In the absence of Baz, he wasn’t able to go, it falls to me to write this week’s report. The title has been suitably changed due to my starting place of Devon!
This game is my “home” game, as I live in Okehampton. Yeovil is about 90 minutes away and although the A303 can be busy, 90-100 minutes is the accepted duration of the journey. I took Jordan, my eldest lad, and we set off at 11.00am to get there early enough to park and to maybe grab a quick drink and catch up with a few people.
Of course being an August Saturday, all the holiday traffic, (I should have realised!) – along with a couple of minor accidents, resulted in a 3 hour journey! We still got there with plenty of time to spare – but it was a some what of a frustrating journey. I gather you guys travelling down from the Midlands had an even worse journey. Coaches were still arriving just minutes before kick off.
It was a very hot and sunny day, (my red nose is testament to that!), and the away end isn’t covered. Bad for catching the sun and bad for creating an atmosphere – BUT it was great to experience standing at a football match again. I do hope that the FA / Football League allow sections of standing in grounds again.
Before I get onto the game, I just want to big up the Yeovil fans. We chatted to many and all were friendly and welcoming. After the game we popped to a pub for a quick drink, and both sets of fans mixing enjoying a drink and chatting about the game. The policing was soft touch and non threatening, maybe other police forces could learn from this, (not mentioning any names but you know who you are!)
It was good to meet up with Nat too.
Both sets of fans were in good voice, although I may have misheard because of temporary deafness due to the speaker right behind where we were standing. MAN THAT MUSIC WAS LOUD!
So on to the game.
Living reasonably locally there has been much talk about Yeovil’s first season at this level, and quite rightly so considering where they have come from as a non league side with a pitch you needed climbing gear to play on. They play in a tidy ground with a superb pitch and are considered as a “footballing” side. Blues however, hadn’t read the script and were party poopers on this Yeovil’s first home game in the Championship!
Blues started brightly with the ball being played down both sides of the pitch. Unfortunately for Blues, but more importantly for Yeovil, there was a long stoppage when Marek Stech suffered an injury. It has been confirmed he has a fracture of his hand – and I would like to wish him a speedy recovery. That stop in the game, (I felt I shouldn’t say break!), bought Yeovil back into the game.
Unfortunately the opening 15 minutes were very scrappy. There was a lot of whistles as the ref seemed to stop innocuous challenges and let other obvious fouls go. I should say here, that he was appalling to both sides – but there is no doubt we should have had a penalty in the first half having watched The Football League show. Also their centre back was all arms and legs. This wasn’t picked up by the ref, and it resulted in the Blues players getting frustrated. This resulted in us giving away stupid free kicks. It wasn’t a dirty game though, and Eardley didn’t get a 2nd yellow (quite rightly) which would have seen him leave the pitch. It was disappointing seeing Gary Johnson having a go at the ref to send him off.
Anyway back to the game.
Shinnie had a great chance to put Blues ahead but couldn’t get enough on it to put the ball in. Yeovil responded immediately producing a terrific double save from Randolph denying Webster and Madden’s shot and header respectively.
Shinnie had another chance with a shot that was saved by substitute keeper Gareth Stewart. The afore mentioned penalty shout was not long after this. Although it wasn’t clear from the away end, having seen it again, there was a definite push. We have already established that this ref was poor though.
Yeovil looked like they were beginning to pick up the tempo, and just before half time had a good chance to go ahead. Thankfully for Blues the shot hit the outside of the post.
I was grateful to be 0-0 and half time, but felt that we were well in the game. I said to Jordan that we needed to start the 2nd half strongly. I’m pleased the players listened and they forced an early corner. I said to Jordan, I’ll video this. The first corner produced a 2nd corner. That 2nd corner… well see for yourself:
Having watched the Football League Show, Jordan and I can be seen top right hand corner. I have the European yellow top on and Jordan has the 1991 shirt and has ginger hair!
The 2000 or so Blues fans were delighted. It appeared at first that Dan Burn had scored against his old club, but you can see it was an unfortunate own goal. Not long later Burn nearly scored a second for Blues. He struck the ball pretty well but his shot went just over.
Yeovil picked the play up again, and probably should have been level, the ball looked like it was going in but Randolph stuck his leg out and the ball shot up and rebounded off the bar. A fortunate escape. Yeovil finished the game well but just could not get past the defence of Blues.
Overall this was a hard fought victory for Blues. Yeovil will win many games at Huish Park and will not be a push over. For Blues it is another step along the path of getting the side as a cohesive side. The signs are there that this can be a good side.
Positives: Randolph looks a terrific keeper, not just his saves but I love the way he distributes the ball. Much better than our previous two keepers. Burn won almost everything in the air. Elliott worked his socks off and created space in the middle. Shinnie looks exciting and when the understanding of his runs is worked out, will score and create goals. We looked pretty solid most of the game, something I thought we DIDN’T look last year.
Negatives: The system. Is it right? It still needs working on. There were times where the players weren’t sure who was picking who up. BUT I maintain that this will come as they play together more. The other negative was the ref. Where do they find these people???
So we are off and running with a hard earned 3 points.
COME ON YOU BLUES!
Kev
I was at the game and to be honest i thought we had a few players that looked poor .Without shinnies runs we looked toothless up front.First half the midfield just kept losing possession.Earthworm jim or wade elliot was a passenger for most of the game and mullins was content just to lump the ball every time he got it.On the plus side randolph looks a good keeper and burn looks pretty solid,shinnie made some great runs adeyemi did improve in the second half.Oh and the ref was abysmal
Hate to say this toby but Wade Elliott was considered mam of the match on the Blues Player commentary narrowly edging out Dan Burn so if he was a passenger he appears to have travelled in style! Nice report Kev. Sorry I couldn’t get a ticket to the game but so glad we got off the mark with a win.
I don’t get the comments about Elliott. There is a discussion on the forum about him. Someone thinks he was (is) poor. My response is yes he has had bad games, (like most players), but he was involved in everything Saturday. He bought a calmness to midfield and created time and space – something we have been missing. Yes he gave the ball away a couple of times, but every player does.
I honestly believe he will be a key player this season. As Baz said it was very difficult to decide if he or Burn was MOM.