Yeovil Town were outclassed by bitter-rivals Bristol City on Saturday at Ashton Gate as Russell Slade's men suffered a 2-0 defeat to their promotion counterparts.

Lee Johnson, a former Yeovil Town hero turned Bristol City midfielder, ran the proceedings for Bristol City from the outset and it was only inevitable that the talented midfielder placed City into the lead two minutes before the interval. Johnson, son of the Bristol City manager Gary Johnson, fired into the bottom corner of the goal from just outside the box, much to the dismay of the travelling Yeovil Town supporters who could only envy the talent which Yeovil were unable to keep hold of last season.

The match was sealed for Bristol City in the 71st minute. Substitute Scott Guyett was showed a straight red card by referee Mike Dean after Enoch Showunmi had been adjudged to have been fouled inside the box. Bradley Orr made no mistake from the spot and placed his shot under 'keeper Steve Mildenhall.

Yeovil Town's misery was made worse by injuries to captain Terry Skiverton and influential midfielder Chris Cohen, who will both have scans to determined their, and arguably Yeovil's, fate this season.

Although the defeat certainly ends any lingering hope of an automatic promotion finish, the Somerset side still lie in fifth place, a two point cushion inside a play-off position with just three matches remaining in the promotion campaign.

After the previous week's promising second half performance against Leyton Orient, manager Russell Slade had a dilemma on his hands. Should he reward the duo of substitutes in Anthony Barry and Darryl Knights who played a strong part in that fightback from a goal down? Or should he go for the experience of Marcus Stewart and Lee Morris for one of the biggest games of the season, particularly given Stewart's association with the opponents at Ashton Gate? In the end he went for a half-and-half approach. Barry replaced Morris, but the temptation to stick Stewart up against the club who ditched him was too much and so Knights stayed on the bench.

Not too surprisingly for a local derby in front of a near sell-out crowd of nearly 16,000 Bristolians and over 3,000 Yeovilites, the game started off at a crazy pace. Marcus Stewart's first actions were to race in looking more like Kevin Gall as he charged in and slammed the ball off the feet of a City midfielder and out for a throw-in. Yep, Marcus was definitely up for this one!

As the game took shape though, and the unusually strong heat for a mid-April day took its toll, it was evident that Bristol City had the upper hand. Their whole game was being masterminded by David Noble, who was playing as an advanced midfielder between their bank of four and lone striker Enoch Showumni. Just behind him was former Glover Lee Johnson, who was up to his usual tricks. Were he not in the opposition side, it would have been easy to enjoy the effortless way he played the ball around the park all day, reminding Glovers fans what they had lost 15 months ago.

The other area where City were clearly superior was out on the wings. Where they appeared to have two players working up the flanks, the Glovers only seemed to have one, and that meant bad news whether Yeovil were attacking or defending. Far too often Chris Cohen or Jean-Paul Kalala seemed to be belatedly tracking across to try and help out the beleagured and isolated full back in either Nathan Jones or Matthew Rose. At one point Jones stared at 40 yards of open space that City's wide-right players appeared to have, looked around to find he was the only one wearing green and white in that slice of the park and almost seemed to stop and ask "which one do I go to because I can't do both!"

It took about 25-30 minutes for the Glovers to get the hang of how to deal with the open spaces City were finding when they did have the ball, and the lack of space they were finding existed in midfield when they didn't have the ball. But eventually a stalemate of sorts settled down and it almost looked like Yeovil might go in all square, despite having not really matched a fast moving City side, who looked classy in the way that they passed and moved, particularly off the ball.

The one area where Yeovil were excelling themselves though was in the back four, who looked strong and determined to keep a clean sheet. It was therefore a significant blow when captain Terry Skiverton landed on the deck after an aerial challenge and the second that physio Jim Joyce got to his man he signalled for a substitute to be brought on, with barely a discussion having happened between the two parties. Skivo limped off with a groin injury and Scott Guyett was his immediate replacement.

Perhaps that change in the back line affected the Glovers in much the same way that it has when their club captain has been out of a game. Two minutes before the break, the breakthrough happened, and it did not go Yeovil's way. A ball put into the box was headed back to the edge of the box right into the path of Lee JOHNSON, who calmly struck the ball into the bottom left hand corner, giving Glovers keeper Steve Mildenhall very little chance whatsoever.

Matters could have been far worse though. A minute later, Steve Mildenhall came to claim a ball, comfortably beat Jamie McCombe to gain possession, but then suffered a kick in the stomach which caused him to drop the ball and McCombe kicked it into an empty net. Thankfully referee Mike Dean saw the move as a definite foul and chalked off the goal. Although the surprising part was that the Bristol City player didn't land in his book for what was a very late foul and one that laid Mildy out on the turf for a good two or three minutes. Thankfully the impending half time break meant that the Yeovil keeper could have a 15 minute break, and Russell Slade could sort out one or two defficiencies in the way his side had played up until the break.

Thankfully the Glovers came out to play the second period in a far more positive frame of mind. They often enjoy attacking towards their own supporters and that proved to be the case as they moved towards the 3,025 travellers who had been at times a touch subdued by some of what they had seen so far. Loud in the pre-match warm-ups, the away support began to gradually find its vocal chords as the play came towards them and their team began to exert some pressure onto the City defence.

Arron Davies began to weave his way through the City defence, forcing Adriano Basso into his first save of any serious distinction two minutes into the half, palming the shot from Davies away for a corner. Andy Lindegaard came on as a substitute and he forced Basso into more impressive goalkeeping as he tipped over a dipping volley from the edge of the box over the bar. Then Marcus Stewart couldn't quite keep his header down as he got in his best chance against his old club from a corner.

Whilst this was undoubtedly Yeovil's strongest period of the game and for the first time they looked capable of grabbing an equaliser, they still came close to conceding a second goal after City won a corner. Being 90 yards away, I'd have to be a brave man to suggest I knew what it was disallowed for, but after the match it was revealed that Enoch Showumni had been blocking off Glovers keeper Steve Mildenhall from coming off his line and that referee Mike Dean had already previously warned Showumni for the same. The headed goal that landed in the back of the net from the corner didn't stand.

With 19 minutes to go though, and Yeovil still pressing for that magical equaliser, the pattern of the second half was turned on a City breakaway. The ball was slotted through to Enoch Showumni who had got in behind the Yeovil defence. When Scott Guyett's tackle slid in on the striker, the whole stadium seemed to hold their breath. And continue to hold their breath. After what seemed to be an excessive wait by referee Mike Dean, it seemed that only a goal kick or a corner was going to be given but just when everyone seemed to have given up trying to see what the match official was going to give he belatedly pointed to the spot!

Scott Guyett got his marching orders for the apparent foul, and Bradley ORR's penalty squeezed under the body of Steve Mildenhall, who was clearly frustrated to not keep the ball out. The Yeovil squad were even more frustrated once they saw the match video - Guyett had clearly taken the ball cleanly and referee Dean's error of judgement had undoubtedly taken the match out of sight from the Glovers. At 2-0 down and a man short there was going to be no way back.

Lee Morris replaced Wayne Gray in the closing stages to try and get some fresh legs into the equation as Yeovil made their third and final substitution. But despite the Glovers more or less matching City in those closing stages, they couldn't really achieve a lot and the game rapidly ran out of legs as fast as the tired Yeovil players ran out of their own legs in the heat.

Overall, Yeovil were beaten by a better team. But at 1-0 down and gradually improving their performance, they had hope of finding their way back and snatching what would have been a hugely valuable equaliser. Dean's decision took that chance away from them, and you have to wonder why such an experienced official still gave the penalty when there was clearly so much doubt in his mind. Let's hope that the rub of the green falls in Yeovil's favour over the remaining three games. Certainly for now it would appear certain that if they are to still achieve promotion to the Championship, then the playoffs are the one and only option after the weekend's match.

Back to Top of Page