Ian was in the Torquay Press Box for Yeovil’s 3-1 win last night. Here are his Conclusions from an enjoyable night in the English Riviera.
We got to show off our attacking depth, again. The contrast in the two sides couldn’t have been clearer from the starting line ups. Torquay are ravaged by injuries and missing key players and Mark Cooper was able to bring Jordan Young and Sonny Cox back into his line up, with Jake Hyde, Jordan Stevens and Will Dawes ready to come off the bench. Last night we got to see Cox in left-midfield rather than centrally and he gave a battling performance up against Shaun Donnellan. He faded as the game wore on, but showed another string to his bow in the green and white shirt. Frank Nouble had another good performace, Rhys Murphy should have bagged and Young was at his mercurial best again.
It was a man of the match performance from Sonny Blu Lo-Everton. That was probably Lo-Everton’s best performance in a Yeovil shirt. He was diligent defensively, certain in possession and full of energy. His first half goal was brilliantly struck, showing that when allowed the space Torquay did, he’s able to punish teams. He’s had to wait for his chance, much like Josh Owers did, but there’s so much competition in centre midfield at the moment and anyone who does get dropped will feel harshly done by right now.
Torquay didn’t really lay a glove on Yeovil. For all the talk about Torquay being our closest rivals this season (and their good home record) we’ve definitely faced tougher tests this season. They’ve got their injury woes, and have added loanees in the past couple of weeks but we kept them at arm’s length for most of the game and for a spell in the first half they couldn’t get near us. There is a long way to go still and we have all the momentum. If, as many predicted, the Gulls are to be our title rivals this season, they have a lot of work to do.
The run continues. This unfathomable, unbelievable run of wins keeps going and off the back of dismal lows of April (and the decade prior) it feels so much sweeter. BBC Devon’s commentator asked if ‘Yeovil always play like that?’ after the match and my answer was ‘yeah, pretty much.’ The performances has been remarkable in these past few weeks, different game plans for different opponents from different levels have shown how prepared Mark Cooper is for any challenge. The supporters are well and truly on board and each game feels more winnable than the last. The connection with players gets closer with each victory too. I don’t think you can underestimate how much closer the HP Source series makes you feel to the players too. Seeing those moments where people’s guard is down, and they appear more relaxed makes such a difference.
Mark Cooper still wants more. Even with 12 wins in a row, it feels like Cooper knows there’s even more to come from this squad. But for a lapse on their goal, Yeovil were pretty dominant throughout at Plainmoor, but you can sense that Cooper really wanted to make it a statement victory. Murphy could have, probably should have scored two. Nouble cuts it back to Worthington when he probably should have smashed it goal, Jordan Young has a great 1v1 in the second half and a couple of better final balls could have seen even more chances to score. I think he wants to really put a team to the sword and Saturday’s visitors are second from bottom, Dover Athletic…
They are certainly earning the right to wear the shirt all of them! #Unity