Worthing well and truly pooped the party at Huish Park in front of another 6000+ crowd. Yeovil weren’t at the races and fell to a disappointing 3-1 defeat. Here are Ian’s five conclusions from the press box…
Gareth Thomas had a shocker. Let’s get this one out of the way early doors. I can’t remember many referees who’ve gone through a game making no decisions in the middle of the pitch when they needed making, but being certain on decisions where there was doubt, in areas that make a difference. In truth, I couldn’t see the penalty decision, it looked like Pearce got the wrong side of Wannell and felt contact and went for it and looking at the highlights, there’s maybe a pull by Wannell. The offside is as tight as they get without taking 20 minutes to draw lines, but enough people (who would know and have access to see it again) told me it was on. Huish Park was denied a glorious moment which Thomas will always be remembered for now. The FA assessor was in attendance and in conversation with Yeovil’s coaching staff after the match. As woeful as he Thomas was, the scenes at the final whistle will surely see some form of punishment for the club.
We never felt in control. The praise in the aftermath of the Torquay win was how in control Yeovil were for the entire game, but it never felt like we had it against Worthing. We kept the ball at times, but it was a bit of a basketball match. We know Worthing score a lot of goals, and they can play some free-flowing stuff and they were effective in preventing us from playing out. The controlled possession we’ve enjoyed wasn’t there. Defensively we didn’t look comfortable and up front we snatched at chances when composure was needed and couldn’t get the final ball right.
We looked vulnerable at the back. I’ve not said that very many times at all this season, given how we’ve controlled games and how dominant we’ve been at the back. But, Morgan Williams and Jake Wannell didn’t look their best with the ball, and Cashman and Pearce seemed to pull them all over the pitch. Fage and Felix enjoyed plenty of space on the wings and Dolaghan caused problems from deep and got his rewards following Foulston’s error. The defence have barely put a foot wrong all season, and like Mark Cooper said, the forward players needed to take their chances.
We missed so many chances. I wanted an early nerve-settler and in the third minute, Sam Pearson has a 24 karat chance to settle the entire town. Clearly he didn’t expect a chance of that magnitude to fall to him in that fashion and he snatched at it and skied the ball. Sonny Blu Lo-Everton has a chance too, that Worthing’s keeper somehow saves, but Lo-Everton should score from such close range. Frank Nouble has a couple of half chances on his left foot from the edge of the box that he can only put over the bar. Half time substitute Rhys Murphy earns a penalty that he doesn’t convert. Morgan Williams goes close with a header, too. Yeovil could, and probably should, have been 2-0 up before Pearce converts his penalty.
We’re nearly there. As disappointing and infuriating as it was to not have our moment at Huish Park, a point against Truro on Thursday is all it will take to clinch the league. The expectation, anticipation and hype around Worthing’s visit would have made victory at home so much sweeter and maybe it was too good to be true. We’re Yeovil Town, and if we’ve learn something over the last decade, it’s that we never make it easy. It was a big game, with a lot of attention on it and as much as Mark Cooper tried to play it down in the build up and keep the players grounded, the pressure of the occasion seemed to get to the players. They’ll recover, learn from it and after 11 long years, we’ll celebrate promotion on Thursday.
Yeovil are shite.
Murphy was offside. In fact, he was never onside.