Five Conclusions: Yeovil Town 1 Carlisle United 1

Yeovil turned their dreadful October form around to earn a point against high-flying Carlisle United but probably deserved more. Here are Ian’s Conclusions from Huish Park.

For the love of god, please can we stick with the back four? There’s irony in the fact that we are healthily stocked at centre back but, once again, look so much more comfortable with two rather than three. The Wannell and Williams combination returned and we looked immediately more calm, composed and controlled. I thought that was Wannell’s best performance of the season and he was every bit the Rolls Royce centre back we’ve enjoyed over the last two campaigns. George Nurse looks the part at left back – although he understandably tired towards full time and Michee Efete had a good game on the other side up against one of the league’s best players in Regan Linney. 

Max Jolliffe had a great debut. We debated throwing him in Friday’s podcast, but based on that small sample size, he’s more than ready. We’ve been crying out for mobility in midfield and Jolliffe gave the Glovers that in abundance. He’s keen in the challenge and showed some real quality on the ball. He deserved the standing ovation he received after his substitution and credit goes to the club for spotting a real gem.

The front two were a handful. I think that was probably the best we’ve seen of Aaron Jarvis this season and he and Tahvon Campbell were a real nuisance for Carlisle’s back four. So often this season we’ve seen Jarvis get embroiled in wrestling with defenders to no avail, but I think he got the better of Carlisle’s’ centre backs and we got to see some more of him with the ball and bringing players into the game. I thought Campbell put in a good all-rounders performance too. He had to do the work in between midfield and attack and did the hold up play too, whilst making life awkward for his opposing defenders.

That was a reassuring performance. That was just the tonic the supporters needed after the poor run. Many – me included – feared a bit of drubbing at the hands of a team that is unbeaten in October but we really showed that there’s more to this team than what we’ve seen of late. There were good performances across the pitch and that should be reassuring for supporters who, understandably, have felt miserable following 3-0 defeats to Boreham Wood, Rochdale either side of the dire FA Cup loss at Hemel Hempstead. 

Let’s get some bodies fit! With no match now until the 4th of November we’ve now got a good chunk of time to get some players back fit and firing. Five out of the six outfield substitutes were defenders with the sixth being the returning James Daly who’s been out since August through injury. When Wealdstone come to town on November 4th, there’s a possibility that we have Brett McGavin, Junior Morias, Josh Sims and even Jacob Maddox back available in some form which would turn that ‘small squad of quality’ to a medium-sized squad of quality.