Having clocked up 1,350 miles travelling in the past week, Yeovil Town travel sickness struck as they went down to a 2-1 defeat at Southend United last night. Glovers’ fan Ed Turnbull was among the 68 travelling supporters in the away end and here are his conclusions.

We looked knackered in the first half especially: And understandably so – I could’ve drafted this conclusion at 5pm on Saturday, and probably even a couple months ago as soon as the rearranged fixture dates were announced. But the minutes and the travelling really caught up with us in a bleak first half display. Southend out-ran, out-pressed and out-played us for the first 45 minutes, and it was this that ultimately meant they deserved the win after 90. I empathise with the players, but I lost track of the number of times our defenders were chasing shadows back towards their own goal only seconds after they had punted the ball up the line themselves unable to play any deliberate pass.

Jed Ward is helpless to keep out Southend’s Gus Scott-Morriss’ opener after his four minutes last night.
It was another game of two halves for us: Much like we deserved to lose the first half, I think we deserved to draw the second. We’ll probably never know whether the winner would have stood had goal-line technology been in use, but on another day we might have earned a very respectable point against a side which will almost certainly be in the play-offs this season. It was probably a mix of Southend allowing us more time on the ball, and us being more composed with it. There was still the big asterisk that we didn’t create much, but we held our own and, what I liked most was…
…the players showed they cared: You could say we’re more-or-less on the beach, but that wasn’t the mentality I saw on the pitch tonight. Whether it’s James Daly terrier-like in his pursuit to win the ball back in an unfamiliar central midfield position, or Alex Whittle coming bee-lining back onto the pitch out of nowhere with enough desire to get not only the ball but also a good chunk of substitute Aaron Jarvis, I am fully here for it. Once you consider the shift these players have had to put in of late, I was proud to partake in a good length applause of mutual respect between fans, players and coaching staff after full-time despite going home empty-handed.
Brett McGavin. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.
We have some good players we need to build around for next season: James Daly has rightly got the limelight of late, but Brett McGavin has been immense. Following an injury-stricken and unimpressive first half of the season, he’s really proven his worth in the recent onslaught of fixtures. A near ever-present in a lightweight midfield department, not only has he shown his class on the ball that we’ve always known about, but he’s had to get through a heck of a load of dirty work. Moving on from Cannavaro, this guy is the Somerset Pirlo, our metronome if you will. I think he could be key to us becoming the free-flowing footballing side Rowley clearly plans to make us.
Time to finish the job now: There’s a good chance our current points tally will be enough to avoid relegation, but let’s not leave it to chance. Now’s the time for one or two big pushes to make it mathematically certain, and Truro City at home on Good Friday and Eastleigh are two favourable opponents to do just that. That’s not at all to say it will be easy, but let’s lick our wounds from tonight, keep our heads up and show why we’re above these two teams in the table.

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Mark
10 minutes ago

I don’t know why we keep hearing the phrase “on the beach…”
The majority of the squad are out of contract at the end of the season & there surely can’t be too many who are confident of a contract extension at the moment, at least, I hope not.

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