Kevin Amankwaah made a welcome return to the side that travelled to Bournemouth, having shaken off an ankle injury sustained during the Brentford home match earlier this month. But there was further bad luck for the Glovers as Colin Miles had to pull out of the warm-ups at late notice, picking up a slight groin strain. Amankwaah's place in the side was for the first time in a Yeovil shirt at right-wing in front of Adam Lockwood - an unusual formation but one that several supporters had suggested in the past few weeks.

Bournemouth got out of the traps somewhat sharper and as early as the second minute James Hayter used his pace to burst through the middle of the Yeovil defence, with Steve Collis making a comfortable low save down to his left. Yeovil replied with a long ball up the right flank being knocked down by Matt Harrold into the path of Arron Davies, but his attempt to fire in an early shot went significantly wide of the target.

Bournemouth were passing the ball around far more fluently and had a real strangehold on Yeovil's midfield without creating too much. The extra number in the home side's 3-5-2 formation, along with wing-backs that pushed up frequently allowed them to assume control, and not even the excellent Chris Cohen could do a lot in what was often a single-handed attempt to regain possession, with none of Paul Terry, David Poole or Kevin Amankwaah looking comfortable when asked to win the ball back.

That all said, the Glovers went closest with the next chance of the game. True, Arron Davies was probably intending to cross the ball into the centre towards Matt Harrold, but his attempt to play the ball curled heavily in the wind and the end result was Bournemouth keeper Gareth Stewart losing his footing as defender Adam Griffiths struggled to recover ground to guard the goal-line as the ball narrowly cleared the bar, landing on the roof of the net at the back post.

By the half hour mark though, the home side had assumed full control, making superb use of both flanks, frequently criss-crossing passes across field to try and unsettle the shape of the Yeovil backline. The move of the game, flowing through half a dozen home players saw Hayter's close range shot superbly saved after he had received a knockdown by Steve Fletcher, but it was a big warning sign to the visitors.

Three minutes later Yeovil were to find Bournemouth's next move to be more costly. After Steve Fletcher and Paul Terry had been booked for a spot of off-the-ball handbags, Stephen Purches stole a march down a right flank that was becoming ever more exposed, and slipped a low cross into the centre. Bournemouth's Steve FLETCHER squeezed in front of Adam Lockwood and poked the ball home from 10 yards out to give Bournemouth the lead, and based on their use of the width of the pitch, and their superior possession they deserved it.

Bournemouth almost made it 2-0 when James Hayer ran through the middle completely flat-footing the Yeovil defence, and sprinted away with pace, but his end shot let him down and Collis was able to make an easy save to deny the striker. Yeovil almost equalised just before the break, when Arron Davies - Yeovil's one source of attacking inspiration - got some clear space in the box, but the legs of Gareth Stewart blocked his shot, and at half time Steve Thompson had some big thinking to do, most notably to unpick a side that had been outpassing the Glovers - not many sides have done that and succeeded against a Yeovil side in the past five years.

Half-time saw a radical shift-around of formation, with Steve Thompson deciding to match players up against Bournemouth's formation in an effort to sort out the imbalance in midfield. Andy Lindegaard came on as a left-wing-back replacing a very quiet David Poole, whilst Nathan Jones shifted into a defensive midfield position. This sort of worked in that it gave Yeovil back possession in the second half to an extent, but it was more than possession that was going to be needed in the final 45 minutes.

Sean O'Driscoll responded with his own change, withdrawing Callum Hart who was suddenly struggling against the pace of the freed-up Kevin Amankwaah, replacing him with James O'Connor as the home side adopted a strategy of sticking nine of their players firmly behind the ball and inviting Yeovil to break them down.

Therein lay the problem. Yeovil huffed and puffed around Bournemouth's 18 yard line but in all honesty the referee could have stopped the game at 60 minutes as it was becoming increasingly obvious that there was only going to be one scoreline of AFC Bournemouth 1 Yeovil Town 0 at the end of the game. Bournemouth didn't look too bothered about increasing their lead, and why should they when they were finding it so easy to snuff out the Yeovil attack before it even got going.

Scott Guyett's head-cut was about the most significant thing to happen during the opening 20 minutes of the second half, coming back with the the legendary 'Terry Butcher' look, following a gash to his forehead. A couple of almost embarrassing shots on the Bournemouth goal indicated Yeovil's desperation, as firstly a short free kick between Nathan Jones and Andy Lindegaard saw the latter's daisy-cutter scooped up as if it were a backpass by Gareth Stewart. Lindy went one better later on - slicing an attempt on goal that ended up spinning off for a throw-in!

Kevin Gall replaced Nathan Jones with just 18 minutes left, whilst in the dying minutes Scott Guyett headed off to be replaced by Daniel Webb. With all these forward-thinking players on the field - Davies, Gall, Harrold, Webb - you would have thought that Bournemouth would have come under a fair bit of pressure but it wasn't ever looking like it was going to happen.

Steve Fletcher managed to miss Bournemouth's one and only second half chance as he put a free header wide, and the best that Yeovil could muster was a deep curling cross by Kevin Gall which came within inches of landing direct in the top corner of the backpost, but also inches away from an in-rushing Daniel Webb, who was just too late to connect with the attempt. But in reality both sides could have played on until midnight and the end result would have been the same.

The final whistle brought a result that was pretty much what Yeovil had deserved. The back four and the goalkeeper were solid enough, whilst Chris Cohen and Arron Davies came out of the game with credit as well. However, the other four positions and their respective substitutes never really got out of the blocks during the whole game and the end result from Steve Fletcher's 33rd minute winning goal became more and more predictable as the game went on. One shot on target during the whole game, from Arron Davies, and nine off-target efforts that did more to trouble the corner flags and the car-parks than Gareth Stewart in the Bournemouth goal, sums up a poor performance. Yeovil desperately need to get out of that state of mind as the next two matches against Walsall (level on points and identical goal difference) and Tranmere (five points ahead having played a game more) are now assuming the proportions of cup finals.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Chris Cohen 30 836 Steve Collis 2 215 Kevin Amankwaah 4 200 Scott Guyett 1 174 Arron Davies - 56 Paul Terry 2 51

Overall match rating: 3.3 / 10
Performance: 3.3
Entertainment: 3.3

39 votes received.

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

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