A point gained or two more dropped? Whatever your opinion, Yeovil Town’s draw at a Maidenhead United side with an impressive record on home turf fixes us even more firmly in to mid-table in the National League.
Here are Coatesie’s conclusions from the game in Berkshire from the away end….
For the first half Yeovil Town carried a threat going forward and, for the first time I can recall, it was not all built around Charlie Wakefield and Tom Knowles. It became obvious when both departed that we lost our attacking threat with the loss of Olufela Olomola and Lawson D’Ath. Neither player is obviously fully match fit as they both find their way back after a lack of regular football for different reasons. On the positive, we have two players capable of making a real difference going forward, but on the negative D’Ath tired after the break and was sensibly replaced and Fela took heavy challenge which he seemed to still be feeling after the game.
The more worrying thing was that despite our bench looking strong on paper none of our substitutions made much of an impression. Reuben Reid showed some good touches and looked like he got the winner (see next Conclusion), but otherwise did not carry the same scoring threat as Fela. Jordan Barnett didn’t have much of an impact, though on numerous occasions I had wished it had been him accelerating down the pitch from left-back instead of Morgan Williams. No real criticism of Morgan’s performance, but I just am still not convinced he is full-back.
Now I know referee’s are off the agenda (Rule 1 and all that) but what about assistant’s? Okay, I am biased but I saw little wrong with either goal that
was ruled out. In the first half, Luke Wilkinson did exactly what his manager had been calling for and got himself on the end of a great ball in to the box to head home, he jumped, but he was looked simply more committed than the Maidenhead player he was competing against. Even on a replay I don’t put it beyond ‘seen them given’. Then the injury time ‘winner’ from Reid, well, my angle behind the goal was not the best to judge, the linesman had his flag up early but the fact the ref checked with his assistant suggested even the man in the middle was unsure of the decision.
We saw the best and the worst of Grant Smith. The Yeovil keeper kept us in the game particularly in the second half when we couldn’t seem to keep Maidenhead away. He was involved in a one-on-one battle with the hosts’ Dan Sparkes with some brilliant saves, but sadly his error for the equaliser was even more telling. From the away end it was difficult to see exactly what happened, but it looked pretty inexplicable from what I could make of it.
Sadly, it was another performance which made me convinced we are every inch a mid-table side and unless we can magic up a fully fit D’Ath, get Fela firing or get Wakefield and Knowles back to their unplayable best, it hard to see how it is going to change. But let’s end on a positive, Charlie Lee is going to be an entertaining watch in the technical area. At the start, Darren Sarll shouted to supporters waiting to see which end we were shooting towards that his assistant was nailed on for a yellow card. Invading the pitch for the ‘winner’ from Reid. If there’s nothing to play for other than the pride this season, his antics could be worth a watch.