After 810 National League minutes, Yeovil Town picked up three points again! Goals from on loan defender Ben Barclay and a free-kick from Dale Gorman secured a 2-0 win at Dover Athletic which in turn relegated our hosts. Supporter Ed Turnbull give us his conclusions from his spot in the away end in Kent…..
First things first: we won (first time in league since Woking away on January 29) and we scored more than one goal (first time in league since Wrexham away on November 30)! And,mid we scored from a set piece (first time in league since Dagenham on November 20, I think)! It was great to see Barclay tuck away a calm finish after coming close to scoring a couple times since he joined, and to see a Gorman free-kick that found the back of the net rather than the middle-man of the wall or the keeper’s midriff [or the car park – Ed!].
It’s a good job we did profit from set pieces because again our attackers failed to score. As usual Tom Knowles and Charlie Wakefield showed plenty of promise driving towards the box from the wings, but it didn’t lead to many clear-cut chances. I don’t think Adi Yussuf had his worst game, but that really isn’t saying much, and, as always, he gave away countless silly fouls. Olufela Olomola had a good chance at the death – the sort of chance you could argue he needs to take if we’re to pick up a good number of points between now and the end of the season.
It was fantastic to see Josh Neufville back after his horrible injury, but for me Ted Cann was the most impressive debutant. His distribution was generally excellent, with long and accurate kicks off the ground. One particular moment stood out when he came out of his area and instantly controlled a high ball before pinging an inch-perfect pass out to Knowles far-forward on the right. He did have one heart-in-mouth moment when he was beaten to the ball by Michael Gyasi, leaving the Dover attacker to pass the ball into an empty net, but Cann’s blushes were saved by the offside flag. Ted didn’t have much to do in the way of shot-stopping, so he couldn’t be judged too much on that.
However, I hope that this win can be a catalyst for a positive end to the season. You can only beat what’s in
front of you, and we did that quite comfortably. I think this is a group of young players who perform better when they have a buoyant crowd behind them, so hopefully this win will install confidence in both the players and fans that we can achieve similar results against teams higher up the table so that our season doesn’t completely peter out. Let’s get another win against Bromley.