Venue: Huish Park
Saturday December 11th, 3pm kick-off
Conditions: Drizzly
Pitch: More like a carpet than Ian’s actual carpet
Attendance: 2,024 (98 away supporters)
Scorers: Adi Yussuf 9 (1-0)
Referee: Ryan Atkin
Bookings:
Yeovil Town: Gorman 22, Williams 31, Lo-Everton 39, Bradley 90+5
Barnet: Beard 70, The entire bench 87
Sending off:
Barnet: Mason-Clarke 87
Yeovil Town : (4-3-3)
Grant Smith
Dan Moss, Max Hunt, Luke Wilkinson, Morgan Williams
Matt Worthington, Josh Staunton, Dale Gorman
Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, Adi Yussuf, Charlie Wakefield
Substitutes: Tom Knowles (for Adi Yussuf, 73), Reuben Reid (for Charlie Wakefield, 88), Alex Bradley (for Dale Gorman, 90+4), Max Evans.
Barnet: Oxborough, Thomas, Turley, Hall, Brundle, Mason-Clark, Greenridge, Fonguck (for Payne, 81), Taylor, Tasdemir (for Richards-Everton, 71), Beard.
Substitutes (not used): Askew, Bloomfield, Granville.
Match Report
A first half goal from striker Adi Yussuf sealed a third consecutive win which extended Yeovil Town’s unbeaten run to eleven first-team matches – and yes, the Somerset Premier Cup still counts!
The game is unable to report on without breaking the Gloverscast‘s Rule 1 of not commenting on National League referees.
It appeared that the man in the middle Ryan Atkin was convinced the 2,024 people at Huish Park turned up to watch him.
We’d discipline Ian for so many references to the official in this report, but we can do nothing up agree with him…..
First half
Yeovil manager Darren Sarll named an unchanged starting XI from the 1-0 win over Stevenage in the FA Cup seven days earlier, but was only able to name four substitutes with young midfielder Ollie Haste away with the English Colleges team.
The Glovers controlled the opening stages and Adi Yussuf came close to opening the scoring. The Tanzanian got a touch onto a fizzed Dale Gorman cross the ball bounced off the shoulder of Aston Oxborough onto the crossbar.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Yeovil took the lead moments later through the same combination. Gorman looped a left footed cross to the back post and YUSSUF powerfully headed past the helpless Oxborough.
It all got a bit confusing in the 22nd minute with Gorman getting a yellow card from referee Ryan Atkin for time-wasting when he was waiting to take a free-kick.
Not quite sure what happened but Rule #1 and all. (For the newcomers, we know the National League refs are useless so we’ve given up complaining about them).
Midway through the first half, as Barnet gained a foothold, Yussuf and the giant Reiss Greenidge began a classic defender vs attacker battle of shirt pulling and handbag had the potential to boil over.
Morgan Williams went into the book in the 30th minute with a clumsy tackle on the speedy Ryan Hall.
Sonny Blu Lo-Everton was given yellow in the 39th for a fairly innocuous looking tackle but it was, perhaps, a booking for an accumulation of things. He was given a talking to early on for a challenge from behind that was probably worthy of a yellow.
It got heated towards end of the half, with Ephram Mason-Clark going down very easily under pressure Luke Wilkinson. It was never a penalty and the referee felt that way too.
Moments later Lo-Everton was fouled in not dissimilar circumstances from that which he was booked for. (Rule #1)
The referee drew the half to a close and was booed off by the Huish Park faithful. Presumably for this desire to speed up Yeovil set pieces but not Barnet’s.
Everyone enjoying the ref show! #YTFC #bfc
— Martyn Lucas (@Martyn_Lucas) December 11, 2021
Half time: Yeovil Town 1 Barnet 0
Second half
As a purple haze took over the skies in the second half Barnet had a couple of early shots from distance. The Bees controlled the opening spells and certainly had more of a threat about them than Yeovil.
As games go it was a very even affair, but as Barnet began to chase the game pockets started opening.
Charlie Wakefield was the outlet on the right and was full of energy as usual. His low cross around the hour mark drew a corner which the Glovers couldn’t capitalise on.
You knows it’s a bit of a dull affair when people start waking their phone torches about, and on 65 it became that level of dull.
Errors started to creep into the Barnet team and Yeovil looked the more likely of the sides to find a goal.
Yeovil continued to find spaces spaces create half opening. Gorman had a tame effort saved around the 66th minute.
Moments later some neat footwork by Yussuf opened up space on the halfway line and he released Lo-Everton. The Watford loanee carved out a bit of space but his shot went into the side netting.
66.6% of our midfield nearly combined to find the second with Matt Worthington finding his follicle compatriot Gorman in the edge of the box, but the Northern Irishman’s first touch took him wide of goal. Maybe he was too close to shoot?
Barnet applied some pressure late on with the Glovers forced into some robust defending. There was another shout for a penalty which eas denied and suddenly all hell broke loose.
Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.
Handbags of the highest order resulted in a red card for Mason-Clark after a coming together with Gorman, followed by four yellows in the direction of the Barnet bench, in another never-before-seen at Huish Park.
As the rain fell Barnet chased, Yeovil held firm and earned themselves a decent win against an in-form Barnet although they did have opportunities to make it a bit more relaxing than it was!
Full time: Yeovil Town 1 Barnet 0