A late winner from substitute Morgan Wigley saw Yeovil Town suffer their first friendly defeat of pre-season campaign at the hands of Cardiff City’s Under-21s in their first outing at Huish Park.
The Glovers led 2-0 by the half-hour mark with goals from Josh Sims and Harvey Greenslade before Mannie Barton pulled a goal back before the interval.
The young Bluebirds, managed by former Yeovil loanee defender Darren Purse, made wholesale changes at half-time and a goal just after the hour mark from Trey George pulled them level before Wigley won it late on.
Ian was among the 1,226 supporters, including a sizeable vocal following from South Wales, on Tuesday night and here’s how he saw it.
First half
The pre-match chat was all about the changing shape of the Huish Park pitch – a topic discussed at length on our latest podcast, click here to listen – which looked significantly shorter and narrower.
On the smaller surface, trialists Jevani Brown started and midfielder Teo Kurtaran was named among the substitutes bench. However, there was no sign of either ex-Bristol Rovers midfielder Luke McCormick, who scored in the 3-2 win at Chippenham Town three days earlier, ex-Swindon Town striker Abu Kanu or Plymouth Parkway frontman Kieran Edworthy. All three have featured in the previous three friendlies of pre-season.
The first opportunity of the match fell to Cardiff’s youngsters as Yeovil defender Kyle Ferguson lost the flight of the ball on the edge of the box allowing Mannie Barton room to pick out strike partner Luke Pearce whose effort was deflected wide for a corner. From the resulting corner, Charlie O’Brien’s header went over the bar.
At the other end, Harvey Greenslade worked himself a lovely opening five minutes later before striking over the bar and the forward, who scored in the win at Chippenham Town at the weekend, fired in a stinging shot which was parried by Cardiff keeper Matt Turner after 20 minutes, but no-one could follow up in the ensuing scramble.
Two minutes later Jevani Brown, aka Trialist A, combined with the lively James Daly but the summer signing from Harrogate Town couldn’t hook his cross back into the danger area, landing the ball harmlessly on the roof of the net.
Yeovil took the lead on 26 minutes when Josh SIMS, who started the match at right wing-back, caught a Cardiff defender napping and had time and space in the box to fire into the roof of the net.
The visitors almost levelled direct from the kick-off as Luke Pearce’s effort was saved by Aidan Stone, but it was Yeovil who added the next goal on the halfway line. Harvey GREENSLADE with a brilliant finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. Well done that man.
Cardiff made another fast restart and this time it paid dividends. Issac Jefferies played in Mannie BARTON who capitalised on space in behind Sims and confidently putting the ball past Stone.
There was a nice passage of play from the Glovers saw Alex Whittle pop up in the box but his right footed effort was too tame for the keeper who got down low to tip wide.
Half time and overall some nice bits of play from the Glovers.
Half-time: Yeovil Town 2 Cardiff City Under-21s 1
The visitors made seven changes at the start of the second half with only goalkeeper Matt Turner, Matthew Apter and striker Luke Pearce remaining from the first half, whilst Finn Cousin-Dawson replaced Morgan Williams for Yeovil.
Brett McGavin would have scored Yeovil’s third just after half-time had he been just a little bit taller. Sims whipped cross from the right very nearly found the midfielder but he could not stretch his neck long enough to head home.
Cardiff levelled it up on the hour mark after Trey GEORGE was given freedom of the penalty box to fire home. Cue lots of pointing from the Yeovil players as to who was marking the attacking midfielder.
Trialist midfielder Teo Kurtaran replaced Charlie Cooper after 69 minutes before Daly worked a nice opening on the left side of the box and hit a shot a comfortable height for the keeper.
Substitutes chaos from the young Bluebirds saw lots of change and it became rather bitty with the odd pot shot here and there with Lewys Twamley replacing Sims after 76 minutes.
Five minutes from the end, Kurataran shot over the bar from the edge of the box after Twamley and Aaron Jarvis combined in the box.
Cardiff took at the death with a quick breakaway and a neat finish from Morgan WIGLEY over Stone to a rapturous ovation from the noisy Cardiff following.
Next up, League Two side Bristol Rovers visit Huish Park on Saturday in the ‘Match for Marcus’ which will see both clubs honour former striker Marcus Stewart and raise money and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease, the illness which the legendary frontman has been diagnosed with. If you can make to Huish Park, please do so.
Full time: Yeovil Town 2 Cardiff City Under-21s 3
Teams:
Yeovil Town: Aidan Stone, Alex Whittle (for Corey Koerner, 79), Josh Sims (for Lewys Twamley, 76), Morgan Williams (for Finn Cousin-Dawson, 46), Kyle Ferguson, Charlie Cooper (for Teo Kuratarn, Trialist, 69), Brett McGavin, James Daly, Jevani Brown (Trialist), Harvey Greenslade, Aaron Jarvis.
First half – Cardiff City Under-21s: Matt Turner, Charlie O’Brien, Gabriel Keita, Trialist, Josh Beecher, Cody Twose, Matthew Apter, Issac Jefferies, Mannie Barton, Chris Willock, Luke Pearce.
Second half – Cardiff City Under-21s: Matt Turner, Will Spiers, Alyas Debono, Trialist, Jac Thomas, Matthew Apter (for Jacob Hobson, 69), Troy Perrett, Trey George, Sekou Kaba, Luke Pearce, Morgan Wigley.
Scorers: Josh Sims 26 (1-0), Harvey Greenslade 29 (2-0), Mannie Barton 30 (2-1), Trey George 61 (2-2), Morgan Wigley 90 (2-3).
Attendance: 1,226
I don’t fall into the camp that are worried about the amount of signings being made, I think we’ve made a few quality additions and there’s still time to make more. However, this is entirely pointless with cooper in charge, you could give him Barnet’s squad from last season, and we’d still of finished in the same position. Nothing will change with him still here, no amount of signings or investment will change his football on the pitch. It’s going to be another long, miserable, boring season.
Agree to a certain point Benji. There is definitely a selection process that seems quite rigid, even with a supposed budget increase. MC alluded to it some time ago about not having any bad apples in the squad and signing the right characters. I think it’s fair to say that his recruitment has been hit and miss. More hit than miss. He knows a quality player when he sees one – look at our back line in the NLS season and we were far from the worst defense in the NL…except perhaps when injuries hit us badly…(small squad cough-cough!)
But it seems there have been some signings that haven’t or didn’t pan out – JMD was the biggest flop IMO. We’ve signed plenty of injury prone players as well. Why? I dunno! So was JMD a flop or was it MC didn’t know how or where to play him in his possession based tactics? Sometimes he does get it very wrong! (Please don’t play Sims or Twamley at RB/RWB!!)
Unless we do increase squad depth, as you say “expect another long, miserable, boring season” and with injuries due to overplaying already injury prone players, and a revolving door of loanees… all due to an possibly overcautious recruitment policy.
Hope the new owner gets the club badge sorted out. We can’t always go back to how things were.
But to appease fans, the design should use the new design as a starting point, include the club motto, and take elements from the old badge… 1 or 2 yellow lions.
The religious stuff.. I don’t think many people care.