Yeovil Town’s unbeaten start to the new season came to an end as they gave up a two-goal lead to suffer a 3-2 defeat at Southend United yesterday. Glovers’ fan Ed Turnbull was in the away end at Root’s Hall and here are his conclusions.
For a while it was textbook. For 65 minutes, that was a textbook away performance. We had to weather a storm or two, but we defended doggedly. Whenever Southend breached the first line of defence, there was someone in green on the cover, or a Super Jos Barker™️ in yellow making a solid stop. We didn’t have loads of chances up the other end, but we were clinical when they arose.
That free-kick killed us. We wilted in the end though. As soon as Darren Oldaker’s expertly-dispatched free kick hit the net, it felt as though 5 and a half games of high-energy football caught up with us. The energy seaped out of our legs, and into Southend’s. You don’t take off the likes of Brett McGavin and Luke McCormick unless you have to, and without them we lacked that vital bit of experience and composure.
We didn’t look after business. Even before Rowley rang the changes, I felt we didn’t keep the ball as well as we’ve shown we can. That is just as much, if not more, down to Southend’s quality as it is a drop in our standards, but for me that is a difference between the strong play-off contenders we currently are, and a top 3 team. We did have good patterns of play at times, but there were too many times we lost the ball in our own half, and that ultimately made life difficult for us.
There’s a silver lining. A loss always hurts, but I don’t feel as gutted as I normally would after seeing us lose having been 2-0 up. Maybe that’s just because following Yeovil over the last decade has numbed me to the pain, but I think it’s also because Southend were very good, and we still managed to get ourselves into a commanding position. I know it counts for nothing if you let it slip, but the scoreline at 65 minutes was further proof that we can really achieve something this season.
Onwards and upwards. My (our?) ludicrous dreams of an unbeaten season are over, but if you’d offered me 11 points after 6 games including Scunthorpe Carlisle Barrow and Southend, I’d have snapped your hand off. I’ve seen more than enough from this team to be confident that we’ll soon be back on a winning streak, with a kinder-looking run of fixtures now presenting a perfect chance to make a very good start an unbelievable one.
Agree with all of the above. I was travelling home on the train yesterday and felt surprisingly positive. It’s a strange, strange feeling…
Ditto Benji and Dave. It stung a bit in the manner of losing but I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the learning experience they needed to feel. The next three are – on paper, more doable than Carlisle, Scunny and Sarfend (2 points from 9 tells only part of the story) but no less challenging in different ways – possibly more like Barrow, Gateshead, and Tamworth (9 points from 9), so this next block will see what kind of positives and development come along from a loss at Sarfend.
Ditto to these comments and good to hear a manager who watches the same game.
Bonkers fixture listing by NL hasnt helped us and others. For teams and clubs to develop they need reasonable schedules and kick offs at 3.
What happend to Derbys on Saturdays.
Almost feels like NL contrives to avoid them.
They usually try to arrange fixtures so more local ones are scheduled for the holidays. Boxing Day, 1st fixture in January etc. Sutton United is fairly close, but yes surely would make more sense for Yeovil to be playing Forest Green around this time.
Gubbins is diabolical with his positioning
Can’t believe the ridiculous positivity after that performance. It was diabolical from start to finish.
Southend weren’t very good, we were just a joke.
The idea that we’re some type of good football team is laughable.
With the exception of Norville-Williams & Radcliffe our defenders are terrible.
Mukena is a statue & Davies can’t defend. Which is why even this early in the season teams are targeting our right side.
We might score more goals this season but were certainly going to concede more.
We’ve still got no defensive midfielder worthy of the name.
We’re going to concede endless goals from just inside & outside our 18 yard box as we never pick anyone up.
What the hell were we doing for that Southend corner in the second half.
Two men unmarked on our eighteen yard line & not a single Yeovil player within twelve yards of them. Tactical genius.
Our idea of possession football is the back five passing the ball back & forth between themselves, as soon as it gets to midfield we lose it.
Two strikers on the books isn’t enough.
We’re already heavily reliant on McCormick, McGavin & Jones, three players who were here last season. If we lose a couple of them to injury were going to be in real trouble.
We’re going to have to rely on teams sitting back & letting us play, as Tamworth did. If teams press us we’re in real trouble as we can’t keep hold of the ball.
Rowley’s idea of exciting, attacking football played in the opposition half is as far away now as it was when he joined.
For those of you who think we play good possession football, the next time we’re a goal up with 10-15 minutes to play, take a good look at how we keep possession, or not, as the case may be.
Yes, on paper, we’ve had a tough start to the season & yes, I’m sure every Yeovil fan would have taken 11 points from the first six games but we’ve had some luck along the way.
The next two months present, again, on paper, a much easier fixture list, with ten games against opposition nowhere near the top of the betting at the start of the season.
If Billy Rowley is the real deal, it gives Yeovil an excellent chance of cementing a place in the top seven in what looks an open season. Based on seeing Carlisle & Southend against Yeovil I’ll be surprised if any of these teams pick up 100 points plus this season.
I hope I’m proved wrong, & if Billy Rowley has Yeovil anywhere near the top seven at the end of the season, I’ll post on here & admit it, but on what I’ve seen since he joined I just can’t see it happening.
Just for the record, I didn’t watch the Gateshead game, where by all accounts we played really well, so my observations are based on the other five matches.
There’s always one, isn’t there?
Somehow we managed to be diabolical and yet still 2-0 up away at a top side. Okay mate.
We’ll take the more positive view, as Billy himself has said ‘this is a work in progress’ for the duration of his contract. Had this been last season we’d probably have had 5 or 6 nil losses and in the relegation zone. We’re a NL club not some high flying Prem club, so we have to appreciate our occassional inadequacies, which given time Billy will work out. Our only concern at the moment is Slavi, is he up to it, we don’t want another Jarvis. We’re behind Billy and the boys every step of the way.
Agree with a lot of that. Titles are won because of defences. With so many goals conceded, it’s a clear area for improvement. Sometimes you just have to tough it out for a 1 nil win.
Harsh but….reckon we need to toughen up the spine. Maybe the answer is out on loan, or get in a seasoned CH. And target a loan forward to add power up front.