Although we notched up a comprehensive victory in the end, this game was not
as easy as the result might suggest.
For getting on for an hour Yeovil made life very difficult for us, not by
coming and parking a bus in the penalty area, to borrow a phrase from some
Premiership manager or another, but by playing good football and matching us
in most areas of the field. We didn't help ourselves by carelessly giving
the ball away several times, Snodgrass being a particularly bad offender at
this.
We could have gone one down fairly early in the proceedings as they got away
down the left and forced Casper into making a great save but we went in one
up at half-time a bit fortuitously after their keeper, distracted by the
presence of Beckford, let a shot (?cross) from Johnson way out on the left
drift past him into the net. From the kop we thought Beckford had got a
touch and the goal was initially credited to him, but the correction was
made at half time.
This led to a bloke in front of us trying to piece together his betting slip
which had Johnson on as first scorer and which he'd torn up in disgust when
he thought Beckford had scored. Cue much merriment all round.
The second half was much the same as the first for a while but we were
gradually beginning to get on top when Grayson changed the whole complexion
of the game by bringing on Kilkenny and Gradel for Hughes and Doyle.
Johnson went to left back and Snodgrass, very reluctantly, to the left wing
to enable Gradel to take up station on the right. This led to Bromby
venturing much further upfield than I've ever seen him do and on 69 minutes
he combined well with Gradel to give him the ball in the area. Gradel
controlled the ball well, created space for the shot with a neat turn and
burried it. Game over.
Yeovil were demoralised now and Beckford turned the screw by picking up a
flick on from Vokes and curling it past the Yeovil keeper for a typical
Jermaine goal. We were a bit slow to celebrate as we thought he'd pushed the
defender over in his effort to get on the ball, but the ref saw nothing
wrong with it. Watching the replay on the tele this morning, the bastard in
the green got it right, the defender fell over his own feet.
Kandol replaced Beckford with 10 minutes to go and almost scored with his
first touch then made it four with a couple of minutes to go, converting a
good cross from Snodgrass with a ferocious header. Fifteen games, only one
defeat, seven points clear, goal difference of 21. It can't go wrong this
year.......can it?
Ankergen - one blinding save, no real mistakes, kicking much improved
7
Bromby - steady game, better going forward than he has been
7
Naylor - great 8
Kisnorbo - magnificent 8
Hughes - same old, same old 6
Snodgrass - much too casual at times in the first half, picked his game up
when Gradel came on, great cross for the fourth goal
7
Doyle - worked hard without being too special 6
Howson - good tidy performance 7
Johnson - played well in midfield and at left back 7
Vokes - looks to have a lot of quality, improved as the game went on
7
Beckford - contributed greatly to the first goal even though he didn't touch
it, was unlucky to be given off side on a couple of occassions when through
on goal, took his goal well
8
Gradel - lively, skillful, great goal, as the kop sang, sign him up
7
Kilkenny - neat, tidy, rarely wasted the ball 7
Kandol - excellent 10 minute cameo, well-taken goal 7
Grayson - keeps on making these telling substitutions, doing a great job
9
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