It was yet another FA Trophy shootout win for Yeovil Town, this time against Alvechurch. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from Huish Park.
Thank the lord for Jed Ward. Come the end of the season it will be a coin toss between Ward and Luke McCormick for player of the season. Once again he’s the penalty shootout hero for the Glovers saving three spot kicks. If anyone from Bristol Rovers is reading this, we’re more than happy to take him off your hands.
We struggled to get in a rhythm after the red card. Brett McGavin’s first half red card really seemed to throw us off. Having prepared in a particular way all week with McGavin as the lone centre midfielder (or single pivot as the tactics boffs say) to lose him so early disrupted everything. We made changes which saw Josh Tobin pair with debutant Dakarai Mafico (more on him next…) centrally and it took time for us to figure it out again.
Mafico made a great first impression. The Cardiff loanee made his first start on the left hand side but it was immediately clear that he was going to have license to roam through the midfield as we’ve seen with FCD and Max Joliffe. He had to do some different positions through the afternoon following the red card but looked sharp, direct and fit. I thought he spoke well in his post-match and I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses with us. Speaking of sharp, it was great to see Jacob Maddox back on the pitch after nearly 12 months out and give us a brief preview of what he can do.
Alvechurch battled for the draw. The visitors earned the right to take the game to penalties. We struggled to break through in the second half and they defended resolutely, but we should have killed the game before half time with McCormick’s two chances as gilt-edged as they come. We huffed and puffed, Aaron Jarvis didn’t take the chance to be the flat track bully against lower league opposition, Tahvon Campbell was largely inneffective (other than from the penalty spot 💥) and the red card meant we were quite narrow so didn’t get it to the wings as much as we’d like.
We’re in for some change. It’s been pretty clear for a while that the squad needs reinforcements, probably since we kicked off the season. Danny Webb thought so. Richard Dryden thought so and now we’ve got the clearest indication from Billy Rowley that there will be changes. The manager confirmed Andrew Oluwabori and James Plant would return to Exeter and Port Vale respectively, and that there are a ‘few’ coming in. Fingers crossed see them in the next few days. Rowley talked about how it has been a long process to find who they wanted but clearly the manager know what he wants from his team and now it’s time to put his stamp on it until the end of the season.
The early red card pretty much destroyed the game as a spectacle. (maybe except for some of the technicians).
We desperately need a striker, or two. Football is about entertainment and you know something is lacking when we get our entertainment at the expense of officials and visting managers.
The crowd was very patient and cleary want the mnager and team to succeed.
Please get the names on the shirts in a readable format. Its an easy hit.
Go steady on the music. Most of it is crap. Im not suggesting we should run out to ‘Absolute Beginners’ but it would have been a nice gesture.