Match Report: Yeovil Town 0 Forest Green Rovers 2

Yeovil Town fell 2-0 to Robbie Savage’s Forest Green Rovers with a solitary goal in either half the difference between the sides.

Jed Ward could do nothing about the own goal attributed to him in the second half, and couldn’t do much more about Temi Babalola’s first half strike.

The result ends Billy Rowley’s 100% win record, the performance from the Glovers had it’s moments but lacked the final cutting edge.

First half

Yeovil Town started the brighter of the two sides, a couple of nice passages of play between Luke McCormick and Josh Tobin tried to break the defensive lines of their opponents, but it was Forest Green who had the first sight of goal.

Kyle McAllister was left with far too much space in the middle of the box, but following a cracking run from Jayden Clarke, his chance fell awkwardly and could only be skewed wide with 5 minutes on the clock.

The visitors were making their intentions clear, using the forward runs of Tom Knowles and Jili Buyabu to overload the wide areas and were getting a fair amount of success, even if clear cut opportunities were few and far between.

That was until the 15th minute, Clarke and Buyabu combined well down the left hand side, the latter’s cross fell perfectly to Temi BABALOLA who had too much room on the penalty spot, and he smashed past Jed Ward with minimal fuss. 0-1.

The pace of the game was really starting to crank up; Michee Efete ran pretty much the entire length of the pitch, but couldn’t produce a cross, that led to a chance at the other end with Nick Haughton firing towards goal, but a big block from Kyle Ferguson prevented any further damage.

There was a moment of utter calamity on 21 minutes, a mix up with Brett McGavin at the back, left Jed Ward stranded and only some dilly dallying from Clarke allowed defensive reinforcements to clear the danger off the line.

The Glovers had their first proper sight of goal on 26 minutes, Josh Tobin worked a ball wide to Daly who clipped a nice ball in, but it was just too high for Aaron Jarvis and Harvey Greenslade couldn’t keep the ball in play to salvage the move.

Harvey Bunker was the first man to go into the referee’s notebook, after a cynical foul on Brett McGavin, the resulting free kick was flicked on by a Glovers’ head, but trickled out harmlessly for another Forest Green goal kick.

Tom Knowles was causing all kinds of havoc down the right (pretends to be shocked), he latched onto a ball from Haughton and forced another cross which resulted in the third corner for the Vegans.

With 38 minutes gone, Yeovil had the ball in the back of the net, but a pesky flag from the assistant ruled the goal out, Aaron Jarvis’ flick fell into the path of Luke McCormick perfectly, he slotted home, but no sooner had McCormick pulled the trigger, the flag had risen.

The final ten minutes of the half had probably been the Glovers’ best spell of the game, but Harry Isted hadn’t had a proper save to make.

As the clock ticked beyond 45 minutes, two minutes were added.

And that’s how it stood at the break, the only meaningful shot on target was the difference between the sides.

Half time: Yeovil Town 0 Forest Green Rovers 1

Second half

No changes at the break for either side (other than the direction they’re attacking), and the early exchanges were once again in favour of the visitors, but some good work from Greenslade forced a free kick on the right hand side. It was taken quickly to Greenslade, but he couldn’t convert.

This woke the Thatchers Stand up and a second free kick a moment later provided Daly with a chance to whip the ball in, his cross didn’t beat the first man but McCormick would eventually flash a shot over.

With 52 minutes on the clock, Greenslade forced a corner with a charge down the left hand side, but, McGavin’s corner evaded everyone.

McGavin let fly from distance shortly after and to the surprise to most, his effort went high over the bar, 30-yards is normally tap-in territory for McGavin normally!?

Yeovil Town should have been 2-0 down just before the hour mark, Finn Cousin-Dawson slipped and handed the ball to a Rovers striker, the eventual effort somehow deflected over, hearts in mouths.

The game was getting a tad spicy, the referee had given some strange calls tackles were flying in and when it came to settle, the ball fell to the left hand side where Buyabu had acres of space, his cross-cum-shot was cleared off the line, but in the end FC-D’s clearance hit the leg of Jed Ward who could do nothing but see his goal breached. 0-2.

It was nearly 0-3 on a couple of occasions, Ward was called into action not once, but twice.

At the other end, Luke McCormick was still causing trouble and with 65 minutes gone, Harvey Bunker gave him a little push, second yellow, red. Things about to get interesting.

Free kick to the Glovers, but first, shenanigans and subs.

Referee Alan Dale – who had probably not had his finest evening – spent ages doing… nothing, saying… something. He might have booked Jake Wannell.

The free kick… came to nothing, a near post clearance out for a corner.

More shenanigans and more nothingness from the ref and more underwhelming set piece delivery from the Glovers’ number 14.

Yeovil though, with the extra man were certainly feeling upbeat, some neat footwork from Daly allowed McCormick to swing a cross in, but that, like the rest, was well blocked.

With 20 minutes remaining, Tobin, Efete, McGavin and Greenslade were taken off with Max Jolliffe, Josh Sims, James Plant and Tahvon Campbell coming on – the lesser spotted quadruple substitution. FGR had one of their own too. But by that time, I’d lost track.

Sims’ first action saw him take a couple players on, lose the ball and then when trying to track back, he took out his man and picked up a booking.

Yeovil were trying to make the extra man count, but some sloppy play and strong defensive work from the visitors were keeping the hosts at arm’s length.

Jolliffe was out to make an impact, his break up play allowed James Plant to make a charge down the left hand side, his cross was inch perfect to find Tahvon Campbell, his effort at goal excellently saved by Isted in goal.

The resulting corner also found itself to Campbell who couldn’t direct it goalwards as the ball squirmed to the side of the post.

Time was ticking away from the Glovers, there was huff and puff, but the away side wouldn’t have their house blown down,

Six additional minutes were shown, and to be fair to the hosts, there was still plenty of effort; McCormick was still getting kicked about and Daly was still trying to create chances. James Plant had a shot blocked when he chose to place an effort from the edge of the box rather than hit the spots off it.

There was just time for Aaron Jarvis to go into the book for a flap of the hand in the direction of a FGR player… might have been closer to an Orange Card that, Aaron…. careful!

That was all she wrote, see you on Boxing Day!

Substitutes: Max Jolliffe (for Tobin ’70), Tahvon Campbell (for Greenslade ’70), James Plant (for McGavin ’70), Josh Sims (for Efete ’70)

Unused: Matt Gould, Dan Ellison, Andrew Oluwabori

Forest Green Rovers: H, Istead (GK), T Knowles, L Mendy, A Kanu, J Buyabu (for A Dausch ’85), H Bunker, K McAllister, H Whitwell, N Haughton (for M Robson,’67), J Clarke (for T Pemberton ’74), T Babalola (for C Doidge ’85)

Substitutes (not used):  L McNicholas,, M Robson, Y Bamba, K Mitchell,