80 travelling Yeovil fans were left disappointed after the Glovers saw Aaron Jarvis’ opener cancelled out by two Boston goals. Here are Ollie’s five sad conclusions from Lincolnshire.
It’s that old cliché again… We’ve been saying it a lot lately – and Alex Whittle said it post-match too – but it really was a game of two halves. Yeovil looked relatively in control and composed on the ball in the first 45, and looked dangerous going forward on a few occasions. After the break, it was a different story – with the Glovers unable to build anything of note and having to deal with pretty much one-way traffic from Boston. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what causes the second-half drop off, but whether it’s a lack of fitness, a lack of options from the bench, or an inability to adapt when our opposition turn the screw, it’s incredibly frustrating.
Ryan Jones and Josh Sims formed a good double act. Aside from Aaron Jarvis’ bolt from the blue that put us ahead, most of our dangerous moments in the first-half came from Jones and Sims’ good work down the right. The two were very much on the same wavelength, linking up well on a number of occasions, with Sims in particular causing trouble. Jones has been at the heart of a lot which has been good in recent weeks and it was a shame to see him taken off on the hour mark. Although Sims still showed endeavour, he wasn’t as effective without his mate.
We should have lost by more. Make no mistake about it, although there was only a goal in it, the hosts had more than enough clear cut chances to put the game out of sight – and they probably should have taken them. In-form Tom Cursons had two showdowns with Jed Ward – the first saw him round the keeper only for Kyle Ferguson to slide in heroically on the line, and the second saw our number one manage to get down not once, not twice, but three times to stop Cursons from slotting home. Despite riding our luck at one end, we did little to take advantage at the other – even the introduction of new striker Millar Matthews-Lewis with 15 minutes remaining did little to shake things up.
I’m not going to blame James Daly. The substitute may have given away possession in the lead-up to Boston’s winning goal, but he was surrounded by three yellow shirts with no teammate within 15 yards of him – it wasn’t the first time he had battled away for balls only to have no support to help him out. And of course, when you look back at the replay of the goal, it’s hard to see much determination to win the ball back as Boston break.
We’re putting pressure on ourselves here. We may have ended the day still seven points clear of the drop zone, but the longer we go without getting the points required for survival, the more precarious our position will seem. Results at the weekend went our way and we have a fairly favourable run-in all things considered, including games against three of the current bottom four. What a shame it will be if those games mean something by the time they come around. Anyone see how Tuesday night’s opponents Woking got on today by the way? If you didn’t, maybe try not to look.
This season is beginning to have a feeling that the headline of “having spent most of the season outside of the relegation zone, YTFC slipped to relegation on the final day” or similar words to that effect.
I still very much back Rowley, as I think he needs a full preseason and squad overhaul before he can be judged properly. But.. there is doubt over whether he’s the right man beginning to form.. though I truly hope that this doubt is smashed apart next season.