Steve Thompson kept faith in the side that had performed relatively well against Port Vale on Saturday by selecting an identical starting line-up and in fact the only change to the whole sixteen for the visit of MK Dons was the return of Colin Miles who had travelled to Burslem but had ended up spending the duration of the match sleeping off an illness in his hotel bedroom.

The Glovers attacked the away end in the first half with a strong wind at their backs although it was the wind that probably denied them an opening goal. A corner from the Bartlett Stand side was only half cleared and when the ball was whipped back into the box, Adam Lockwood threw himself at the ball, but it fell inches beyond him and disappeared out for a goal kick.

Fifteen minutes in and the visitors were almost caught cat-napping at a Yeovil free kick. As if the spirit of Lee Johnson was still at Huish Park, Anthony Barry quickly slipped a short ball to Phil Jevons and only the alertness of keeper Matt Baker saved the Dons blushes, getting a hand on the ball as Jevons stormed through unchallenged with a back-tracking defender eventually hacking the loose ball away for a corner. A couple of minutes later and Kevin Gall saw his swivel and turn go wide of the target when he shot from the edge of the area. Next Jevons didn't quite get his accuracy right on a free kick after he had been brought down on the edge of the box - sending the resultant free kick clean over the back of the away end.

It took 30 minutes for Chris Weale to make his first save of the half, with the visitors having been fairly lacking in terms of feeding their two prized assets up front of Taylor and McLeod. And it was Scott Taylor who got that first chance after a corner had only been half cleared. The bounce appeared to confuse two of Wealey's defenders, but the goalkeeper anticipated brilliantly by advancing off his line and blocking Taylor's strike almost before it had left his boot.

Overall though it was a scrappy first half, with neither side producing any particularly stunning football. There was a flat eerie atmosphere around Huish Park and the game desperately needed an increase in tempo to liven up the crowd. Every now and again a sweet pass through midfield, or a flick-on would bring the Yeovil crowd to live, but in the main if you took out the Mad Trumpeter's piercing sound, it almost sounded as though 50 MK Dons fans could make more noise than the other 5,000 in the ground. Something needed to liven up proceedings to get this game going.

One problem that the Glovers had to deal with in the second half was the elements. Not only was the wind gusting up to additional strengths, the rain was also starting to come down in flurries and everything was going to be in Yeovil's faces for that second period. That said, they got off to an impressive start to the half - Nathan Jones produced a hooked short that just cleared the target, and then five minutes in, Kevin Gall landed the ball in the back of the net, only for a linesman's flag to rule out his strike.

Adam Lockwood gave the Main Stand linesman plenty of verbals when he appeared to be held down in the penalty box off the ball following a corner in clear line of the official, but no flag was raised. That almost proved costly as Lockwood's prone position in the penalty box left Yeovil a man short tracking back and Izale McLeod managed to get in behind the Yeovil defence on the break. Chris Weale got a palm on the ball, but McLeod still got beyond the keeper only to fluff his shot with the goal gaping - definitely a contender for miss of the season!

On the whole though, Yeovil were the team in command during this second period, combining a lot more efficiently heading towards the Westland Stand. Chris Cohen showed both his natural ability and his inexperience all in one go as he burst through the centre of midfield, skinning the MK Dons defence. With both Jevons and Gall peeling off wide on opposite sides, a pass into an open space looked as though it would carve open the Dons defence, but Cohen went for goal himself and the end result was the ball going wide of the target.

But the Glovers were by now building up a real head of steam with their best phase of the game by far. Andy Lindegaard was starting to find the whole length of the right flank to his liking - often choosing to cut inside from the wings to make sharp runs that the MK Dons defence had trouble working out how to stop. This was undoubtedly Lindy's strongest showing so far this season and he finished off one such mazey run with an excellent strike from the edge of the area that whistled past the post. Next Chris Cohen took a short corner direct to an inrushing Anthony Barry who unleashed an excellent drive that just cleared the crossbar.

Yeovil couldn't carry on without finding the net forever. An amazing 418 minutes after their last goal was scored - ironically against MK Dons as well - the dam was finally burst. With 20 minutes remaining of the game, Chris Cohen this time delivered the right ball, freeing up Kevin GALL inside the box, and taking his time, he cooly slammed the ball into the bottom far corner to produce one of the biggest dramatic "Yesssssssss!" noises probably to have come out of Huish Park since it's opening. Relief wouldn't describe the feeling around the ground, but it was the nearest thing in the dictionary to it. The goal brought one of the old-style Huish Park goal celebrations that have been missing from the ground all season - this one was a reprise of the last one back over the half-way line gets to do 10 press-ups. Last time it was Lee Johnson who succumbed - this time it was David Poole who got over the line in a wryful manner, dropping to the floor and giving ten.

Not too surprisingly, Danny Wilson made an immediate change to his side, bringing on attacking midfielder Nicky Rizzo who was one of their few shining lights in the match at the National Hockey Stadium, no doubt with the wish to push bodies forward in search of an equaliser. Rizzo got in on the action early on by taking advantage of some interesting officiating from referee Andy Penn who seemed unconcerned about another MK Dons midfielder engaging in a spot of WWF with Kevin Amankwaah on the floor, stopping the Yeovil defender from getting to his feet. Fortunately Rizzo's shot went wide of the target. Clive Platt was also introduced as an attacking substitute for Scott Taylor as Wilson pressed the gamble button. Steve Thompson responded by putting an extra man at the back to cope with the increasingly volatile weather conditions as Colin Miles replaced Phil Jevons who had earlier signalled to the bench indicating a problem of some description.

MK Dons forced a succession of three or four corners all of which came to pretty much nothing, as Paul Terry became a second Yeovil player to limp off with a knock being replaced by Arron Davies. Yeovil were by this time tending to break from deep but still created the odd chance - Andy Lindegaard exchanged some excellent passes with Kevin Gall up the right flank with Gally's final hook shot looping just over the crossbar. But in the main Yeovil's problem was trying to clear their own lines - on two separate occasions the ball looped back upon itself and threatened to bounce back over the player doing the 'clearance'!

Substitute Clive Platt went close for the visitors as time ran out with his shot deflected for a corner. With the minutes ticking out, and the wind and rain increasing, Kevin Gall was replaced by Matt Harrold as another body to try and deal with the growing pressure from the visitors. Izale McLeod produced a hook shot that went over the bar as the fourth official put up the board for three minutes of added time. Did either physio even enter the field of play during the game? Certainly I can't recall a match in which the two physios played so little part in the game.

Just when it looked as though the referee's whistle was going to blow, the Glovers were dealt the cruellest of blows. Ben HARDING had a minute previously sent one shot over the bar but when the ball dropped to him 93.5 minutes into the match after a ball had only been cleared to the end of the box, he hit an unstoppable shot into the top corner to break Yeovil hearts. That was as much as the referee was going to give, and 30 seconds after the real kick in the nether regions, the referee blew his final whistle.

Hardly deserved, but these are the things that sum up Yeovil Town's experience of 2006 so far. If it can go wrong, it's going wrong. With 30 seconds left on the clock, Yeovil were heading to a comfortable mid-table position and 10 days worth of relaxing before the next match. Now they face a nervous Saturday knowing that probably by the time they travel to Blackpool, they will be fighting over the dubious rights to a bottom four slot in the table. The club need to use those ten days wisely and aim to bring in new players to resolve the situation as leaving it another fortnight may well be bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Kevin Gall 13 555 Anthony Barry 4 303 Andy Lindegaard 6 265 Chris Cohen - 194 Kevin Amankwaah 3 155 Adam Lockwood 2 135 David Poole 3 123

Overall match rating: 5.5 / 10
Performance: 5.6
Entertainment: 5.3

31 votes received.

Any comments/questions please email yeo.motm@ntlworld.com

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