Not many would have thought that Yeovil Town would complete the double over National League big-spenders Stockport County. But that’s exactly what Charlie Lee’s Glovers managed yesterday. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from an excellent game at Huish Park.

It was another match which showed how crazy our season has been. I said before the match that it wouldn’t have surprised me if we nicked the game given some of our results against the better sides this season. And boy did we. It felt like Stockport were banging the door down for the entire first half, but we held firm and after a slick bit of skill from Tom Knowles (#DFILWF) he finished brilliantly just before half time. His goal was the springboard which seemed to galvanise the Glovers and Charlie Lee’s side grew in confidence as the match progressed.

It was amazing to finally see a Josh Neufville goal at Huish Park. A quick break and our lockdown hero was in behind the Stockport defence. He showed

Josh Neufville wheels away after scoring Yeovil’s second.

the calmness of a seasoned striker and coolly sent Hinchcliffe the wrong way to send those that were at Huish Park wild. He’s had to play a different game than he did last season. Yesterday he was starved of the ball at points and really had to make the most of his own possession and when it mattered he made it count.

We didn’t let Stockport’s changes count. Dave Challinor made a double substitution at half time and before Crankshaw and Hippolyte has a chance to settle into the game and make a difference, we were 2-0 up. Another change followed swiftly and although Hippolyte scored against his old club, the red card of Will Collar two minutes later meant they had another on-pitch change to make. It felt like Stockport never managed to get going as cohesively in the second half as they did in the first, and we managed to deal with most of their threat comfortably.

Stockport’s own supporters took their side’s momentum. After Hippolyte’s goal a blue smoke bomb was thrown into Grant Smith’s six yard box. County players had swiftly grabbed the ball to force a quick restart, but their momentum was totally lost as a stewards had to wait for the smoke bomb to extinguish before they could safely remove it. Collar’s deserved red card for a dangerously high foot on Dale Gorman shortly after the delay just exacerbated things for County’s evidently frustrated players. Dave Challinor thought the same:

Central defender Max Hunt. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Max Hunt stepped back in supremely. You wouldn’t have known it was Hunt’s first game back after months out injured. The centre back was dominant against the National League’s lethal pairing of Paddy Madden and Scott Quigley. The deadly duo had moments of freedom in the first half, but Hunt was a man mountain, winning everything in the air and throwing himself in front of efforts at goal. His confidence shone through and was clear to see when he executed a textbook Cryuff turn on the halfway line before getting Yeovil on the attack. It was the kind of performance from Hunt which hammered home the urgent need to secure the futures of some of these players.

 

 


Support the Gloverscast

The Gloverscast is a volunteer run website which costs money to maintain. If ever you feel like supporting with our running costs, which include our website hosting, Zoom subscription, The Daily Glove, we’d be extremely grateful for your donations.



 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY GLOVE


GREEN AND WHITE GOALS – SAMARITANS

Chris Angulo, who runs the excellent Green and White Goals YouTube and X accounts is walking 140 miles in March to raise money for Samaritans.

Click here to donate to Chris’ JustGiving Page.



Subscribe
Notify of

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments