Venue: The Vetch Field
Sunday 28th December 2003, 3pm kick-off.
Conditions:
Ground:
Scorers: Lee Trundle (pen 29, 1-0), Karl Connolly (67, 2-0), Gavin Williams (73, 2-1), Kevin Gall (89, 2-2), Lee Trundle (90, 3-2)
Attendance: 9,800 – including approx 900 Glovers supporters
Referee: Lee Cable (Surrey)
Assistant Refs: Ian Harris (Cornwall); Mike Hawken (Cornwall)
Bookings:
Yeovil: Lockwood (31, dissent), Pluck (42, unsporting behaviour), Williams (70, unsporting behaviour)
Swansea: Hylton (33, foul), Robinson (33, dissent), Johnrose (59, foul), K.Connolly, 88, unsporting behaviour Coates (90, dissent)
Team Line-Ups
Yeovil Town : (4-4-2)
1. Chris Weale
2. Adam Lockwood 4. Terry Skiverton 12. Hugo Rodrigues 5. Colin Pluck
20. Gavin Williams 8. Lee Johnson 24. Paul Terry 10. Nick Crittenden
7. Adam Stansfield 9. Kevin Gall
Subs:
6. Darren Way (46, for Lockwood) 13. Steven Collis 16. Andy Lindegaard (61, for Crittenden) 18. Kirk Jackson (71, for Stansfield) 23. Jamie Gosling
Swansea City: (4-4-2)
1. Roger Freestone 27. Alan Tate 22. Izzy Iriekpen 19. Richard Duffy 12. Leon Hylton 7. Leon Britton 11. Lenny Johnrose 14. Bradley Maylett 18. Andy Robinson 10. Lee Trundle 9. James Thomas
Subs:
4. Kristian O’Leary 15. Jonathon Coates (80, for Britton) 16. Karl Connolly (61, for Thomas) 17. Kieron Durkan 21. Brian Murphy
Badger’s View Of The Game
Jake Edwards’ suspension forced Gary Johnson into making a single change for the shortish trip to the Vetch, but despite Yeovil’s Boxing Day defeat this was the only change to the team that started against Kidderminster. On the bench though, there were welcome returns for Darren Way and Andy Lindegaard following their recent injuries.
As usual, Yeovil started off positively in front of a large passionate crowd, and Nick Crittenden forced a flying save from Roger Freestone in the opening five minutes to get the game warmed up.
But Swansea were to have the lion’s share of the first half, with most of their creative play coming through either the wing-play of Bradley Maylett or the circus trickery of top Lee Trundle. In truth, most of Maylett’s runs looked dangerous, but lacked a true end result, and his opening attempt for Swansea was typical of many of his moves – a weaving run down the right wing, but a tame shot into the side-netting.
Trundle looked far more of a handful, and he was left unmarked from an Andy Robinson free-kick but again could only find the side-netting. Minutes later, another Trundle shot was scuffed wide.
However, the Jacks got the upper edge on the half hour mark when Andy Robinson fell around the edge of the penalty box, under a challenge from Gavin Williams and referee Mr Cable pointed to the spot. It’s unusual to see dissent from the Yeovil players in such circumstances, but they were clearly aggrieved with the decision, although it was not clear whether their complaints were based on the position of the foul or indeed whether Robinson had just lost his footing. After a lengthy delay, up stepped Lee TRUNDLE and unfortunately Chris Weale guessed the other way and it was 1-0 to the home side.
Just 60 seconds later, Swansea thought they had doubled their lead. A free kick had been awarded which was advanced 10 yards for either dissent or encroachment by Adam Lockwood. Andy Robinson thrashed the deadball into the corner of the net, but as Swansea celebrated their ‘goal’, Mr Cable disallowed the strike, with a Swansea in the Yeovil wall the most likely culprit after he appeared to drag the last man in the wall away with him.
The howls of derision from the home support turned the heat up on the game. Leon Hylton was booked for hacking Kevin Gall down from behind and Andy Robinson was booked for rather foolishly disputing the decision. But the home side were the ones in control as the half ended. Colin Pluck also landed in the book after he followed through on a ball-winning tackle on Bradley Maylett; his fourth consecutive booking. Maylett also had claims for a penalty turned down when he fell heavily slightly off the ball, with the main surprise being that if Mr Cable didn’t consider it a penalty then a yellow card for a dive seemed the only other option – he chose neither.
Half-time: Swansea City 1 – 0 Yeovil Town
Darren Way was brought on at half time to try and get to grips with a Swansea side that were at that stage firmly in control of the game. Paul Terry switched notionally to a right-back position as Adam Lockwood came off, although in truth Terry’s forward pushes meant that he was virtually operating as a wing-back throughout the half.
Way’s presence seemed to make the difference in terms of what Yeovil were lacking and Yeovil attacked far more authoratively throughout the half. Kevin Gall nearly scored a spectacular goal when he looped a volley over the bar five minutes after the restart. Gavin Williams, who was being baited persistently by Swansea fans throughout the game, volleyed from 15 yards but Freestone parried for a corner.
Swansea’s attacks were now rare, and an Andy Robinson free kick was about as close as they’d come, with his curling strike going comfortably wide of the target. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise when Swansea extended their lead. A fairly scuffed corner kick by Maylett seemed to take the Yeovil defence by surprise and Karl CONNOLLY stabbed the ball home from close range, leaving a pair of Yeovil players running to the bench for fresh instructions from an animated Gary Johnson.
Cue the unexpected Yeovil revival. Perhaps Swansea thought they had the game already tied up, but Welshmen Gall and Williams had other ideas, and a short cross by Gall found Gavin WILLIAMS who managed to hook the ball past Freestone to pull it back to 2-1 leaving Kirk Jackson to race back to the centre spot clutching the ball to declare Yeovil’s intentions.
Williams got in a diving header from a right-wing cross but Freestone saved comfortably as Yeovil had Swansea pushed firmly back into their own half. And with just a minute left Kevin GALL looked to have brought a deserved point home as he nodded home the ball from six yards after a Lee Johnson throw-in had been flicked on by Colin Pluck. Swansea looked shell-shocked as the 1,000 away supporters were in delirium.
The snag was that there were still three minutes of injury time to play, and Swansea struck back within a minute. Sometimes Yeovil’s attacking attitude deserves a great deal of credit and it has won the Glovers many a game where a draw seemed to be on the cards. Just sometimes though, you wish that we could take what we’ve earnt, and that was one of those moments. From a Yeovil free kick, Swansea broke away down the right wing, and with the majority of the Yeovil defence still making their way back from an attacking free kick, in went the right wing cross and Lee TRUNDLE volleyed home to give Swansea a victory that they looked to have thrown away.
Despite the referee extending the additional time to five minutes, following some fairly blatant Swansea timewasting, Yeovil couldn’t get back the point that their second half performance had deserved, and they were left kicking themselves that they didn’t settle for the 2-2 draw.
Badger
Full-time: Swansea City 3 – 2 Yeovil Town
MOTM Vote Result:
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Overall match rating: 7.2 / 10
Performance: 6.0
Entertainment: 8.4
19 votes received.