Warren Patmore and Ben Smith were missing through suspension, so Matt Hayfield dropped back into midfield with Jason Eaton and Adrian Foster taking the front two places. Murray Fishlock reverted to his familiar wing-back position. Three reservists; James Bent, Glenn Poole and Anthony Tonkin were on the bench.

Filthy weather plus a heavy and saturated pitch meant that this was never going to be a classic but Yeovil did more than enough to deserve all 3 points and gain some measure of revenge for their Boxing Day thrashing at the hands of their opponents today.

Forest Green started the game the stronger forcing Jamie Pitman and then Dean Chandler into goal-line clearances after corners. The home side endured a further setback when Matt Hayfield was substituted in the 16th minute following a foul challenge by Jason Drysdale, for which the Rovers player was rightly booked, David Piper replacing the blond midfielder,

As the half wore on however The Glovers began to gradually assume some level of control and were creating more and more chances, Eaton, Foster and Fishlock all looking threatening in particular, without actually troubling Steve Perrin in the visitors goal overmuch. Former Yeovil midfielder David Norton achieved the impossible by making himself even more unpopular than he already was with the home fans by by taking part in a running feud with Yeovil youngster Jamie Pitman, but the half ended with neither side managing to break the deadlock.

More of the same in the second half except for the rain becoming heavier, the pitch becoming more saturated and your humble Ciderspace correspondent getting even wetter than he was in the first half. Indeed so wet was it that my notes on the second half consist of a shapeless mass of soaked paper, so apologies for the lack of the usual detail in this report.

What I can say is that Yeovil played some good football in the second half considering the conditions, on the whole attempting to keep the ball on the floor. Jamie Pitman came close with a header from a corner just after the break, and Adrian Foster hit the bar after a clever turn and shot from just outside the Rovers area.

David Piper's deflected shot was well saved by Steve Perrin in the visitors goal and Jason Eaton's effort was cleared off the line by a Forest Green defender shortly afterwards. It was beginning to look as if Yeovil were going to be frustrated by a solid defensive performance from the visitors when the deserved breakthrough finally came in the 76th minute.

That was a deserved win. The first half was fairly even. They had the first 20 minutes, we had the second 20 minutes, but we totally dominated the whole of the second half, and we deserved to win. I don't know why they were unhappy with the referee. They didn't deserve anything out of the game, although I'm not sure that I agree with the sending off, as it was in the 89th minute. Maybe if it had happened in the 10th minute, it might be different but the game was over by then. It didn't make any difference to the result.

It's hard in football. You can get totally despondant after defeats and get carried away too much after victories. Before the two games with Forest Green, if you'd said to me that I was going to get three points then I wouldn't have been happy. Four was what I would have settled for, although six was what I was looking for. I can't change what happened out there at Forest Green, although it did surprise me. I thought long and hard about it for two days, and I still can't put my finger on why we played so badly there.

A few words were said after that game. You look for a response from the players, and I got that response today, after the first 20 minutes where I think we had been very edgy. It's hard not to let your confidence get affected by two results like that, even if in my mind I would still say that the performance against Hayes was not a bad one; it was just a terrible result for us. I thought today was part of not letting confidence affect us, and I thought our confidence grew particularly in the second half.

We are are always looking to strengthen the squad. We are still challenging on three fronts for honours this year and it is important that we have a strong squad. We've got some tough games coming up such as our home game against Stevenage, and another tough one next week. I had confidence in the young lads who were on the bench should I have needed to bring them on. It was just that everyone was playing well, particularly in the second half, that there was no need for me to take anyone off unless they got injured.

I've never known a league like it. To lose eight games at this stage of the season and still be challenging is unparallelled. Normally, you're lucky if you lose eight games all season and win a championship. But I think that one of the six teams is bound to find a hell of a run of form. It could be that it could go like this all the way, but I think that one team will find a run of form for about two months that will take them into an unbelievably strong position.

If you look at Rushden, they will be saying now, how did we lose 5-1 at Yeovil. Everyone is looking at results and saying how did they beat us, or how did we beat them, and I've never known anything like it in the Conference.

Jamie did me proud today; I thought he was absolutely fantastic. I thought he worked hard for the ball and fought well, and totally deserved his man of the match award. I've certainly perked up over the last few days [following the birth of his child]. I've been very down after the Hayes and Forest Green results, because it does affect you. You try not to let it get to you. You try to say that you've got your life to live, but football is a massive part of all our lives.

Jamie Pitman 46%
Adrian Foster 25%
Dave Piper 6%
Murray Fishlock 5.7%
Kevan Brown 4%

MATCH RATING - 7.2 (out of ten)
Performance 7.1
Entertainment 7.3