Gloverscast Ben was on the mic for BBC Radio Somerset at Spotland on Saturday afternoon to witness a second half capitulation send the Glovers back down south with the square route of nothing. 

Here are his five conclusions. 


Well, it was okay at half-time

During the half-time interval, I told Rich Hoskins and the team back at BBC Radio Bristol that whilst Rochdale had enjoyed far more of the ball in the first 45 minutes, Yeovil had begun to build into the game.

Chances for Sean McGurk and Ciaran McGuckin as well as flashes of pace and skill from Kyrell Wilson – who I thought showed enough to suggest he’s an exciting prospect for us – suggested to me that we were growing into the game.

It was always likely that we would give up plenty of possession and I thought it might take time to get into our full stride, which was the case. What I didn’t think would happen would be THAT second half.

Rochdale’s left side tore us apart

The combination of Leon Ayinde and Jid Okeke down the Rochdale left were, quite frankly, a joy to watch.

Time after time, wave after wave of Rochdale attack came down the Glovers’ right side and, while I don’t think Dom Bernard had his best game in green and white, he was certainly being outnumbered time and time again and putting up as best a fight as he could.

When Jacob Maddox went off injured in the first half, I felt that the introduction of Josh Sims might offer a bit more protection to Bernard at right back, but that simply didn’t happen. Okeke played the perfect wing-back role and Ayinde’s freedom to run at the back line and pull the strings just caused havoc for Yeovil who simply didn’t have an answer.

Playing against high, flying wing backs is tough enough, but we just had no answer to Rochdale’s main attacking fire starters.

We miss you, Michael Smith. 

Wright place, wrong time 

Ollie Wright’s improvement between the posts over the past few months has been nothing short of astronomical. He’s made points-winning saves, he’s been commanding and confident and decisive, and he’s shown us exactly why Southampton think so much of him in a goalkeeping department that is fairly stacked at St Mary’s.

But – and he’ll know this – two errors led to two goals which, by the time the clock struck the hour, rendered the game over.

His confidence took the first blow when he came for a corner, got nowhere near it, flapped, and saw the ball trickle in off a combination of Whittle’s backside and Devante Rodney.

The punch….

 

….the punchline

Then, eight minutes later, a split second of hesitancy cost him the vital half yard which allowed Kairo Mitchell to get to the ball first, penalty.

To his credit, he would go on to make a couple of impressive saves and blocks to prevent Rochdale from racking up a cricket score. He’ll know it wasn’t his best showing and I’m confident he’ll be able to get his mojo back after a little breather, but those two moments were big in the context of the game. 


We need to help the kids.

Ciaran McGuckin (21 years old, 16 career senior appearances), Sean McGurk (21 & 23), Kyrell Wilson (20 & 1), Kofi Shaw (18 & 17), Lewys Twamley (21 and 2).

Five young Glovers tasked with leading our line today – Harvey Greenslade (20 & 13) didn’t come on. 

The reason clubs send their talent out on loan, to make names for themselves… and to make errors and learn from them. At Rochdale there were plenty of moments, near misses, through balls which didn’t quite make their mark or split second decisions which didn’t go the right way.

That frontline needs some guidance and experience to help it. On a day-to-day basis, having the voice of Marcus Stewart around them will only help, of course, but in the thick of it, in the heat of the moment, who is going to be the cool, calm, reassuring voice in their heads?

Aaron Jarvis ( 27 & 212) isn’t around to do it, I think it’s time for us to ask about Frank Nouble (33 & 479) and how we can best use him going forward.

He started against Woking on January 11th, but has been in and out of the team for a while – still yet to score this season, I want to see someone of Nouble’s skill, calibre and leadership steer the ship front and centre.

There’s so much potential in the group, but it certainly needed some help out there. 

I left Spotland quite angry.

I’m one of the lucky ones, I only had an hour on a train to negotiate back to Leeds and I get to put in an invoice to the BBC that will reimburse me for the expenses incurred on Saturday.

But even I left the ground feeling a palpable frustration at the performance – particularly in the second half. I felt a sense of real injustice at a rare-as-rocking-horse-poop Saturday off work going that way. I missed out on a couple family events, because I love what I do and I love that club. 

As I say, I’m one of the lucky ones, there were people leaving the away end from Spotland with a five-hour, 240-mile journey back to Somerset to come having parted with their hard-earned cash for the privilege.

I’m not a fan of refunding supporters off the back of a poor showing, after all, you pay your money, you take your chance – I’m yet to ever hear of a fan paying twice for their ticket after a 4-0 win. So wouldn’t call for anything along those lines, the apology from both Mark Cooper and Brett McGavin post match were absolutely correct.

What I do want to see us take the chance over the next couple weeks to do what Mark Cooper says – reset. Realign our squad, to bring our natural leaders together and point everyone in the right direction. It is not panic stations, it’s just a chance to take a breather, before a big push to the end of the season.

We are still, somehow, only four points off the play-offs!


SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY GLOVE


Subscribe
Notify of

2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Derek Hamilton
20 days ago

Measured Ben. Think Im going back to Radio Silence on YTFC. I just cant figure out whats going on. So any comment seems baseless. Had a nice afternoon yesterday at the Arms Park and thats a worry. Trip to Daggers from Bristol also been called off.
Esse quam videri

Mark
19 days ago

I admire your optimism, but we all know the play-offs are a pipe dream.
I’ll settle for avoiding relegation.