It ends in defeat at home for Yeovil, as they fell to a late winner in a 1-0 defeat to Rochdale. Tom Bailey was in the stands for this one, let’s see what he thought.
A gutting result following a valiant effort. We just didn’t quite have enough in the end to get over the line, in a literal sense as well as a wider perspective. For the first 60 minutes, we looked like we had something about us, getting forward and putting the Rochdale defence under some pressure, including two goal line clearances, but it just wouldn’t get over the line today.
A shame to see us drop off in the last half hour or so, as we had another decent attacking showing today, with nothing to show for it.
I don’t think McCooper worked as a midfield duo today. I was initially surprised by the benching of Matt Worthington, before remembering he’d played every minute of every league match so far, and I then became curious at the possibilities of Brett McGavin and Charlie Cooper in the middle of the field. While it wasn’t a bad showing, I don’t think it quite worked today. McGavin felt a little lost at times, when he got on the ball he’d hold for too long in deeper areas, and at times Cooper felt like the attacking threat of the two – I see it working the other way round, with McGavin pushing forwards and Cooper sweeping up. Not against seeing it again, but it didn’t click for me today.
The subs didn’t work out. When Harvey Greenslade and Sam Pearson entered the field, renewed hope filled me, Greenslade will run until the sun goes down, and Pearson has proven to be a threat on both wings so far this season. Unfortunately, they simply vanished today, and it coincided with the team dropping off and Rochdale growing into the game. I wouldn’t say it’s their fault, purely bad timing, but Cooper’s usual subs to spark something didn’t help us today.
Just needed to speed things up a bit. At points today, there were opportunities to break quickly, and instead we closed ourselves off to build from the back. When you’re a goal ahead, or clearly dominating the game, this is all well and good, but when you’re hunting for that opening goal, particularly as times wears on, it becomes difficult to understand why we won’t counter with pace. When Sam Pearson came on, he had acres of space to run into from a caught corner, a brilliant opportunity for Ollie Wright to sling a long throw out into his path, but we waited… and waited… and waited… until Rochdale had regained their shape and high line, causing us to start from the back once again. A bit of pace and intensity could’ve got us over the line today I felt.
The fans were class today. A nod to the fans today, that second half was buzzing. I was in the Screwfix stand, and hearing the Thatchers off to my left in fine voice for a good 75 minutes or so was brilliant to see, and I do think it helped the boys along. A few long stoppages sucked the life out of the game and the fans unfortunately, but brilliant work you Glovers!
On to Boston!
I don’t think Ollie wright is right for us, seemed an odd choice in the first place having an inexperienced keeper on loan when we’ve got our own inexperienced keeper that we sent out on loan. He’s already dropped a couple of clangers, and yesterday he second guessed every division he made, and was hesitant and indecisive, and you can’t get away with that in this decision. Joe Day is currently bench warming with Cheltenham, wouldn’t be completely unfeesable to have him, or someone similar in on loan.