Despite having won last week's match against Chesterfield, manager Russell Slade decided to shuffle his pack for the visit to Oldham Athletic's Boundary Park. One of the changes was enforced with Martin Cranie having been recalled to Southampton whilst the team were heading up the motorway on the Friday, but Wayne Gray was another player displaced with Anthony Barry coming in as an additional midfielder against an Oldham side that were merely three points behind the Glovers, and could go above them on goal difference if they won the game.

A quietish start saw Paul Warne gifted a chance 10 minutes into the match after a poor Steve Mildenhall goal kick was collected by the home striker inside the Yeovil half. With Mildenhall having taken the kick from the edge of the box, Warne went for the lob and almost managed it, with Mildy well beaten and the ball landing just wide of his left-hand post.

A narrow angled drive from the left flank forced Steve Mildenhall to push the ball over his own crossbar but from the resultant corner, Yeovil got their first attack on the Oldham goal, breaking away through Lee Morris and Arron Davies with the Welshman opting to shoot from a narrow angle rather than push the ball across the face of the box to the in-rushing Morris. Keeper Les Pogliacomi wasn't fooled and kept his near post guarded, saving comfortably.

An incredible 40 games into the League One season, the Glovers have yet to win a penalty. And Arron Davies was left frustrated half an hour into the game when he was barged off the ball by an Oldham defender who was supposedly "shepherding" the ball back to his own keeper as Davies ran through to try and claim it - the sort where if a striker did it to a defender that the referee would be instantly whistling for, but for some reason it seems acceptable for a defender to barge his opponent out of the way with no intention of going for the ball. Away from home, last man, crucial game - sadly there was little chance of a football referee giving such a decision, even if Sean Gregan's actions were somewhat suspect.

Just eight minutes before the break in a half that Oldham had undoubtedly dominated save for the odd break from Davies and Morris, the home side got their noses in front with a goal that looked alarmingly simplistic. Richard Wellens was given way too much space to make his way straight through the centre of the park, and as striker Leon Clarke feigned to move out to the edge of the box to collect a pass, Terrell Forbes moved to try and intercept it, and the end result was that the Yeovil defence parted like the red sea with Forbes unable to cover both Clarke and Gary McDONALD, who received a simple ball straight down the middle, and turning he planted it straight past Steve Mildenhall with no Glovers markers there to be seen. 1-0 and given all of the possession and control that Oldham had prior to that goal, little more than they deserved.

One aspect that the Glovers seemed to be somewhat second best to their opponents was in that Oldham seemed to want to MAKE things happen for them, whilst Yeovil seemed almost tentative in their approach to the game. On around three separate occasions, Yeovil players either let tackles go or tried to let the ball run out of play unsuccessfully in the hope that the ball would do the work for them. Oldham were however going in hard to make sure they won their tackles, and stretching to scoop the ball away from the touchline and that sort of aspect to their game was giving the home side the edge. Meanwhile the Glovers seemed to have both a physical gap and a mental gap of understanding between the midfield and the front line. Bar Davies and Morris, the forward-thinking players just weren't making any impact at all.

Whilst the second hald opened with Yeovil having a little bit more of a flurry of forward moves, the net result wasn't much different with Oldham still looking good value for their 1-0 lead. After an Oldham attack had been semi-blocked by a Yeovil defender, the loose ball fell into the path of Richard Wellens who looped a shot towards the top right hand corner, but fortunately Steve Mildenhall had long since recovered from his early suspect goal kick and was in dominant form - palming the ball away for a corner. Three minutes later, Paul Warne took advantage of Terrell Forbes losing the ball under his feet as it bobbled on the uneven surface. But again Mildenhall was equal to his low drive that was tipped around the corner.

Midway through the second period, the Glovers did briefly threaten to disturb Oldham's control on the game. A left-wing cross by Arron Davies took keeper Les Pogliacomi by surprise when it turned into an on target attempt and he was forced to belatedly palm the ball over his own crossbar for a corner. Then two minutes later, Wayne Gray replaced a rather anonymous Marcus Stewart, with Darryl Knights also brought on for Anthony Barry as Russell Slade tried to persuade his players to provide a greater attacking force.

For a brief period it almost worked. Less than two minutes after entering the field, Wayne Gray received a ball over the top of the Oldham defence and for once the Glovers were in behind the Latics' defence. To his credit, home keeper Les Pogliacomi was alert to the danger and raced off his line. He was never going to beat Gray to the ball, but his swift movement was enough to force Gray's first touch to be a decisive one, and the Yeovil striker went for the lob. He connected well, but not quite straight enough and the ball bounced just wide of the gaping goal to give Oldham a let-off.

But that was as good as it got. Oldham gradually got the measure of the two pacey substitutes and wound their way back into the game without really threatening too much. They didn't have to - their 1-0 score was looking far too comfortable, and even the extra forward on the field of play did little to affect the pattern of the game. Oldham wound down the clock in the final five minutes by making three rather laboured substitutions, and one of these - Luigi Glombard - almost made the game safe when he weaved his way in from the left flank, beating Matthew Rose, then running right along the byline forcing Steve Mildenhall to his near post. Had he got the ball to the back post, a goal was a certainty, but Mildy blocked the substitute's attempt to squeeze the ball in on the near post and the chance was thwarted. Three minutes of injury time later, the Glovers were finally put out of their misery.

Perhaps the biggest frustration with today's performance is that the Glovers never really looked like they were going to pressurise Oldham into making a mistake during the dying minutes. In the past we've seen Yeovil sides push up at the death in attempts to grab something out of a game that was going against them. Additional forwards would stream forward, Skivo would suddenly become a box-to-box midfielder and an attempt would be made to suck the opposition into a mistake. Yet today at Boundary Park that never really happened - not even a possible late introduction for Adam Rooney was considered, whilst Skivo stayed firmly planted in the Glovers back line. Personally I would rather have seen us lose 2-0 whilst going for broke today than seeing the match anonymously draw to a conclusion with neither side looking as if they were going to add to their tally.

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