Former Glover Michael McIndoe returned to Huish Park last night for the first time since his controversial transfer to Doncaster Rovers last summer and endured a torrid 90 minutes in front of a fired up home crowd and also at the hands of local boy Andy Lindegaard, who man-marked the Scotish winger out of the game. But McIndoe had the last laugh, teammate Ricky Ravenhill scoring the only goal of a scrappy, tense affair to give Donny all 3 points and increase their lead at the top of the division three table.
The visitors were good value for their win, closing down the Glovers midfield quickly whenever the home team had the ball and generally being first to loose balls all night. The cold hard stats at the end of the game told their own story with nine attempts at goal from Donny to only one from the home side.
It could have been all so different if referee Mick Fletcher had applied the rules of the game throughout however - Doncaster's Mark Albrighton should have been sent off for a professional foul on Gavin Williams after 20 minutes, and Steve Foster later escaped with a booking after a stamp on Kevin Gall early in the second half. The officials did the Glovers no favours all evening - Gavin Williams had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half, a truly shocking decision; and Colin Pluck forced the ball in the net from a corner just after Ravenhill had put the visitors ahead, only for the official to rule it out for a push - television replays showed afterwards that the only man being fouled was Glovers striker Adam Stansfield.
"I thought we deserved it" Donny boss David Penney said after the game. "We knew we had to stifle their good players in midfield and also
Gavin Williams who plays in the hole. We did it well. I was determined to freshen things up a bit after dropping points last Saturday so I played Leo Fortune-West up front with Chris Brown. To be fair they didn't do a lot in the second half but things perked up when I brought on Gregg Blundell."
Glovers boss Gary Johnson was upset by his team's performance. "We didn't show enough guile or good play to break them down," he admitted afterwards. "I can't remember too many shots going in or many chances. I apologise for our lack of goal mouth action. I don't know what happened tonight. Basically they were stronger than us at the back and we weren't good enough to break them down."
The final word went to former Glover McIndoe, who criticised the Huish Park crowd, saying: "I was going to wish them all the best, but the reception I got I thought was an absolute disgrace. I gave two-and-a-half good years of my life to this club and got promotion and what not and I thought they would be bigger men than that but football is a very strange game at times." It's hard to believe that McIndoe is really that naive, but the word 'disgrace' is an odd one to use from the man who many believe let himself, his teammates and his fans down in his acrimonious transfer last summer. The way you, and your agent, conducted themselves then was the real disgrace, Mr McIndoe.
Final score: Yeovil Town 0 - 1 Doncaster Rovers.
The result wasn't as costly as it might have been to the Glovers play-off hopes, with many of the teams around us drawing or losing themselves. Lincoln City missed the chance to overtake us after drawing 2-2 with struggling Southend at Sincil Bank to remain 8th on 58 points, but still with a game in hand on Yeovil. The Glovers stay 7th on 59 points and Mansfield drop to 6th, again on 59 points after surprisingly being beaten 3-0 by Bury. 5th-placed Oxford on 62 points play in-form Cheltenham this evening, and 4th-placed Torquay have 63 points after drawing 2-2 at struggling Bristol Rovers. The automatic promotion places are taken by Huddersfield in 3rd place on 66 points, surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw at the McAlpine Stadium by relgation-threatened Rochdale; Hull City in 2nd place on 69 points after an easy 3-0 win over Leyton Orient; and Doncaster remain top on 73 points. Judging by last night's performance it's hard to see Donny letting automatic promotion slip now, though whether they'll go up as champions remains to be seen. Click here for the full league table.
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17 March 2004 : 
