It was a rare defeat on the road for Yeovil Town as they went down to a late Mike Fondop goal at Oldham Athletic yesterday. The result means the Glovers have not scored in their last three outings, but are still just about comfortably mid-table in the National League Premier rankings. Dave made the short journey (for him) across to Greater Manchester and here’s what he made of it…..
Let’s just scrap Rule 1: I’m going to get the obvious point out of the way straight off, referee Paul Marsden had a stinker. When both sets of supporters are on your back after 20 minutes, you know it’s not going well and it just got worse as the game went on – inconsistent and at times baffling decisions. There were fouls we committed that were given our way, both Aaron Jarvis and Frank Nouble must have felt like just giving the Oldham defence their shirts the amount they were having them almost torn off at times. Referees have a tough job, I get that, but when you get as much wrong as this guy did, you deserve the bad review. I’d put our penalty shout at the end down in the ‘you’ve seen them given’ category rather than ‘stonewall’, but Marsden’s performance was awful before even that happened.
Frank and Pearson impressed: In the first half, we went toe-to-toe with an Oldham side which has had considerable investment – I doubt either James Norwood or Joe Garner are getting paid in pork scratchings. A big part of our threat was carried by Frank Nouble, who caused Reagen Ogle all kinds of problems down the left side, and Sam Pearson who was a constant nuisance throughout on the right. I still think Frank’s best position is that free role where he can go and do as he likes, but left wing suited him down to the ground in the first half yesterday.
Take (another) bow, Ollie Wright: There has been some questions from the Huish Park press corps about ‘online criticism’ of Ollie Wright. I’m not sure if that’s @Gary47985 (that’s not a real account by the way!) saying something wayward, because if that’s the case we’re all the target of online criticism. But, from what I have seen of him this season, Ollie Wright has done more right than wrong and he kept us in the game at Oldham on multiple occasions. Big saves against big players in a big match atmosphere. I said it in my Five Conclusions after the win at AFC Fylde, Ben mentioned it in his analysis of the win at Boston, this lad is a fantastic shot-stopper and performances like that are only going to help him grow. My man of the match.
There’s an issue up front: No, I’m not claiming I’m a rocket scientist and I would like the prize for the most obvious statement of the day, please! But it’s 273 minutes since Dom Bernard’s winner at AFC Fylde, the last goal we scored and there is no-one who has watched us play in the last three matches who can honestly think we don’t have an issue going forward. In their post-match interviews both Chris Todd and Frank Nouble eluded to things not clicking – even Mark Cooper shouted “get it forward” at least once at Boundary Park! So what is it that meant we didn’t force Oldham’s keeper in to a meaningful save? Well, they have a decent defence, let’s say that to start, but it’s so painfully obvious to me that Aaron Jarvis needs an actual strike-partner. Maybe not all the time, but at least some of the time. He came off for Ciaran McGuckin in the second half at Oldham, I would have loved to see one of our midfielders come off and tried the two of them up there together. Jarvis works his nuts off and his link-up play is a great at times, but give the guy some help up there.
Let’s take the positives: There was a lot to be positive about in the first half yesterday night and we have to take that in to Tuesday night at Sutton United. We’ve said on the podcast several times that our season will not be defined by results away at Oldham Athletic – or against the likes of Gateshead, Hartlepool United and maybe Rochdale and Solihull Moors as well. Yes, I have just named the teams we have lost against. We’ve got our points against teams we need to be getting them off and our league position after ten games is one I’m quite happy with. Yesterday, Ollie Wright had a blinder, we looked defensively solid, decent on the flanks, it’s just that ‘small matter’ of scoring goals. We’re ten games in to the gelling/getting used to a higher division process now, we have to keep on improving. On to Tuesday night and let’s see if we can add those missing bits.
This matches how I listened to commentary on BBC Somerset.. I also expected McGuckin to accompany not replace Jarvis upfront.
Throughout I listened for any significant disparity between the recent analysis Gloverscast and that offered by the commentators. I found none.
Time for some sang froid