Yeovil Town Women held to draw in first league outing of 2024/25

Match Round Up

Yeovil Town Women were held to a point in their season opener in the Regen Arable South West Regional Division One South.
The Glovers took on Sticker, a side based in St Austell Cornwall, who left Yeovil with a hard earned point, as the hosts struggled to capitalise in the final third.

Paul Knight’s first league lineup of the season saw a league debut handed to defender Katie Evans, as well as a first start for youngster Ava Beattie. New signing Orla East was named on the bench and Les Spearing started in goal for the first time in her Yeovil career.

The Glovers began life in a new division in perfect style as Becky Miles opened her league account and gave her side the lead. An impressive individual effort saw Miles bypass multiple players before converting to give Yeovil the dream start.

 

Despite this, the advantage lasted virtually no time, as Sticker equalised immediately, squaring it back up within seconds of Miles’ goal.

Yeovil responded positively and pushed to regain their lead, as the goal-scorer Miles had her next best effort of the game in the 21st minute, her long range strike fizzed wide of the post.

Soon after this the visitors completed a 12 minute turn around and scored again to put themselves ahead.

As the match edged closer to half time, Yeovil sought a response and nearly got one, as a headed effort resulting from a corner, was cleared off the line by a Sticker defender.

The Glovers thought their persistence in front of goal had been rewarded minutes before the interval, as last season’s top scorer Niamh Nicholls found the net, however the linesman’s flag ensured that Sticker went in at the break one goal to the good.

Yeovil continued to attack Sticker’s low-block throughout the second half, and were rewarded with an equaliser as usual goalkeeper Emily Hall converted a penalty. After last season’s consistent penalty woes, Hall has proved to be effective from the spot.

 

Despite dominating possession and relentless attempts to break down a rigid Sticker block, Yeovil were unable to find a winning goal and the points were shared in the league opener.

That’s What They Said

Yeovil Town Women manager Paul Knight spoke post-match:

Paul began, “It’s not the ideal start to the season, we’ve drawn to a side which we should not have drawn to today in all honesty. Due to weather conditions we are not playing at our home ground, it’s a smaller pitch, I don’t want to make excuses but it’s just one of those. It’s very difficult to be negative about the side in terms of performance because  we’ve just pinned the opposition for 45 minutes, they haven’t come out and we scored the goal to give us a draw.”

Knight expressed the disappointment amongst his team to not take all three points,
“The players know that I didn’t want anything less than a win today, they’re disappointed, this is a positive side, there was some good football out there and we completely controlled it. We played against a complete block on a small pitch and to beat a block is quite difficult.”

The manager praised POTM winner Becca McManus, “I think there were moments of brilliance from a lot of different individuals. Becca McManus has won player of the match, I think the main reason for that is her discipline, as her level headedness shone through.”

Finally, Paul reiterated his frustration with the result in Yeovil’s first league match, as his side were not clinical enough, “Going forward, if you were taking stats today, without sounding rude, disrespectful or patronising, we should be in double figures. We can’t miss that many opportunities, it’s not good enough. It’s a good result for Sticker today, they had a game plan and set it out successfully.”

“We reset and we go again next week”.

Match Highlights

Up Next

Yeovil Town Women remain unbeaten in the league since the reforming of the team last season and will be looking to earn their first three points of the season next week, as they make the long journey to Cornwall to face Helston Athletic on Sunday 15th 14:00 KO .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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