A resurgent Yeovil Town ran out as 2-0 winners at Wealdstone on a bitter Wednesday night; Tom Bailey was there for Green and White Radio, here’s what he made of it…
What a great team performance! There were concerns post-Woking that the team looked unmotivated, that there was a lack of fight, togetherness and desire… well that did a complete 180! Every single player looked like they would run through a wall for each other, FCD and McGavin put their bodies on the line in a powerful midfield display, variations of Sims, Jones, Daly and Works all pressing as duos, and an organised backline showed that these guys can be a team, as they outworked and outsmarted a rotated Wealdstone side.
Before I call out my man of the match, I want to give an honourable mention to Ryan Jones for pulling off a roulette inside his own half under pressure from multiple Wealdstone players, nerves of steel on that man in a fantastic individual display.
James. Daly (again). Can I just use last Saturday’s thoughts for this bit? Once again, an electric performance while in the central striker role – have we had our missing striker at the club the whole time?? His turn of pace is elite for the level, causing defences headaches all game, and his linkup with both wings was exceptional. Take a bow son, take a bow!
The pressure has been eased tremendously now. There were concerns among fans headed into this trio of games (Morecambe, Wealdstone, Gateshead) that they could define our season. Two wins from the first two of those games have made that gap to the bottom four look like a chasm in comparison to a week or so ago.
The fans, the staff and the players should all give themselves a pat on the back for stepping up when it’s mattered most, as we look increasingly like a National League side for next season!
The red. Yes I’m afraid I’m going to mention it, we can’t have all five points be positive can we?! Troy Perrett has come in for criticism at times this season, with a bright start to life in green and white dying off pretty quickly. In absence of Dakarai Mafico, he’s started the last two games and while there were sparks of brilliance, it’s not quite come together for him yet.
However, having slept on it (important here on Gloverscast) – that’s really poor for me. I came in for stick when I said Jarvis shouldn’t have been dismissed against Rochdale (I WAS VERY WRONG), and this incident felt weirdly similar to me. In the moment, I didn’t quite understand how it was even a booking, never mind a red, but upon seeing the replay, he’s earned every bit of that red. Hopefully this is a learning experience that he can take forward in his career, marking a low point of an uninspiring loan spell.
Pic c/o Gary Brown
Let’s end the season with a flourish! I was keen to just stay up, even if it was close, I just wanted to stay up. Maybe I’m giddy from seeing us sit in the dizzying heights of 15th, but I feel weirdly relaxed about the rest of the season now. Let’s enjoy ourselves, keep up the impressive performances and end the season with a high. Wins against the likes of Gateshead, Truro, Eastleigh and Solihull would see us very comfortably into mid-table, let’s manifest a few more wins!
Well done Tom, very well put!! It never looked certain until the 95th min but by golly they all put in a shift and got just reward. When the red happened there was little argument but instead they got together, agreed who was doing what and played out 40+ mins with bodies flying everywhere. Gary used to call it “mum in goal” defending!
I got the sense that Billy was proud to say pre-match that JD is with us for another season (longer please Prabhu – stop the likes of FGR sniffing around, a la Tom Knowles!) and after the last few weeks, you can see why. He’s been top notch and delivered every games!
The red seemed odd at first – I thought he’d jumped and chinned the Wealdstone lad with his shoulder but as he had his arm raised it looked like a forearm to the face. Hey-ho, he’ll learn!
Three points at Gateshead and job done. Oh, and take a look at Carlisle’s run in…they will have a big say in who goes down.