Match Details: 17/08/1999
Yeovil Town 1 Kidderminster Harriers 0
Nationwide Conference

Yeovil scorers: Adrian Foster 31.
Attendance: 2,473

Yeovil Town line-up:

Tony Pennock

David Piper
Rob Cousins
Terry Skiverton
Dean Chandler
Murray Fishlock

David Norton
Steve Stott
Matt Hayfield

Adrian Foster
Warren Patmore

Substitutes: Kevan Brown (61 mins, for Dean Chandler), Tony Pounder (84 mins, for Murray Fishlock), Phil Simpson (not used), Jason Eaton (74 mins, for Adrian Foster), Ben Smith (not used).

Team Selection: Colin Lippiatt toughened up his midfield by replacing Eaton and Smith from Saturday’s line-up with Hayfield and Norton, allowing Dave Norton to make his full debut for Yeovil. Shock of the day was Kevan Brown being edged out onto the subs bench with Terry Skiverton and Dean Chandler replacing Brown and Hayfield’s defensive roles.

First half:

A pulsating first half performance from Yeovil as they dominated proceedings here tonight, without worrying the scoreboard as much as they should have. David Norton set out the pattern for the half when he robbed Andrew Brownrigg, once briefly on Yeovil’s books, of the ball and his squared low shot-cum-cross across goal was just too long for Warren Patmore hurtling in on the far post.

Brownrigg nearly gifted Yeovil a goal in the seventh minute following a comedy mix-up between him and Stuart Brock. It seemed a Yeovil player had been given off-side, and Brownrigg tapped the ball vaguely in the direction of Brock who stayed rooted to the spot. Matt Hayfield wasn’t going to hang about to find out what was going on, and he nipped between the two players grabbing the ball, but in doing so he had been dragged too wide and his angled shot struck the outside of the post with Brownrigg angrily complaining to the referee.

Kidderminster took 17 minutes to even get near the Yeovil goal with Thomas Skovbjerg looping a long range effort over the bar after it looked like one of his team mates had bundled Matt Hayfield to the floor. Meanwhile at the other end, Norton and Hayfield were running the show and it was a move made by both that brought Adrian Foster far closer with a shot that whistled past Brock’s left hand post.

Significantly, on 23 minutes, Steve Taylor was cautioned after being pushed back into the field of play by someone from his sides dugout. Referee Mr Desmond ruled that Taylor had not been waved back into play following treatment and so he became the first name in the book.

The only goal of the game came on the half hour mark. Warren Patmore intercepted a Kidderminster midfield pass, and put through Matt Hayfield. He in turn split the Kidderminster defence and although Adrian FOSTER showed the slightest of mis-control as he ran through, the finish was as calm as you could hope for, giving Yeovil the crucial 1-0 advantage.

Kidderminster fought back with a quick succession of five corners in five minutes, with Pennock at full stretch on some deep corners, and the Yeovil goalkeeper produced an excellent save just before half time when he made a flying leap to block a stinger of a shot from Rene Peterson. But it was Yeovil who ended the half on top when they produced the move of the match with Fishlock and Piper producing end-to-end covering of the pitch, with passes being fed between the two wings by David Norton, but the end result was just too long for Adrian Foster to capitalise on.

Half Time : Yeovil Town 1 Kidderminster Harriers 0

Second half:  

The second half of the game was far less eventful for its footballing skills but still produced plenty of talking points. Kidderminster produced the first of these when Steve Taylor lunged wildly at David Piper and, having been already booked, received his marching orders.
On the hour mark, Kevan Brown replaced an injured Dean Chandler at the back, whilst Kidderminster also re-organised with Hines and Foster coming on for King and Skovbjerg. But Kidderminster seemed dead and buried when by the far corner of the Bartlett Stand, Fishlock and Collins tackled for the ball which went out of play and shortly after the linesman’s flag began to twirl in an ominous fashion. Players near Collins said after the game that the Harriers player had sworn twice at the linesman and called him a cheat. So, Kidderminster dropped down to nine men, and the game seemed done and dusted.

Strangely enough this was not the case. Kidderminster fought back and closed down Yeovil’s midfield far more efficiently than they had done with eleven players on the field. Silly passes went astray, and although Harriers were creating little in the way of chances, they were doing enough to put Yeovil fans and players on edge by occasional balls flashing across goal.

With Kidderminster pushing further and further up field, something seemed certain to break, and when Jason Eaton, on as a substitute, was put through in the last minute by Matt Hayfield, with only Brock to beat, and Brock over-committed himself, it seemed that Eaton would score. But the ball cannoned off the post and back into play and Harriers survived.

Four minutes into injury time, Yeovil nearly paid for that miss when Andrew Brownrigg shot over from close range following a cross from Yeovil’s left wing, but it was not to be and so Yeovil, with a huge sigh of relief, picked up all three points.

Final Score: Yeovil Town 1 Kidderminster Harriers 0

Ciderspace Verdict: Relief all around as last Saturday was put out of our system with a useful, if not emphatic victory. During the first hour of the game, Yeovil were by far the better side, and completely dominated the midfield, being first to around 80% of the balls. The second sending off seemed to lull the players into a false sense of security and it seemed they were trying to be a little too clever, instead of pursuing the passing game that had won them the game over the first hour. That said, all credit to Kidderminster is due for not giving up when it looked like all was lost for them.

Colin Lippiatt’s Verdict: I don’t want to get carried away over tonight’s result, as although I was pleased with the 1-0 result, I was not ecstatic with all aspects of our play. I brought in a few different players which involved leaving others out. Those left out weren’t happy with this, and I wouldn’t expect them to be, but I felt I had to make changes from Saturday.
I felt we showed lots of committment and plenty of work on and off the ball. I was pleased with the way that Adrian Foster took his goal, but I felt that regardless of the sendings off, we should have been 2-0 up by the time that Kidderminster lost their men. When they went down to nine men, we seemed to stop passing the ball around in the way we had done earlier in the game, which made it very hard for ourselves.