Venue: Zembard Lane
Wednesday 16th July 2003, 7.30pm kick-off.
Conditions: Cooler than recently!
Ground: Heavy end to end slope but in good condition.
Attendance: 750
Referee:
Bookings:
Yeovil: None
Chard: None
Line ups
FIRST HALF: (3-4-1-2)
Stephen Collis
Roy O’Brien, Hugo Rodrigues, Colin Pluck,
Nick Crittenden, Darren Way, Jamie Gosling, Lee Johnson, Abdelhalim El Kholti
Adam Stansfield, Kirk Jackson
SECOND HALF: (4-4-2)
Stephen Collis,
Franklin De Freitas, Alex Jeannin, Joao Marafona, Stephen Reed
Jamie Gosling, Gareth Phillips, Andy Taylor, Jose Sebastiao
Andy Lindegaard, Kevin Gall
Second Half Subs: Steve Thompson (for Jamie Gosling, 65 mins), Danny Barker (for Stephen Collis, 75 mins), Ian Patchett (for Jose Sebastiao, 85 mins)
Scorers: Simon Baines (og, 5 mins, 0-1), Colin Pluck (22 mins, 0-2), Abdelhalim El Kholti (42 mins, 0-3), Steve Thompson (67 mins, 0-4), Kevin Gall (70 mins, 0-5) Alex Jeannin (90 mins, 0-6), Alex Jeannin (90 mins, 0-7).
This report courtesy of Martin Baker:
Gary Johnson made two changes to his first half team as they made their first trip to Zembard Lane for eight years. Adam Lockwood withdrew from the side as a precaution after feeling slight pain in his shinbone, whilst Adam Stansfield was a straight swap for Kevin Gall. Chard Town’s captain was the familiar face of Steve Sivell; one of Steve Rutter’s YTS graduates in the early 1990s, whilst Tom Manley, one of last season’s Yeovil Town Youth keepers was between the sticks.
Manley didn’t really have much luck to begin with. After just five minutes, Lee Johnson took a very quick floating free kick in the direction of Kirk Jackson, but Chard No.2 Simon BAINES got in ahead of Jackson and ended up diverting the ball into his own net. When you’re the underdog, you can do without starts like that.
The Glovers were passing far better than they did at Chippenham. Despite the kind of slope that made Barnet’s Underhill ground look like a spirit-levelled field, the turf was good, and with Yeovil going down the hill, Chard faced a rear-guard battle.
By 22 minutes, they’d been breached once again, with Colin PLUCK managing a simple penalty-spot header from a Lee Johnson corner, and only some extraordinary goalkeeping from Tom Manley was stopping Yeovil from running up a significant early advantage. There was little he could do though when Lee Johnson’s flicked pass split the Chard back line in two, leaving Abdelhalim EL KHOLTI clean through on goal, resulting in an excellent finish into the corner.
Half-Time: Chard Town 0 Yeovil Town 3
Half time saw nine substitutions with only Stephen Collis and Jamie Gosling surviving. Amongst the new boys were Andy Taylor, a former Manchester United trainee who was on the books of Northwich Victoria last season, whilst Jose Sebastiao is a left winger from Portugal who has been playing in the German leagues.
Unsurprisingly it took a long time for the new team to find it’s feet, although Sebastiao was certainly looking the part, with pace and strength that was not a million miles away from a left-footed Barrington Belgrave. And if you want to impress when on a trial, setting up the Assistant Manager with a headed goal does your chances no harm at all. With Steve THOMPSON on the pitch for barely three minutes, Sebastiao’s accurate cross ensured Thommo made it 4-0.
It was another left-footer that set up the fifth goal; Stephen Reed ran two-thirds of the length of the field, exchanged a neat one-two with Kevin GALL, who had the last word as he curled the ball into the bottom corner.
Sebastiao’s performance had certainly got the supporters talking, with the loss of Michael McIndoe still the talk of the terraces, and so it was a shame when he had to withdraw after collecting a bang on the head. Ian Patchett replaced him, whilst new Youth Team keeper Danny Barker replaced Stephen Collis, although how many times Barker touched the ball was debateable, such was Yeovil’s domination.
The Glovers hit the woodwork three times during the second half, but had to wait until the final minutes of the game before they completed their scoring, with both goals coming from Alex JEANNIN. Firstly he produced an excellent 20-yard angled drive for the best goal of the night, and then into injury time he wrapped things up with a glancing near-post header to make it 7-0.
A far more satisfactory night for the Glovers therefore drew to a close, with the performances of the trialists finally starting to take more shape. Rodrigues, Gosling, Jeannin, Sebastiao and Taylor look to be the remaining five in Gary Johnson’s thoughts, with a likely two or three contracts up for grabs for the successful trialists. The real test though, will be how these lads cope against the more loftier heights of Nationwide League Division Two opposition in the form of Brentford on Saturday.
Full-time: Chard Town 0 Yeovil Town 7
Martin Baker