Five Conclusions: Solihull Moors 0 Yeovil Town 3

The positivity expressed in Friday’s podcast (listen again here if you need to) turned out to be well placed as a comfortable 3-0 win at Solihull Moors put ten points between Yeovil Town and the National League Premier relegation places. Dave was one of the 244 ‘proper fans’ in the away end at Damson Park and here are this thoughts.

What a win: I’ll be honest, it was not so much the departure of Frank Nouble announced pre-match that knocked the positivity, it was more the absence of Brett McGavin from midfield and no re-emergence for either Jake Wannell or Michael Smith in the squad. But, the positivity was well placed. From the off, we were the better side, the players showed commitment, energy and attacking intent. The result speaks for itself. Yes, Solihull were poor (to be polite) but our players stood up, whilst the home side’s folded.

 

 

A big three points: Three goals, a clean sheet and a good performance, all will delight manager Mark Cooper. But make no mistake, the three points are the most important thing. We moved about Solihull who dropped down to 17th and, even though there is still a five point gap between them and Wealdstone in 18th, that is a big psychological blow. Meanwhile we’re one point off the magic 50 point mark. Solihull fans will be worrying about getting sucked in to the vortex at the bottom (read the comments on their social media posts screaming for the sacking of manager Matty Taylor – it’s not just Yeovil fans afterall) whereas we can sleep easier. You can dismiss that way of thinking as ‘negativity’ if you wish, but if we’re thinking it, players will be thinking it. This was a big three points.

 

Super Sonny. Just Josh: For me it was a dead heat in our Man of the Match between Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Josh Sims. Everything came through Sonny who was at his imperious best in midfield making things happen with such energy. And Josh Sims looked the player we had hoped we had signed when he arrived earlier in the season. Driving runs, taking players on, I imagine Solihull’s defence will be having nightmares about him. That was what we needed to see from Sims and let’s hope there’s more where that came from. Don’t believe me? Look again at a the first two goals and it’s the two of them which make them happen, whilst the corner which led to the third was down to this combination as well.

 

 

Watch out Brett: Take a bow, Alex Whittle. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch his finish for the third goal, make sure you do. An absolutely inch perfect finish over his old team-mate, Ollie Wright, in goal for Solihull. I wonder if he’d done that in training earlier this season, he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. If you thought our Goal of the Season competition was purely for the McG’s (McGavin and McGurk), think again. This one is a serious contender. Whilst I’m talking defenders, credit has to be given to the defence for keeping a clean sheet. Ten goals conceded in the past four games, they did what they needed to against a blunt Solihull attack, but they did it well.

 

Now to take it home: Next weekend’s game at home to AFC Fylde is another great opportunity. I have been lucky to see a lot of us away from home this season, but I appreciate that form at home has not been as great to watch. Again, dismiss it as negativity if that works for you, but the statistics do not lie. Fourth from bottom (19 games/21 points) for home form,  sixth (20 games, 28 points) away. Now we have a great opportunity to take the kind of positive play we saw at Solihull back to Huish Park. Fylde will be buoyed by their own impressive result – a 3-0 home win over Forest Green Rovers – and we need to be on our A game against them. Let’s take this positivity in to that game and get more crucial points on the board.