Former Yeovil Town loanee Ben Wodskou came back to haunt his old side as he scored the winner for Brackley Town on a frustrating afternoon for the Glovers on their first visit to St James’ Park.
The Birmingham City striker stabbed home from close range after a corner from another ex-Glover Scott Pollock was not dealt with by the visitors’ defence just before half-time.
Yeovil had gone behind to Shane Byrne’s opener after just four minutes before defender Kyle Ferguson drew the game level with a 12th minute header, and then the visitors were unable to break down a resolute Brackley despite dominating possession in the second half.
The stats show the Glovers had far more of the possession, but the hosts did more with less to take the win. Here’s Dave’s on the whistle report.
First half
Yeovil boss Billy Rowley gave just one debut to his six news signings with Jonathon Page, who joined from the manager’s old side Walton & Hersham, starting in midfielder. On the bench were defender Joy Mukena, midfielder Ryan Jones, on loan Cardiff City youngster Troy Perrett and Terrell Works, the attacker on loan from Premier League Fulham.
The game started about as badly as it could have for the Glovers with Brackley taking the lead with their first attack. A long ball forward saw Scott Pollock challenging with Kyle Ferguson whose poor back pass to goalkeeper Jed Ward was massively underhit allowing the midfielder to hit an effort which the keeper blocked. But it only broke to Shane BYRNE who was able to tap in to an unguarded net with the Yeovil defence jogging back in to position. Another poor, poor goal and our defence proving the creators of their own problems yet again.
It did not take long to get a response with Ferguson atoning for his earlier error with the equaliser after 11 minutes. A corner from James Daly was cleared out as far as the winger who floated it back in to the area and Kyle FERGUSON rose highest to head home.
Six minutes later, Brackley had a golden opportunity to restore their advantage when a long throw from Yeovil was easily dealt with by the hosts and a long ball up the middle of the pitch saw Ben Wodskou easily get past Josh Sims, the only player anywhere near him. The former Glovers loanee was one-on-one with Ward, but he took his shot early and the keeper was able to save with his foot. Wodskou should have done much better there.
Ten minutes later there was another chance for Brackley when Tyler Lyttle was unchallenged to put a cross in from the right side and striker Danny Newton rose at the back post to head just wide.Yeovil were dominating possession, but doing nothing to threaten to find their way through a well-organised Brackley. Meanwhile, we looked fragile every time we went forward with the home side seemingly able to get balls in to our box at will.
Sure enough with two minutes of normal time remaining in the first half, Brackley took the lead and there was more sloppy defending on display again. Pollock’s corner was met at the back post by another unchallenged header this time from defender Kyle Ferguson, Ward pushed it out but Ben WODSKOU was there to stab it home.
In general play we have dominated possession, but Brackley have kept us where they want us and aside from a goal from a set-piece, we have not threatened to create a chance. Even more concerning is our defence which has a massive Morgan Williams-shaped hole in it, the ease at which Brackley have scored their two goals has been appalling.
Half time: Brackley Town 2 Yeovil Town 1
Second half
Striker Tahvon Campbell replaced the anonymous Aaron Jarvis at half-time and with three minutes of the second half played James Daly curled an effort wide which was speculative at best. Then with fewer than ten minutes of the second half elapsed, manager Billy Rowley made two further changes with Fulham loanee attacker Terrell Works and midfielder Josh Tobin replacing Harvey Greenslade and Jonathon Page with 53 minutes on the clock.The difference? Not very much, to be honest.
The square root of nothing happened between that set of substitutions and ten minutes later when new boy Ryan Jones, who joined from Aldershot Town during the week, was introduced. Brackley are quite happy to sit there and watch us pass the ball around without enough urgency; the amount of times a player in a green-and-white shirt has put their foot on the ball because there is no-one making a move is unbelievable.
The final throw of the dice came 20 minutes from time when Cardiff loanee Troy Perrett replaced Finn Cousin-Dawson, with Tobin dropping back in to defence. At this stage there were a lot of players on the pitch for us who have never played together outside of training, but we have looked like this for much of the match with players who have played countless matches together. Brackley have offered very little to threaten us, but they don’t need too – we are the side which is behind in this game!
Perrett offered that rarest of things, a player who looked to positively move forward when we were in possession and he had a couple of efforts blocked after coming on the pitch. It was therefore not surprising when he was involved in our best (only?) meaningful opportunity with five minutes remaining. His Cardiff City team-mate Dakari Mafico found him on the edge of the box and he cleverly laid it off to Luke McCormick whose effort was turned aside by Brackley keeper Cameron Gregory. I think that is the first time I have mentioned Gregory in this report and that tells its own story.
McCormick had another shot late on which Gregory was able to hold and then with four minutes of second half stoppage time played there was a late corner which goalkeeper Ward came up for. But, on this day after this performance, it was no surprise to see it turn in to a farce with an appalling corner leading to a Brackley break away with the goal unprotected. Ward raced back towards his goal and luckily Ferguson was able to get back with a covering tackle.
The final whistle was met by the sound of boos from some in the travelling support and it is difficult to blame them after a performance where we had dominated possession but never looked like we were going to do anything with it. Brackley did a job on us and we made it easy for them to do one.
Full time: Brackley Town 2 Yeovil Town 1
Match Details
Venue: St James’ Park
Date: Saturday 17th January, 3pm kick-ff
Competition: Enterprise National League Prem,ier Division
Scorers: Shane Byrne 4 (1-0), Kyle Ferguson 12 (1-1), Ben Wodskou 44 (2-1 )
Pitch: Sloped in about six different directions
Conditions: Dry but cool
Attendance: 1,125 (319 Yeovil Fans)
Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Jake Wannell 45, Kyle Ferguson 72, Josh Tobin 80.
Brackley Town: Tyler Lyttle 16, Shane Byrne 24, Zak Brown 75.
Referee: George Laflin.
Yeovil Town (3-4-1-2)
Substitutes: Tahvon Campbell (for Aaron Jarvis, 46), Terrell Works (for Harvey Greenslade, 52), Josh Tobin (for Jonathon Page, 52), Ryan Jones (for Josh Sims, 64), Trey Perrett (for Finn Cousin-Dawson, 71), Michee Efete (not used), Joy Mukena (not used)
Brackley Town: Cameron Gregory, Tyler Lyttle, Kyle Morrison, Scott Pollock, Zak Brown (for Jack Price, 90), Danny Newton, Matt Lowe, Michael Nottingham (for Zak Lilly, 70), Ben Wodskou (for Morgan Roberts, 59), Byron Pendleton, Shane Byrne.
You can add as many creative midfielders as you like but when you have 3 ‘strikers’ who have less than half a dozen goals between them all season, what do you expect? It’s time the club realised that Jarvis, Campbell and Greenslade will not score the goals that this side needs. We can’t just rely on LM to score the goals from midfield.
I’m sorry but it’s just the same old same old! I thought Copper was back! If there were points for playing the ball across midfield we’d be top of the league! Nobody running, nobody giving options, nobody showing initiative and getting into space. I have to agree we have no forward options who are playing well enough and we maybe need to concentrate our spending on that area instead of midfield. The signings this week gave me the hope of something better so i made the the ~300 mile round trip only to be was sadly disappointed.