Two seasons ago, when Yeovil won the Nationwide Conference, the Glovers plans to finish off their season with a County Cup win ended up being a bit of a damp squibb when Taunton Town defeated them 2-0 with half the Glovers team looking like they'd spent one too many nights out partying between the final league match and the cup final. So it seemed quite possible that Odd Down could make lightning strike twice as a near identical sequence of celebratory events conspired to set the cup final at the back end of three nights of celebrations.

The team selected to avoid a repeat of this was pretty much made up of those who didn't heavily feature in Saturday's match against Lincoln City and that gave the Yeovil line-up plenty of experience with just a slight taste of possible things to come in the form of Dale Williams and Gavin McCallum.

The game started in positive fashion for Yeovil. Andy Lindegaard's right wing cross was flicked on by Andrejs Stolcers and Dale Williams put his shot into the side netting.

Unfortunately Dale's involvement in the game lasted just one more Yeovil attack. Being put through on goal, Odd Down's keeper Ray Johnston hopelessly misjudged Dale's pace as as the Yeovil striker got to the ball first, the keeper completely poleaxed the youngster two yards outside his area and centre of goal. Referee Keith Buller could have dismissed the keeper for serious foul play and certainly should have dismissed him for a professional foul, but instead showed astonishing charity by issuing merely a yellow card for the ugly challenge. Williams would have known little about that - after a three minute delay he left the field on a stretcher with his leg in a special support, and straight off to Yeovil hospital.

Johnston's next trick was to turn a shot from Andrejs Stolcers around the post after the resultant free kick was pushed sideways to the Latvian. Odd Down got a rare sight of the Yeovil goal when Danny Guibarra slipped behind Scott Guyett but the narrow angle allowed Chris Weale to close him down and block his attempt on goal with his legs.

Andrejs Stolcers was running the show for Yeovil as Odd Down's tackles flew in and a slightly less friendly referee could have easily produced his cards three or four more times during the first half, but referee Buller seemed to be making allowances for the gulf between the two sides. None more so when on 24 minutes the match official almost comically denied Yeovil a penalty when Andrejs Stolcers hooked the ball over his shoulder, only to find Odd Down's Tony Quio doing a fine basketball block on the ball. Now I am sure that on park pitches on Sunday mornings, referees will bend the rules to suit the balance of the game, but this one was beyond belief!

Marvin Brown turned and shot first time but found his attempt parried by Johnston, but as the game approached the half hour mark, the deadlock was broken and not even the man in black could deny Andy LINDEGAARD heading home an Andrejs Stolcers right wing cross from around the penalty spot.

Stolcers provided his second assist of the evening just five minutes later. A wonderful cross from the left was tailor-made for Richard CULLINGFORD to head home with the crowd seemingly already celebrating the back-post conversion before he had connected.

Gavin McCallum tried to get in on the act by scrambling home a close range attempt, Scott Guyett's header was saved by Johnston and then McCallum blazed over the bar as Yeovil dominated. As half time approached Steve Thompson wasted a gift after Andrejs Stolcers had danced his way through the Odd Down defence. Teeing the ball up on a plate for Yeovil's assistant manager, he seemed to be admiring the Latvian's footwork a little too much and ended up sending the ball over the crossbar.

Four minutes into injury time, Odd Down could have gained an improbable goal back but Paul Keen sent his attempt to the back of the Westland Stand resulting in the Western League player being subjected to comparisons with Johnny Wilkinson from those chanting in the home end.

Stephen Reed hammered a volley just wide of the goal as the second half opened with Yeovil pressing hard towards the Westland Stand end. Marvin Brown put one over a minute later, but six minutes into the second period Andrejs Stolcers got in the closest attempt of the half when he struck the outside of the goalframe with a fierce angled drive. Five minutes later Stolcers did it again from the same spot with the exact same end result!

This was extreme one-way traffic and Odd Down were having to block in numbers to try and keep Yeovil out. Gavin McCallum narrowly headed wide a Thommo cross, and then Stolcers was denied a further time when Tony Quio cleared off his own goal-line to deny another shot from the Latvian.

Two goals in three minutes killed off the match for good. First Stephen REED got put through with just the keeper beat after an exquisite defence-splitting pass, and calmly slotted home. Then finally Andrejs STOLCERS got the goal his sublime performance deserved although collecting a rebound after keeper Johnston had split a shot from the edge of the area maybe wasn't in fitting with the wonderful skills he showed across the whole 90 minutes. Still a goal is a goal!

Sam Croft and Jamie Underwood got a taste of the action in favour of Scott Guyett and Steve Thompson as the game began to close down, but Yeovil still had time for another. A Stephen Reed free kick was met at the near post by Tony QUIO and straight into his own net, despite the tannoy rather optimistically awarding it to Adam Lockwood.

Marvin Brown stuck one over the bar after Richard Cullingford - who had an excellent game out on the wings - squared the ball for him. Then poor old Brown saw his 90th minute free kick tipped over the bar by Johnston as he ended up without rewards, but Yeovil ended up with the cup. Perhaps that was the one area where Yeovil could have been criticised on the performance is that despite scoring five on the night, they really could have scored far more given their extreme domination of the fixture. Odd Down barely got out of their own half during the second period, and should count themselves fortunate that they kept their keeper on the pitch for long enough for him to make a string of fine saves. Still few were complaining on the final whistle as the season ended on a high.

Badger

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