Five Conclusions (Page 9)

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It was a Boxing Day Bonanza at Huish Park, as Mark Cooper’s Glovers put four past Taunton in front of a record-breaking crowd. Here are Ian’s Conclusions from a packed Huish Park…

It was a day when everything clicked. From the outset, Yeovil were dominant yesterday. The Glovers controlled the ball brilliantly, the attacking play was free-flowing and, in the first half in particular, it felt like every attack could have been a goal. Defensively we were strong and controlled and it was the type of performance which clearly showed the gulf between the two teams. The early change saw Rhys Murphy come on much sooner than expected and his impact was devastating as the front four caused chaos for the Peacocks defence.

Jake Wannell gets a DDT from Nat Jarvis. ? Gary Brown

There were big performances across the pitch, in each department. Jake Wannell was in a wrestling match for the first half and was extremely impressive in not taking any bait against his former side. I thought Charlie Cooper had a great game in midfield, picking passes, making the play tick over and breaking things up. Alex Whittle, back in the side from injury, picked up where he left off. Morgan Williams, as reliable as they come. Frank Nouble was absolutely purring up front. His goal was well taken in a free-flowing move, but his assist for Michael Smith was something else. As was the performance from the right back…

Michael Smith. What else can be said about the man? He finally scored his goal, in front of the Thatchers Stand and his adoring congregation. He was relentless on the right hand side with pacey running, great deliveries into the box and was an overlapping outlet all afternoon. As I said in conclusion one, it all clicked. His partnership with Jordan Young on the right is a joy to watch on days like yesterday. This team is a result of some brilliant recruitment from Mark Cooper, but the decisions to bring in Joe Day and Smith have been game-changers for this squad.  

Michael Smith plays the ball vs Taunton
? Gary Brown

It was great to see another record-breaking crowd at Huish Park. There was anticipation in the air upon arrival to Huish Park yesterday. The Ciderspace was packed, the Chairman was behind the bar and it was all hands on deck. A club that was on life-support this time last year, is absolutely thriving, with a wave of good-will and optimism behind it. With a performance like that, in front of a crowd of 6301, some casuals will have turned into die-hard Glovers! A great afternoon on and off the pitch for a club that is unrecognisable from 12 months ago.

6301 People in Huish Park, another NLS record. ? Gary Brown

Ten Points Clear. Results below Yeovil all went the right way and the gap – which was already big – has got even bigger. We’ve had the blip and come out of it on the other side looking strong and head into the new year with momentum again. We can go to Taunton with confidence, welcome Bath for another West Country derby and make another statement. You can’t help but look at the fixtures and feel confident. And now you’re gonna believe us…

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Yeovil Town sit proudly (and deservedly) eight points clear at the National League South table this Christmas thanks to a 1-0 win at Eastbourne Borough yesterday.

A first half goal from Frank Nouble put the Glovers’ ahead before an excellent rearguard action ensure they ground out the three points.

Here are Dave’s conclusions from his vantage point in the away end of the East Sussex coast….

 

Not pretty but that’s the stuff: As halves of football go, there are not many duller ones I have seen than the second half of this one. But that was absolutely lovely. The first half saw us dominate the game, create the better chances and, see Conclusion #3, score a completely legitimate goal and after that we just had to make sure we did nothing silly. Eastbourne did not look the side which caused us issues at Huish Park and, even though they probed in the second half, I don’t recall Joe Day having a meaningful save to make. Meanwhile, we were able to rest players (notably Rhys Murphy) and conserve our energy for a busy next week. Lovely stuff.

The surface at Eastbourne was everything you fear in a 3G surface.

The surface was a shocker: With the Gloverscast gagging order on 3G pitches removed, I can say that surface was everything Josh Staunton spoke about bad surfaces in the summer. It was rock hard, did not look like it had been touched in months, and totally unpredictable as to where the ball was going to go. We’ve played on half of the eight 3G surfaces in this division with Aveley, Maidstone, Slough Town and Tonbridge Angels still to come. But that’s two wins in our last two matches on 3G, so we’ll consider the hoodoo passed.

Eastbourne assistant Jamie Strong is shown a red card. Picture courtesy of LR Photography.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with our goal: Eastbourne coach Niall Clark saw red for his protests about the manner of our goal, but there was nothing wrong with it. Referee Jack Bloxham gave the drop ball to the home side’s Freddie Carter and he did absolutely nothing to play it, so Rhys Murphy nicked in, fed Nouble and goal. For my money it was naivety from Carter and nous from Murphy.

Courtney Senior looked lively: In the first half, we saw plenty of what Courtney Senior, the winger signed on loan from Barnet the day before, could bring to this team. There’s pace there, there’s trickery there, and enough to make you think that one the right surface he could cause issues. There were a couple of occasions where he lost it, or misjudged something but that is just the life of a winger, isn’t it? 

Courtney Senior in action.
Picture courtesy of LR Photography.

Enjoy your Christmas Glovers: Eight points clear at the top of the table this Christmas, 50 points in the bag and having shown an ability to win convincingly and when we’re not playing well. I’ll take that and so will 99% of other Glovers’ fans. There’s been a few things said about us being a difficult fanbase to please, but let’s not obsess with a vocal minority. Social media is not the consensus. Given where we’ve come from to get here, this first half of the season has been outstanding. Yes, there’s half-a-season to go and nothing is won in December, but this team and this manager has us believing again. Let’s keep doing what we’re doing. Enjoy your Christmas Day one and all – and let’s have Taunton for dessert! Okay, second dessert!

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It wasn’t quite the fairy tale return to Huish Park after four weeks on the road, in-form Hampton and Richmond came to town and battled to a 0-0 draw. Ian was at Huish Park and here are his conclusions…

It was another game where we spurned chances. It’s become a growing theme in recent games that we’ve not been able to finish good chances. We saw it at Chippenham and Dartford on the road, and it was the same on the return to Huish Park. Rhys Murphy had two good opportunities in the first half and Frank Nouble should have scored when he was played through by Sonny Blu Lo-Everton. With Hyde and Stevens injured, Fisher still finding fitness and Cox back at Exeter we could do with a top up up top.

Rhys Murphy wide of goal. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

You can see why Hampton and Richmond have enjoyed a good run. They had early chances in both halves and we struggled to break them down. They were disciplined defensively and when they our press and got the ball to Jake Gray they had good moments around the edge of the box. When they brought on Bloomfield in the second half if gave them an extra man up top and his physicality gave our defence an extra battle to contend with. While Joe Day had more routine saves to make, I thought we were pretty comfortable defensively.

Sonny Blu Lo Everton tries his luck. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

We took too long to get some pace on.  It wasn’t until the 88th minute that Will Dawes was introduced and he had one sprint down the wing which had Hampton backpedalling towards goal. It was a flat atmosphere at Huish Park, and we needed a spark to get the fans going. Dawes gives us that with his direct running so it was a shame to not see him earlier. Without Stevens, Dawes is the only attacking pace we have and when Mark Cooper says he wants to strengthen in the forward areas, that’s where I think we could do with more.

Jay Foulston had a solid debut. Our Friday night signing came straight into the team while Alex Whittle is still recovering. He got himself into good positions going forward and looks to have fitted in straight away. Before the match, Mark Cooper said he’d been on the club’s radar for a while but the deal wasn’t financially possible until now with Taunton’s troubles. We’ve been wanting depth at left back to provide cover for Alex Whittle and now we’ve got a genuine battle for position.

Jay Foulston finds his man. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

I have questions about the midfield. We’ve reverted to a three, with Charlie Cooper, Matt Worthington and Lo-Everton. Matt Worthington was given a license to roam yesterday but spent of a lot of time in left midfield in the 2nd half as it became more of a 4-4-2. In the switch to 4-3-3, I feel we’ve taken away from the attack. It was a familiar tale to the start of the season with a lot of possession in between the boxes but that lack of magic as we entered the box. I think we’ve got four good centre midfielders in Cooper, Worthy, Lo-Everton and Josh Owers and I think we’ve played better with two in midfield rather than three. Three gives us control of game but if Jordan Young doesn’t produce a moment there’s no one else who can.

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We paid for not taking our chances: It’s not often you hear a reference to the Fab Four in a Yeovil Town post-match interview, but I cannot put it any better than Mark Cooper’s: “The lads were saying in there if some of them had six shots at John Lennon today, he’d still be alive.” That was the difference between one point and three points.
The Dartford keeper, Ryan Sandford, deservedly picked up the sponsors’ Man of the Match Award for some outstanding saves, but there are chances where we should not have given him a chance to make them. The opening couple of minutes, you would put your house on Rhys Murphy to find the net when he’s clean through and drags it wide; it’s that type of chances. Yes, we have scored more goals than any other side in the division, but in these games we have to be more ruthless.

Rhys Murphy walks away wondering how he missed an early chance.

Cox was excellent: In the first half at Princes Park, Dartford simply could not live with us (see Conclusion #1 if you’re asking ‘so why was it 1-1 at half-time?‘). Every time we attacked with the pace of Sonny Cox, Murphy and Jordan Young, they were rocking and Cox stood out for me showing a desire to battle alongside his obvious natural pace and talent. The past couple of times I have seen him, he has looked a bit off it but I thought he was a stand-out player in the first half.

Sonny Cox

In the second half, we stopped doing what was working: Having been so dominant in the first half, we seemed to stop doing the things that were working for us in the second half. Dartford upped their game and credit to them for that, but playing ‘direct’ very quickly proved itself as not working and yet when we got it down and moved it, we looked a greater threat. Don’t agree? Watch our second goal. I am, by the way, aware that (as one fellow fan told me when I remarked) if these players were perfect, they’d be playing higher. But, if we have genuine ambitions to win promotion, we have to be better than the level.

I’m looking at this as a point gained: It’s the old football cliche – is this one point gained or two points dropped? I’m going to look at it as the positive after a game of two halves. How many cliches can I fit in one conclusion?! Of the five teams in the top seven that have gone to Dartford this season, only one (Maidstone United) have left with three points and, although inconsistent, they have some good players (Moussa Diarra at the back is one we’ve come up against many times for Woking – you can’t miss him, he’s a giant!) and other teams will drop points here before the season’s done.

Let’s get back to home comforts: It’s back to Huish Park next weekend for what feels like another big one as third-placed Hampton & Richmond come to town. They have won five of their 13 away games (the third-highest in the division) but let’s not forget we have won nine of our 11 home games and are still unbeaten. Pick up points on the road and get wins at home (Cliche Klaxon), that is what makes title contenders and Hampton will not look forward to coming to Somerset. There’s a crucial Christmas period (oh, there’s another one!) coming up, so let’s make Huish Park an intimidating place for teams to come.

You know what to do next weekend, people.

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The Glovers triumphed at Bath City to keep the gap between the chasing pack to six points. Ian was in the away end at Twerton Park, and here are his conclusions…

It was not a pretty game. It wasn’t until late in the second half where we showed signs of causing Bath problems. The first half was slow, sideways and a bit too hoofy for my liking. Cooper and Worthington looked like they’d not played as a pair for a while. Alex Fisher and Frank Nouble looked like a partnership playing for the first time together. Given the exertion against Wrexham three days earlier, and the conditions, you can forgive a bit of fatigue and sloppiness. That said, Bath City didn’t cause Joe Day too many issues in goal, and defensively I thought we looked mostly comfortable.

I still don’t like wingbacks. This team does not suit a back three, wingback formation. No one can convince me otherwise. I sort of understood it against Wrexham, although I would have liked to have seen us go with what’s made us so good this season. But I didn’t get it last night. It was all very sideways amongst the back three before a big diagonal hoof. Michael Smith has been so effective overlapping a winger and the shape just doesn’t allow those same patterns of play. It was a shame to see Alex Whittle go off, however it forced us into a change eventually, with Duncan Idehen moving to left back and Will Dawes playing in his best position.

Will Dawes.
Picture courtesy of Iain Morland.

And Dawes had a great second half. Our brightest spells came from Dawes running at, and getting the better of, Bath’s right back. Dawes is such an honest footballer. There’s no ego, he works hard for the team and last night was no different. Came on at left wing back, didn’t look overly comfortable but worked hard for the team. When we changed to a 4-4-2, he was relentless on the left. He got crosses into the box and had bright attacking moments and worked back to support Idehen, who was under a lot of pressure from Bath City’s number 15, Jordan Thomas (who looks like some player by the way).

It was good to see Alex Fisher back on the pitch. The injury Fisher suffered against Southend was so horrific, that to see him back playing before the end of the year feels like a minor miracle. He divides opinion, for a striker he should score more than he does, things didn’t necessarily come off for him last night. But, after a gruelling rehab (who can forget the cage around his leg) he’s just battled through 90 minutes for the first time since the injury, against one of the better sides in the division and is back putting his body on the line for Yeovil Town.

Alex Fisher, picture courtesy of Mike Kunz

It was a huge win. Given that Torquay and Maidstone both won on Tuesday night, and that Bath have been in the thick of the chasing pack, those three points at Twerton Park are huge. The six point gap remains and there’s still a game in hand on 2nd, 3rd and 4th. You could see what it meant to the players and, specifically, Mark Cooper at the end. The performance wasn’t brilliant, but the result and feeling at the end was. Now we’re out of the cup competitions, we’ve got a straight run in the league, with one focus in mind.

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Gloverscast Ben saw his FIRST live and in person game of the season on Sunday as the Glovers travelled to Wrexham in the FA Cup.

A 3-0 defeat, a Percy Pig v Cuthbert bar fight and here’s how Gloverscast Ben saw it from the Press Box.

Firstly, I thought 3-0 really flattered Wrexham, but it’s probably fair to say we took too long to get going.

In the the first half, we were clearly just trying to stay in the game for as long as possible and that meant inviting Wrexham’s plethora of attacking talent on to the back line.

Whilst, we were quick to put pressure on when the hosts came within sniffing distance of the penalty area, I was left thinking… why can’t we put that pressure on 20 or 30 yards further up the pitch?

The break downs in play were easy for Wrexham to recycle and easy to keep the pressure on, when you have the quality they do, that means chances will fall their way – they did, and they took them. You can’t begrudge them that. 

In the second half, I felt we did have the bravery to press a little higher, force mistakes in the middle of the pitch and that gave us a foot hold in the game, and chances to give our defence a rest, from the constant barrage that came at us in the first 45.

Football is a game of fine margins.

If Charlie Cooper’s long range effort dips in, if Jordan Young’s free kick is 6 inches to the left, the game is TOTALLY different going into the second half.

To go from being the width of the post away from getting the game back to 1-1, to being 2-0 down in a matter of seconds just shows how cruel football can be.

On another day, Joe Day parries the first chance away from sniffing strikers, on a another day, the finger tip he gets to Andy Cannon’s second goal is more substantial and it goes wide.

On another day, we get something out of that game and maybe take it back to Huish Park. Nobody in the crowd could have complained if that game had ended 2-2.

Jordan Young. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Jordan Young was on a one man mission

Jordan Young’s free kick was inches away from perfection, his desire to cut inside from the right and play balls across the edge of the area, shape to shoot, get in to dangerous areas and generally be brilliant showed that he has multiple facets to his game.

Now, technically it was a game of ‘nearly’ moments for Young, but it’s probably fair to say he caught plenty of eyes with his performance.

The eyes of Managers we will be coming up against soon (Hi Jerry!), the eyes of Managers at other clubs who might need a tricky winger in the near future, the eyes of plenty of fans and supporters – more than a couple of Wrexham voices spoke highly of him.

The truth is, all he did was add an Extra 0, on the end of his potential transfer fee. Let’s not pretend he’s not going to be the subject of offers and interest, because he’s shown this season he’s an EFL player in waiting.

I hope the club has the bottle to demand the very best deal for him when the time comes and has a plan in place to fill the eventual Jordan Young shaped hole that will be left.

Don’t fall in love with footballers, it only ends in tears.

I was worried about the back three.

All together now… You hate wing backs, I hate wing backs, we all hate wing backs. We got wing backs and I don’t mind saying it wasn’t half as bad as it could have been – far from it in fact.

Morgan Williams – Mr reliable, versatile, you can hang your hat on him to put in a shift just about anywhere. Duncan Idehen grew into the game brilliantly after a couple of early wobbles, he made some vital interceptions, a couple of big blocks and a couple of crunching tackles, particularly on Paul Mullen… ouch.

Finally, Jake Wannell, in the middle of the three was an absolute colossus. It’s probably fair to say that he might not have played many games of that magnitude before – with the exception of the Taunton FA Cup run of last season (grumble, grumble).

But from Taunton to the Racecourse and not look a second out of place just shows how far he’s come and potentially how far he could go in time.

I don’t think that’s the last of the defensive trio we’ll see this season, but it’s great to know we’ve got players who can do it if we need.

Finally… and I know I’ll get plenty of love for this.

Charlie Cooper, appeared as a 75th minute substitute at Welling.
Picture courtesy of Iain Morland.

We are so much better with Charlie Cooper in the side.

There’s no one that can convince me otherwise. He was tasked with trying to keep tabs on Elliot Lee, who might just be the best player outside the top two divisions, he can probably say that he did alright there. 

They were embroiled in a little sub plot throughout, both got booked, both had to be at their influential best without giving the referee an excuse to wave another card.

At one point in the second half, they quite literally exchanged snarls, just growling at each other… it was quite animalistic, I quite liked it.

He dared to go forward and had two of the Glovers more meaningful shots on goal, he dictated play when the ball broke down on the edge of our own box and stood head and shoulders above the rest in the game from where I was stood.

Cooper is, for my mind, quickly becoming the first name on the team sheet – who drops out, I don’t know, but I don’t want to go into big games without Charlie Cooper – and they don’t come much bigger than Wednesday.

 

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Yeovil Town’s unbeaten run in National League South came to an end in spectacular style with a 4-1 defeat at a Welling United side who still sit third from bottom of the table on Saturday.

The result means we have not won in our last three matches in all competitions, but, courtesy of other results in the division, that we are also still eight points clear at the top.

Once his fingers had thawed out after a chilly afternoon in South London, Dave gave us his thoughts about what he made of it all…..

We played their game, not ours: First things first, Welling absolutely deserved their three points. They took their chances better than us, they defended better than us and they wanted it more than us.
But, after Jordan Young missed an opportunity to put us 2-0 up after 20 minutes, we stopped playing our game and started playing Welling’s. Once they got their equaliser, they set out to pull our defence all over the place with pace and tenacity which we simply never matched.

The view from the first half position at Park View Road.

It was a midfield crying out for Charlie Cooper: The chasm between our defence and midfield was a playground for Welling and neither Matt Worthington nor Sonny Blu Lo-Everton ever got to grips with it.
It was crying out for someone who could get the ball, do something simple with it and drive us forward and that player was Charlie Cooper.
He’s not every fan’s cup of tea, I get it, but when he came on for Worthington for the final 15 minutes, we looked much improved.

Charlie Cooper, appeared as a 75th minute substitute at Welling.
Picture courtesy of Iain Morland.


Our attack looked as much of a worry as our defence: Against Chippenham four days earlier, we could at least point to plenty of attacking play and a good performance from the opposition keeper, but I don’t recall Reice Charles-Cook in the Welling goal to have a huge amount to do.
Frank Nouble looked out of sorts, Sonny Cox struggled to get much of a foothold on the game and when Rhys Murphy came off the bench he looked typically lively, but missed a chance you’d have put your house on him to score.
In fact, the only major save I remember Charles-Cook having was from Alex Fisher, who put himself about well when he came on. It was good to see him back after such a long time and hopefully he can push those ahead of him in the pecking order to spark them back in to action.

No-one else wants to punish us: The positive was that, for all the chuckling there will be for our misfortune among other National League South sides, no team managed to take advantage of it.
Third-placed Hampton & Richmond, who are in the most in-form side in the division, were the only one of the top seven to win yesterday and both second-placed Aveley and Bath City in fourth fluffed their lines by dropping two points each on the road.
It will probably stick in the craw of our seagull bothering ‘friends’ in W*ymouth that they did us a favour with a late equaliser against Aveley.

The National League South table following Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at Welling United.

There’s something special about this squad: These players have shown us time and again that there’s something special about them and that has not changed in three matches.
Yesterday at Welling was a bad (very bad) day at the office, but there’s characters and quality in this squad which we have not seen much of in the past decade. That did not change at Torquay (in the Trophy), last Tuesday night at Chippenham or this weekend.
Alex Fisher spoke post-match about there being some “home truths” in the Yeovil dressing room and this is when the experienced heads need to lift the troops.
Wrexham in the FA Cup (don’t look at their result from the weekend, by the way) is a ‘free hit’ which no-one outside of South Somerset expects us to do anything with and then we have two more away dates – at Bath City and Dartford – before we can taste the comforts of home again.

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A frustrating evening in front of goal and a crazy own goal saw Yeovil Town’s winning run in National League South ended with a 1-1 draw at a Hardened Huish (Hardenhuish) Park, Chippenham last night. 

A crowd of 1,326 swelled by another fantastic turn out from Somerset was there to see it all, including one who travelled from somewhere outside Blackpool – and here are Dave’s thoughts from his spot frozen to the away terrace……

How have we only scored one? When you’ve scored more goals in three months than you did in the whole of last season, we can’t complain about going forwards too much – but it was our finishing which let us down. Chippenham keeper Will Henry must feel robbed not to get the sponsors’ Man of the Match after making two or three great saves, perhaps the sponsors agreed that we made it too easy for him by hitting so many shots straight at him. Matt Worthington has probably never had a better chance to score in his 201 matches, it was an off night for Rhys Murphy (see below), and Sonny Cox could not really get in to the game. Thank goodness for the predatory instincts of Jake Hyde. He’ll hate being called ‘super sub’, perhaps we can bring him off the bench after a minute and then unleash him. The stats don’t lie, 11 shots on targets to Chippenham’s six should have been enough to comfortably put that to bed.

Jake Hyde celebrates his goal at Chippenham Town.

The most ridiculous own goal you’ll ever see. This was the view of the lads watching on National League TV and I’m glad that it wasn’t the player heading firmly in to his own net that it looked from the away end. Duncan Idehen, who I thought looked composed alongside Morgan Williams, found himself in an awkward position so you can’t blame either of them particularly. Losing the ball in midfield like we did is the worst part of the whole affair. Joe Day made one outstanding save in the second half but otherwise I don’t remember him having to be ‘super Joe Day (is) in goal’ too much and, when you don’t finish your chances, that kind of a freak own goal is always going to cost you.

Duncan Idehen

A night to forget for Rhys Murphy. On another night, there would be a picture of Rhys Murphy holding a match ball and at least three fingers up. Will Henry did well to deny him once, he had what looked a clear penalty turned down by the referee, but there were a couple of occasions where he looked like he wanted to walk the ball in. I found echoes of last season shouting ‘put your laces through it, Rhys.’ The man knows goal-scoring better than I do, but he will be frustrated. Not used that word as much this season, have we?! Then, to add insult to frustration, he goes and picks up a fifth booking for what looked like dissent and now misses an important league game at Bath City in a couple of weeks time. Silly, silly boy, Rhys.

We missed Jordan Young – but not just him. There was a big Jordan Young shaped hole in a team which particularly in the first half was crying out for a bit of creativity. The optimist (aka Ben) in me told me at half-time that we had to be patient, the pessimist in me told me the first half was very heavy going. All a bit flat and nothing to really get behind, you just wanted a magician like Young or a speedster like Jordan Stevens to excite and create something from nothing. But, whilst Duncan Idehen looked competent alongside Morgan Williams, the lack of Jake Wannell stood out for me.
A lot of what has been good about our play in our winning run has been built from his composure playing the ball out from defence and that stood out.

Jake Wannell.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

We’re nine points clear at the top. Let’s not get carried away. It was a disappointing night by the standards we have set this season. But, we actually extended our lead at the top of National League South to nine points with both Aveley and Bath City also being held to draws. Third-placed Maidstone United briefly cut it to eight points with a win on Monday night, so – despite the fact it feels like a defeat (Michael Smith, 2023) – we were actually better off come 10pm than we were at 7.45pm on Tuesday night. We always knew there was going to be a bit of adversity, especially with important players missing, but this is far from anything to lose heads over. Bring on the Welling!

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Well, the run was fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end. Three Valleys Radio were there, and so was our very own Tom Bailey was there to give us his Five Conclusions on Yeovil’s exit from the FA Trophy.

Changes were a win-win. Not sure if this was just me, but I was still impressed with the majority of the changes made today by Mark Cooper. It was great to see Josh Staunton back in the side, and the same can be said for Jordan Maguire-Drew, who was my personal Man of the Match (for Yeovil at least). While it’s disappointing for the run to end, I can’t imagine this competition was high on the priority list of Mark Cooper, so resting key players like Michael Smith, Morgan Williams and Rhys Murphy was the right call.

Torquay were much improved. We can say all we want about Yeovil’s performance (which I didn’t think was that bad considering the amount of changes made), but we have to give Torquay credit where it’s due, they did a much better job than last time out at nullifying any attacking threat that came their way. Considering the only goal we scored was an own goal from a Torquay defender, they can go home with their heads held high, even with the wholescale changes for Yeovil.

 

 

Duncan Idehen had a decent debut. A baptism of fire for the 21 year old loanee, and a big gap in the defence to fill. It didn’t matter for Duncan Idehen though, who looked shaky in the opening stages of the game before growing into a dominant performance, commanding his area and putting in vital tackles to cut out attacks from the hosts. We’ve got him until the end of January, and I’m personally looking forward to seeing how he grows with us!

The pitch was… certainly something. We had concerns over the state of Yeovil’s pitch following the run of home games recently, and I think Torquay have reason to be concerned over their own. Players were slipping and sliding, and nobody really looked comfortable on a surface that was coming up from the first whistle.

 

Tricky conditions left quality football few and far between.

 

Back on track for Tuesday, then. There are positives to take from today, less games for us to think about, allowing us to focus on the league, as well as run outs and rests for a lot of players in the squad. The bus ride home was quiet but not a bad atmosphere, it was an “ah well, maybe next year” feeling, as we clearly have bigger fish to fry. Shout out to the 300+ fans that made the journey today too, plenty of noise from them!

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Jordan Young’s hattrick helped Yeovil to another win against a tricky opponent under the lights at Huish Park last night. Here are Ian’s Conclusions from the Bamford Stand…

Jordan Young was on fire. What a difference from Saturday afternoon for Young. Almost everything (less tackling Jordan) he touched turned to gold last night. His first goal and his hattrick were calmness personified inside the box. To say there was a hint of fortune – see also hopelessness – about his second would be an understatement. It’s a great free kick, delivered with wicked bend, but the keeper’s had a nightmare. That’s what Young brings to this team though. His radar was off on Saturday, but under the lights he put on an attacking clinic.

Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

We’ve seen a different side to some players now. With Will Dawes covering the suspended Alex Whittle at left back, we’ve seen that there is cover there. The injury to Jake Wannell has seen Michael Smith fill in at centre back, although we did see he is a mere mortal. We knew we were going to need to use the squad and we saw a bit of that last night with a change in personnel and shape as the game wore on. With the injury to Wannell, I was surprised not to see Josh Staunton come in, but with the hectic schedule it won’t be long before we see him back on the pitch.

Jake Wannell.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

With that said, I hope Wannell comes back fast. He’s been a revelation at the back in these last few weeks. His ability to carry the ball out, his calmness in possession and passing has progressed since he first arrived. The partnership between him and Morgan Williams has been a huge part of this record-breaking run. The loan signing of Duncan Idehen will provide extra cover in Wannell’s absence, but it’s hard to imagine someone slotting in like-for-like with the centre backs recent performances.

It got a bit spicy! When the referee blew the whistle for full time, there was quite a bit of tension out there at Huish Park. There was definitely a spirit to the game and Yeovil were victim to a few spicy challenges. I think there was an argument for a red card for Kuhl in the first half for a full-blooded challenge and Frank Nouble took some hefty tackles towards the end of the match. There was a bit of spat between Nouble and Cullen and an exchange between Mark Cooper and the opposition dugout was heated too.

We are dominant, but have to continue respecting the opposition. With a nine point gap and a game in hand at the top, we are undeniably the frontrunners now. If we weren’t before, we are the team everyone will be looking to beat to break this record-breaking run. Belief is so high right now, that with every fixture you can’t help but be confident, but it’s crucial we continue on the path we’ve taken so far. Mark Cooper won’t let confidence turn into arrogance. Every opponent is examined studiously, standards are not going to be allowed to slip and we have to remain classy in victory.