It was a first win, a first goal and a first clean sheet for Yeovil Town as their second match of the new National League Premier season saw them pick up a 1-0 win at fellow newly-promoted side Braintree Town yesterday.
A neat finish from defender Morgan Williams was enough to seal the points on a sweltering afternoon in Essex and get the Glovers off the mark at the second time of asking.
Here’s how Dave saw it from his spot in the away end at the Rare Breeds Meat Company Stadium…..
The first W: On Friday’s podcast we spoke about how getting a win on the board was the most important thing and it almost didn’t matter how it came. This was not a pretty performance and the cliched ‘game of two halves’ with a first 45 minutes which had all the hallmarks of the frustrations against Hartlepool seven days earlier, but the second 45 showing far more promise. It didn’t matter how it came, it just had to come – now we’re off the mark with a great opportunity to build on it against Ebbsfleet United on Tuesday night.
Pass and move – quicker: We really toiled in the first half, like really toiled. The only real moment for those slowly cooking on the away end came right before half-time, some neat build-up and Michael Smith found himself away down the right. It showed that moving it quicker is going to be everything this season. In the second half we did that and got opportunities but against better sides than Braintree (and there’ll be a few of those) we cannot afford a slow start.
Drought warning in Essex?: In the words of someone who knows his way around a piece of turf (Clue – you’ll often see him tending to the Huish Park pitch), rarely have you seen a pitch be such a leveller in the second game of the season. I don’t know how warm it’s been in Braintree this summer, but the pitch looked like it had not seen water in months. It was not conducive to any kind of football and hopefully evidence we left such poor surfaces behind in National League South.
Defensive solidity will be crucial: Before the match, all the talk was about Braintree’s new signings Inih Effiong and John Akinde, but they were well-handled by our defence. Effiong showed some moments in the first half but that was it, whereas I hardly noticed Akinde when he arrived as a second half substitute. Morgan Williams and Jake Wannell can take credit for that, whilst Alex Whittle and Michael Smith both looked solid. As I have already said, they will face very different and tougher tests in the season to come and a solid defence will be crucial if they are to do anything this season.
Sims showed a bit: I’ll caveat this conclusion by saying it was two moments in about 20 minutes on the pitch, but Josh Sims looks like he has some quality. His first involvement having arrived on the 76 minutes and he drifted in to space to fire a shot just past the post, then he made a great turn inside the box to set up Whittle just before the end. He is obviously lacking match fitness having not played for three months and far too soon to get too excited, but there was enough to suggest there’s a decent player in there. If Brett McGavin and Matt Worthington are to be our midfield two, a lot will depend on what the three forward players in front of them can do, and Sims looks like he could be a good addition there.
