A stuttering start to the Danny Webb era for Yeovil Town, a scrappy 1-0 defeat at the hands of Tamworth.
Our resident artist, Alex “Distant Glover” Russell was in the ground for the game, here are his Five Conclusions.
Set-piece Fest
Maybe I have seen games where the opposition got more corners or throw-ins in the final third, but I don’t remember them.
However good you are at defending set-pieces, if you concede that many, the opposition will take advantage of one. And they did.
At the other end, our ability to make good passes seemed to diminish the nearer we got to Tamworth goal. Their defence seemed fairly comfortable dealing with long balls, but when we picked up the pace, hit an easy-on-the-eye shorter pass or took a player or two on, they looked more wobbly. Oh, and this isn’t just Yeovil, but older fans may remember a thing called crosses. They’re a bit like a set piece, but you don’t have to wait for the ball to go out of play, the defence don’t get time to turn the box into a mosh-pit and every now and then a goal happens.
Patience
As a famous man once said, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end”. And let’s face it folks, it’s just the beginning of the beginning. (That last sentence might not be word-for-word.)
Much as we’d all love it if Danny Webb could flip a switch and make everything Championship again by next week, Prabhu’s team are playing the long game and the appointment of Webb is part of that. There is lots of unwelcome stuff that needs changing: training near Birmingham, not owning Huish Park, maybe the crossed-out names and numbers on the back of the home kit. The proof will be in the pudding, but it looks like there’s a far more open approach to communication in place. Being open and honest with fans on a regular basis will make it so much easier to understand why we should be patient. Although we may be stuck with the ropey graphics.
What’s the story? (Nearly)
To paraphrase a slightly less famous man, that was nearly the best ten seconds of my life. Andrew Oluwabori’s previous stint with us wasn’t all that notable, but he fell into the category of “got a load better after he left us”. Webb has faith in him, and his return was nearly marked by what might have been a goal of the season contender. Nearly. Yes, he looked like a player who was having to find his way in a new squad in an actual match. But there was a mazy run past nearly 400 Tamworth players that hinted at the sort of quality that can change games. Nearly.
Them and us
Tamworth may not play pretty football and they have a terrible excuse for a pitch, but ten games in, they’re in the play-offs and ten places above us. Their rise has been remarkable and it’s all down to Andy Peaks, a manager who’s eked out something really special out of very limited resources. It was interesting to hear their fan Stuart on yesterday’s “Foot in the Opposition Camp” (look Ben – a plug).
The Tamworth model is to stay part time, and use their middle-of-the-country location to attract the cream of the want-to-keep-another-job crop of players. We’re not in the middle of the country and we’re full-time (thanks, Webb Senior), but we get waaaaay more than 1,199 (at least a quarter of whom were in green). This might sound like some dreadful corporate away-day workshop cliché, but I’d like to have a clear vision of what our model is now. Why are we special? What makes us unique? (Apart, you know, from all loving cider and the Wurzels.)
Weighing up walls
Webb is obviously assessing what he’s got to work with, and from his post-match interview, is going to shed players as well as bring them in. Time will tell if the small squad he’s inherited will favour the latter rather than the former, but he’s going to have to make some hard decisions as well as some canny signings.
(Can someone have a word, though, and tell him never to use the “worked their socks off” phrase again?) I always struggled with Cooper’s seemingly disposable approach to squad building.
Good teams are always more than the sum of their parts, characters who want to run through walls not just for the gaffer, but for each other and the club. Yes, there’s a balance – you can’t wait forever to see if the lummox actually is David Silva – but it’s hard to build that with a revolving door policy. If you want Huish Park to be a fortress, build a squad of regulars who make it impossible not to get behind. We won’t even mind if they demolish a few of the fortress walls.
