the only one who seems to want it in the ensuing scramble. There is a huge Morgan Williams-shaped hole in our defence and, sorry, but Jake Wannell is not a captain for me. Either in his performances – and no, not just today – or his demeanour, he doesn’t do enough to warrant the armband. But, who does? It’s leadership again, isn’t it? We simply do not have it.

Danny Newton rises highest for a header whilst the Yeovil defence look on.

WE NEED A STRIKER!!: We have brought in six players in the past fortnight and we have so many ‘creative players’, ‘attacking midfielders’ or wingers – but WE NEED A STRIKER. Yes, I understand they are hard to come by, they are the ones who cost money, they are hard to come by in January, but surely anyone we bring in cannot be worse than what we have. Aaron Jarvis was completely anonymous in his 45 minutes and Tahvon Campbell was not much better when he appeared in the second half. There was a moment in the second half where Campbell found himself offside when there was an opportunity to have an effort on goal, cue screams of frustration from the away end. That noise sums up my feelings on everything about our attacking play at the moment.

Perrett offered something: If I had to pick a glimmer of hope it would the substitute Trey Perrett. The Cardiff City loanee who was given the last 20 minutes of the game to show what he has. He – and to a lesser extent fellow substitute Terrell Works – were the only players who looked to move in a positive fashion going forwards when we had possession. Perrett got a couple of shots away before he was able to lay one off to Luke McCormick to get a shot away late on. Let’s hope there is more of that to come.

Rowley needs to figure it out: There were boos from the away end at Brackley at the final whistle and the criticism was aimed at the performance, not the manager. Those people I spoke to after the whistle know that this HAS to be a project and we have to give Billy Rowley time to figure it out. He spoke after the game and said “I will figure out the players that want to come on this journey and don’t” and I will bet that there are many of those who made a five-hour round trip to see that performance can help him out with his list.

Billy Rowley and his players applaud supporters after the final whistle at Brackley.

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It was yet another FA Trophy shootout win for Yeovil Town, this time against Alvechurch. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from Huish Park.

Thank the lord for Jed Ward. Come the end of the season it will be a coin toss between Ward and Luke McCormick for player of the season. Once again he’s the penalty shootout hero for the Glovers saving three spot kicks. If anyone from Bristol Rovers is reading this, we’re more than happy to take him off your hands.

Jed Ward | Pic by Gary Brown

We struggled to get in a rhythm after the red card. Brett McGavin’s first half red card really seemed to throw us off. Having prepared in a particular way all week with McGavin as the lone centre midfielder (or single pivot as the tactics boffs say) to lose him so early disrupted everything. We made changes which saw Josh Tobin pair with debutant Dakarai Mafico (more on him next…) centrally and it took time for us to figure it out again.

Mafico made a great first impression. The Cardiff loanee made his first start on the left hand side but it was immediately clear that he was going to have license to roam through the midfield as we’ve seen with FCD and Max Joliffe. He had to do some different positions through the afternoon following the red card but looked sharp, direct and fit. I thought he spoke well in his post-match and I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses with us. Speaking of sharp,  it was great to see Jacob Maddox back on the pitch after nearly 12 months out and give us a brief preview of what he can do.

Dakarai Mafico | Photo: Gary Brown

Alvechurch battled for the draw. The visitors earned the right to take the game to penalties. We struggled to break through in the second half and they defended resolutely, but we should have killed the game before half time with McCormick’s two chances as gilt-edged as they come. We huffed and puffed, Aaron Jarvis didn’t take the chance to be the flat track bully against lower league opposition, Tahvon Campbell was largely inneffective (other than from the penalty spot 💥) and the red card meant we were quite narrow so didn’t get it to the wings as much as we’d like.

We’re in for some change. It’s been pretty clear for a while that the squad needs reinforcements, probably since we kicked off the season. Danny Webb thought so. Richard Dryden thought so and now we’ve got the clearest indication from Billy Rowley that there will be changes. The manager confirmed Andrew Oluwabori and James Plant would return to Exeter and Port Vale respectively, and that there are a ‘few’ coming in. Fingers crossed see them in the next few days. Rowley talked about how it has been a long process to find who they wanted  but clearly the manager know what he wants from his team and now it’s time to put his stamp on it until the end of the season.

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It was a cold one at Huish Park but fans turned out in force as Billy Rowley’s Glovers scored three against a poor Braintree side to secure a valuable three points. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions.

James Daly takes aim | Pic by Gary Brown

We improved. It wasn’t a totally polished performance by any stretch, but it was an improvement on the performance against Eastleigh. I’ve hated the phrase ‘final third entries’ every since Darren Way used it as a point to polish his abysmal team, but for the sake of this conclusion, we got ourselves into the Braintree’s box repeatedly and with plenty of players in the box too. We could have gone into half time ahead with some of our play. Braintree were poor but we’re beginning to see glimpses of what our attacking identity could be/

We got our set pieces right. If Forest Green Rovers was the low point for the set piece delivery, this was definitely the high point. We could probably count ourselves unlucky (I’m not sure many National League assistants would spot the offside) to not be ahead through Kyle Ferguson’s header after a good delivery into the box from Brett McGavin that was flicked on by Williams. The second came from a wicked McGavin delivery that Jake Wannell nearly made perfect with his header that Terry could only divert to Daly who headed home. Finn Cousin-Dawson could have made it a third after another excellent delivery but could only head straight at the keeper. McGavin earned his own celebration before the final whistle with deliberate delivery whipped towards goal hoping for any form of contact to help it on its way.

Brett McGavin strikes a pose | Pic by Gary Brown

James Daly had a better night. One of the big takeaways from Billy Rowley’s first few games in charge is his use of inverted wingers. James Daly, all left foot, playing on the right and James Plant, mostly right-footed, on the left. It’s fair to say that against Eastleigh Daly struggled to get involved and like many of his teammates on that night, was sloppy with possession. Against Braintree things clicked more, he managed to cut inside and get shots away, was far more involved in the attacking moments too. It was great to see him finally find the back of the net in a Yeovil shirt and hopefully there’s more to come.

It’s still not instinctive for these players. You can forgive these players for not finding their groove with their fourth manager of the season. You can see them revert back to the old ways and slow things down while Billy Rowley gets frustrated on the sideline. It’ll come and we still need to have patience. But, I get the feeling that the manager will be proactive in the changing the squad if he needs to. The lack of an alternative to Alex Whitte – who seems to be struggling with injuries more frequently now – means we can’t ever shift to a back four (#downwithwingbacks). It was interesting to hear the manager talk about Jacob Maddox and how he’s ‘his type of player’. Everyone will get their chance, and they will have to take it.

It was a great turnout at Huish Park. I didn’t expect more than 3,500 people to turn up to cheer on the Glovers at that awkward kick off time in sub-zero temperatures, but maybe somethings changing. That an increase of approximately 400 compared to Eastleigh and Forest Green Rovers (who both brought more fans with them) and more than 500 compared to Rowley’s first match against Boston United. It was a good night to bring in a crowd and score some goals with the FA Trophy next weekend.

 

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The Glovers finished off 2025 with a 1-1 draw against Eastleigh at Huish Park. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from the sub-zero press box.

We’re not creating yet. We showed moments, we saw glimpses in the final third, especially in the second half but if it wasn’t for Eweke’s slip, I’m not sure we would have found the back of the net. Certainly after we scored we didn’t push on. In the second half we looked the more likely to find a second goal, but other than the McCormick and Daly two v one, I never felt confident that there was another one coming. Which is a problem when…

We’re conceding sloppy goals. The way in which we conceded the penalty was entirely avoidable. The goal on Boxing Day was really sloppy, the second goal Forest Green Rovers scored was poor, as was the defending for Maidstone’s equaliser in the FA Trophy. As a defensive unit we’ve shot ourselves in the foot so many times this season and when you’re struggling to score, you can’t afford any slip ups at the back.

Luke McCormick | Pic by Gary Brown

Luke McCormick made the difference again. Yeovil’s number 8 has another man of the match trophy to his name and yet another goal. He finishes 2025 with more goals for Yeovil than anyone else. He’s really made his mark in green and white and without his goals Yeovil would be in a very different position. But, we can’t rely only him.

Eastleigh have a striker in Aaron Blair. If you we’re looking at adding a different kind of striker to bolster the front line, we witnessed it last night. Blair chased down everything, bothered our back line and confidently put away his penalty. He worked hard for his team and reminded me of those strikers Gary Johnson always relied on his teams. If we were looking for another type of striker to bolster the front line, someone of Blair’s ilk would fit the bill.

Billy Rowley | Pic by Gary Brown

It’s clear reinforcements are needed. Billy Rowley said there would be changes ahead his post-match press conference. The loans of James Plant and Andrew Oluwabori are expiring and Rowley has inherited a squad that three managers have had an input on before him so and he needs to build it in his vision. January will be a big month and hopefully the manager has the means to balance out this squad and build some momentum in 2026.

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Boxing Day football never seems to offer much in the way of the spirit of the season for Yeovil Town and 2025 was no exception with a 1-0 defeat against a Truro City side sitting bottom of the table. Dave was among the 568 – plus more than a few in the home end – who made the trip to Cornwall and here are his conclusions.

 

We never troubled them: With the exception of Jake Wannell’s header right at the very end, we did nothing to show whether Truro keeper Aidan Stone was any better than the player many in the away end told him they remembered him being. The statistics show that we had ten efforts on goal – just three on target – but I cannot honestly say I remember us having that many. You do need to give some credit to Truro for their dogged defending, but we offered virtually nothing against a side which has conceded 44 goals in 24 matches so far this season. Only James Plant showed any real intent to try and work a way through a Truro side which clearly knew what their plan was.

Another crap goal conceded: The goal that we conceded was awful – worse than both goals against Forest Green and about as bad as the one we conceded against Maidstone. Firstly Tahvon Campbell heads it up in the air rather than away from danger and then we have at least two defenders in close proximity of Tyler Harvey but he’s the only one who appears to want to win it. Michee Efete seems to be watching it go in as much as 568 of us behind the goal were. If it wasn’t for the brilliance of Jed Ward we might have conceded a couple of good goals, but luckily he managed to tip both Dom Johnson-Fisher’s chance just before the goal and Lirak Hasani’s second half shot over the bar.

Yeovil captain Jake Wannell raises a hand in apology as he leaves the pitch at Truro.

Did anyone ask for a striker for Christmas?: Billy Rowley said after the defeat to Forest Green that he did not feel we needed a new striker, we just needed to create better chances for them. Having seen Tahvon Campbell, Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade have a go over this 90 minute spell (see previous conclusions about Truro’s defensive abilities), I’m not so sure. Campbell offered nothing yesterday, I didn’t really notice Harvey at all when he came on, Jarvis had a couple of shots from outside the box, but none of them seemed to offer much. Very few of the opportunities I can recall us having came from any of our strikers and whilst the service they received was not up to much, I expected more.

Are we just asking players to do things they simply can’t do?: There is talent in this squad, there really is. Jed Ward’s is there for all to see, James Plant (not our player, I know) is a player I really enjoy watching, Luke McCormick has shown us what he’s got, but are we asking many of these players to do things they simply cannot do? I understand possession football (I might not like it, but I understand the intent), but surely no-one has sent them out and say ‘ponderously pass the ball between each other with no-one making a forward run’. There were times where I thought Michee Efete had been told not to cross the halfway line without stopping and checking back when we have seen what he can achieve when he just thunders forward. The amount of times I was thinking ‘do that, just do it quicker’ was untrue.

Jed Ward. Where would we be without him?| Pic by Gary Brown

We’re not too disheartened: There were 568 travelling supporters in the away end – and more than a few more in the home areas as well – and despite witnessing a below par performance, there was no-one losing their heads. At half-time as the players departed right in front of the away end, there were supportive chants from a fair percentage of those who had not departed for a half-time drink. not that there were many of those on offer. At the final whistle, there was the same response which felt very different to the final whistle I witnessed at Morecambe a few weeks ago when Richard Dryden was in charge. A whimper of a performance and a defeat against a team bottom of the league would normally constitute a few exploding heads*, but many felt calm – we just need some competitiveness for the community!

* – you could be forgiven for thinking Conclusions 1-4 constitutes my head exploding, but it really doesn’t. I like that Rowley’s post-match comments against both Forest Green and Truro recognise our inadequacies and set a clear desire to set them right. As has been stated, he’s not a magician and losing our heads so early will not help. I’m not and we shouldn’t.