Match Report: Yeovil Town 1 Woking 0

New Yeovil Town manager Danny Webb watched his new players pull off a dramatic late winner at home to Woking this afternoon.

The former Glovers’ player was in the stands at Huish Park to see midfielder Luke McCormick lash the winner in to the roof of the net with three minutes of second half stoppage time on the clock to seal a crucial victory.

First half

New manager Danny Webb was introduced to the Huish Park crowd before the game and he watched from the stands with Richard Dryden, who has been in interim charge since the departure of Mark Cooper, in charge from the dug-out for one more game.

It was Woking who started the game the brighter, but it took until the 12th minute for either side to carve out much more than a half-chance. That fell to Aaron Drewe who was picked out by Tariq Hinds’ ball in to the box, but his effort was deflected over the bar by Jake Wannell. Eight minutes later, Jed Ward had to get down quickly to keep out a long range effort from Jack Turner.

Neither side has done much to test either keeper, but Woking looking far more composed on the ball with a clearer game plan. Just after the half-hour mark, Harry Beautyman’s free-kick from the edge of the box needed turning around the box by Ward. Good save.

It took until ten minutes before half-time for Yeovil to create anything which came close to being a chance, James Plant won a header which dropped to Junior Morias whose effort was high over the bar. That’s about as good as it has got going forwards for Yeovil.

The most 0-0 45 minutes of football Huish Park has seen in a long time. If you forgot it was an early kick-off and missed it, you didn’t miss much. If Danny Webb did not know the scale of the job he was facing at the start of this half, he did by the end of it.

Half time: Yeovil Town 0  Woking 0

Second half

Two minutes in to the second half, Yeovil’s first opportunity on goal fell to Josh Sims. Brett McGavin’s ball found him on the right, he twisted his defender inside and out and flashed a shot across the face of goal. Better from Yeovil.

On 53 minutes, Greenslade got away down the right and fired a ball in to the box with Morias ready to convert at the back post, but Woking were able to clear. 

There’s been an improvement going forward from the Glovers (it honestly could not have been much worse) and Dryden introduced Aaron Jarvis off the bench on 65 minutes. He replaced Harvey Greenslade.

With 73 minutes played, Morgan Williams spurned a glorious opportunity to open the scoring. Plant’s ball from the right was met by a great header from Jarvis and landed to the defender who was unmarked on the far post, but lifted his shot over

There was a bizarre moment around 12 minutes from time when Jarvis and Woking keeper Tom Norcott tangled off the ball. The on loan Reading keeper went down like he’d been assaulted and there was even a visit from the Woking medical staff. All a bit bizarre and Jarvis got a booking for his role which was presumably Norcott’s intention.

Tahvon Campbell, who had probably the most prolific spell of his career as a Woking player, was introduced for Wodskou on 82 minutes. A minute later Campbell had a great opportunity to break the deadlock after persistent play from Luke McCormick poked a ball through to him, Norcott seemed to get enough on it to deny Campbell an immediate shot, he managed to hook it towards goal but it was cleared off the line. Just hit the bloody thing!

O’Brien put one over the bar with five minutes remaining, but just when it looked like this game was going to finish goalless – Yeovil took the lead. A minute in to five minutes of second half stoppage time, McGavin’s corner was headed down by Jarvis and it landed to Luke McCORMICK on the back post and the midfielder showed great composure to thrash it in to the roof of the net.

In the fifth minute of stoppage time there was substitute Josh Osude went down under a challenge from Ward, before the ball broke to O’Brien who was felled by a strong challenge from Ferguson. Ward’s challenge was clearly just a goalkeeper and striker challenging for the ball, the Ferguson one had a bit more on it. Seen those given.

There was a  long stoppage as Osude got treatment and that meant we actually ended up playing 100 minutes. If the first half was forgettable, the second was much better but there was plenty of commitment there and even more importantly three points.

Substitutes: Aaron Jarvis (for Harvey Greenslade, 65), Tahvon Campbell (for Ben Wodskou, 81), Byron Pendleton (for Josh Sims, 87),, Finn Cousin-Dawson (for used), Ollie Hughes (not used), Matt Gould (not used).

Woking: Tom Norcott, Aaron Drewe, Tunji Akinola, Timi Odusina, Caleb Richards, Tariq Hinds, Jack Turner (for Jake Forster-Caskey, 59) Jamie Andrews, Harry Beautyman (for Josh Osude, 70), Aiden O’Brien, Josh Kelly (for Timmy Akinola, 70).

Substitutes (not used):  Chin Okoli, Matt Ward, Craig Ross.