Boxing Day football never seems to offer much in the way of the spirit of the season for Yeovil Town and 2025 was no exception with a 1-0 defeat against a Truro City side sitting bottom of the table. Dave was among the 568 – plus more than a few in the home end – who made the trip to Cornwall and here are his conclusions.
We never troubled them: With the exception of Jake Wannell’s header right at the very end, we did nothing to show whether Truro keeper Aidan Stone was any better than the player many in the away end told him they remembered him being. The statistics show that we had ten efforts on goal – just three on target – but I cannot honestly say I remember us having that many. You do need to give some credit to Truro for their dogged defending, but we offered virtually nothing against a side which has conceded 44 goals in 24 matches so far this season. Only James Plant showed any real intent to try and work a way through a Truro side which clearly knew what their plan was.
Another crap goal conceded: The goal that we conceded was awful – worse than both goals against Forest Green and about as bad as the one we conceded against Maidstone. Firstly Tahvon Campbell heads it up in the air rather than away from danger and then we have at least two defenders in close proximity of Tyler Harvey but he’s the only one who appears to want to win it. Michee Efete seems to be watching it go in as much as 568 of us behind the goal were. If it wasn’t for the brilliance of Jed Ward we might have conceded a couple of good goals, but luckily he managed to tip both Dom Johnson-Fisher’s chance just before the goal and Lirak Hasani’s second half shot over the bar.
Did anyone ask for a striker for Christmas?: Billy Rowley said after the defeat to Forest Green that he did not feel we needed a new striker, we just needed to create better chances for them. Having seen Tahvon Campbell, Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade have a go over this 90 minute spell (see previous conclusions about Truro’s defensive abilities), I’m not so sure. Campbell offered nothing yesterday, I didn’t really notice Harvey at all when he came on, Jarvis had a couple of shots from outside the box, but none of them seemed to offer much. Very few of the opportunities I can recall us having came from any of our strikers and whilst the service they received was not up to much, I expected more.
Are we just asking players to do things they simply can’t do?: There is talent in this squad, there really is. Jed Ward’s is there for all to see, James Plant (not our player, I know) is a player I really enjoy watching, Luke McCormick has shown us what he’s got, but are we asking many of these players to do things they simply cannot do? I understand possession football (I might not like it, but I understand the intent), but surely no-one has sent them out and say ‘ponderously pass the ball between each other with no-one making a forward run’. There were times where I thought Michee Efete had been told not to cross the halfway line without stopping and checking back when we have seen what he can achieve when he just thunders forward. The amount of times I was thinking ‘do that, just do it quicker’ was untrue.
We’re not too disheartened: There were 568 travelling supporters in the away end – and more than a few more in the home areas as well – and despite witnessing a below par performance, there was no-one losing their heads. At half-time as the players departed right in front of the away end, there were supportive chants from a fair percentage of those who had not departed for a half-time drink. not that there were many of those on offer. At the final whistle, there was the same response which felt very different to the final whistle I witnessed at Morecambe a few weeks ago when Richard Dryden was in charge. A whimper of a performance and a defeat against a team bottom of the league would normally constitute a few exploding heads*, but many felt calm – we just need some competitiveness for the community!
* – you could be forgiven for thinking Conclusions 1-4 constitutes my head exploding, but it really doesn’t. I like that Rowley’s post-match comments against both Forest Green and Truro recognise our inadequacies and set a clear desire to set them right. As has been stated, he’s not a magician and losing our heads so early will not help. I’m not and we shouldn’t.
100% agree Dave! We won’t be competitive if 3-4 can’t reach the expected levels each game. I’m glad you highlighted we didn’t lay a glove on them. Even the partisan Truro commentators on DAZN said this game was played in good spirits but there was nothing for the referee to do worthy of a game where both teams desperately wanted the points.
I hope Prabhu found a striker in his Christmas gifts. We haven’t replaced Junior or Wodskou yet. No doubt we need one that knows scoring means positively moving the ball inside the big white frame with the net behind it!!
Ditto to that Dave.
I think the fans will keep the faith with the manager.
Aside from the tactical aspects I struggle to understand a Yeovil Team with such apparent lack of motivation. This does not look like a functioning team.
Maybe:
Shot through after 4 managers so far this season
Not fit enough
No strong affiliation to the Club given contract situation and training elsewhere
Too many leaders been shipped out by previous manager.
Perhaps someone should/has started by asking them. Im sure they want to do better and we expect too much given the Club’s history.
After so many years of organisational dsyfunction its going to play out from time to time for somewhile yet going forward.
Possession-based football doesn’t get away from the fact that the average number of passes to score a goal is 4. If you kick it around at the back for 5 mins you will need to lose the ball and win it back before you score.