The Glovercast’s Ben Barrett took up residence in the Thatcher’s Stand to see Yeovil Town pick up their first victory in eight matches with a much-improved performance and a 2-0 win over Woking.
Here’s his Five Conclusions on what he saw….
First thing is first, you’ll have to let me have one for myself, but it was really nice being a supporter again.
That sounds stupid, but I’ve only watched on streams, or on TV, or had my professional hat on as part of the media.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m VERY lucky to do occasional bits for the BBC and I’ll never turn those chances down. But to stand in what used to be something of my usual spot, just behind the left hand post in the home terrace with my Dad, a cup of coffee and a few familiar faces (hi, Foxy!) felt fantastic.
It’s been a while since I’ve had that feeling and whilst the overall ‘match day experience’ still leaves a lot to be desired, but being told by a steward ‘don’t worry about that, it’s only Woking’ as I held my arms aloft expecting a pat down, to Max Evans saying ‘evening’ with a little nod as we crossed eyes whilst I waited for Dad to go through the turnstile reminded me, that it’s not ALL bad at Huish Park.
Onto the football then and this is my first experience of the 4-3-3 formation and for me it has one main benefit and one major flaw.
We’ll start with the benefit, because you know… #BeMoreBarrett and all that.
Knowles and Wakefield are seriously dangerous attacking options in the front line.
Catching Woking on the break, quick one touch passing through midfield and either a ball whipped down the line or sprayed out wide was the order of the day and it worked nearly every single time.
Having one of those split the full back and the central defender meant they didn’t really know how to defend against us, afraid to push their full backs on for fear of being caught and defenders being pulled out of their regimented shape.
Wrap these two up in cotton wool, protect them at all costs… and it’s absolutely fine to fall in love with footballers.
However, the Yin to that Yang is that I’m not quite sure where it leaves our midfield.
Jordan Barnett on the left of three is fine when in full attacking flow, but he did occasionally fall out of position as possession fell to Woking.
Matt Worthington continues to work his backside off, but he isn’t a right sided player, almost opposite to Barnett he DOES look fairly well placed when we don’t have the ball, save for a few uncontrolled hooked clearances, he wasn’t quite the attacking driver that Barnett was on the other side.
Dale Gorman was combative and all hustle and bustle, but at times in the 2nd half, I wanted a controller, someone to dictate the play and he isn’t quite that.
When I knew I was going to do these conclusions, I really hoped to have something concrete (and ideally positive) to say about whoever led the line up front.
But… after an hour of seeing him from the start… I just don’t know what to think about Adi Yussuf.
I think I enjoyed his first half performance, I think he was reasonable at the back-to-goal stuff, I think we played less hoof-ball that we seem to revert to for Joe Quigley, and I think he put himself about and ruffled a few feathers… but I don’t KNOW any of these things… you know?
He was pretty anonymous in the second half and I wasn’t surprised to see him come off after a pretty stale 15 minutes in the second period, I don’t know that we missed him, but I don’t know if there might be more in there.
I think I want to see him have a bit of a run in the side, I think I want him to have a bit more of a chance to impose his game on our style of play, but I don’t KNOW any of these things… you know? No? Sorry.
Finally, I’ve been thinking about what happens now we’ve ended the winless run.
After the 3-0 win against Stockport, we were crying out for a performance to back it up, to probe it wasn’t a one-off.
Now, I think we desperately need to back that performance up.
We can talk about ‘runs of one’ and resetting after the previous result, regardless of a win, a loss or a draw, but there isn’t a Yeovil fan out there who is desperate to see a bit of a streak of results.
Another three points on Saturday away at Solihull would lead us nicely into another big couple of weeks, with a prime opportunity against Yate Town in the FA Cup and then a couple tests with Eastleigh and Dagenham on the horizon in the league.
That was a solid 2-0 win, about a solid of a win as you can ask for, there is an extra gear to find, a gear that will determine if we’re a side with ambitions of glancing up and thinking… ‘maybe’… or a side glancing over our shoulders thinking… ‘oh, maybe’.
Shall we do it again on Saturday? Yeah, go on then.