With Gary Johnson being relatively content with the sixteen players who had helped produce Yeovil Town's first ever League One point against Rotherham on Tuesday night. Denied Pablo Bastianini for a third consecutive match thanks to Argentinian bureaucracy and legal regulations, the Glovers landed up against a Blackpool side who were also looking for their first win of the season.

The Glovers continued where they had left off, by attacking the opposition penalty box. Lee Johnson got in the first attack on goal after Kevin Gall had been fouled as early as the third minute. His free kick was blasted towards the corner of goal, but Blackpool's Peter Clarke showed expert reactions to clear the ball off the line from his position on the goal-post.

Blackpool immediately launched their own counter-attack with Scott Vernon giving Kevin Amankwaah the slip down the flank and putting in a cross that bounced across the face of the area, but Keigan Parker flashed his shot high and wide.

Despite Yeovil having the better of the opening play though, they conceded an early goal. On a pitch that had been left greasy by lunchtime rain, Terry Skiverton slipped on the deck as a fairly academic looking ball came into the box, and as John MURPHY looked to take advantage, he fired the loose ball into the back of the net from eight yards, with Kevin Amankwaah's attempts to retrieve the situation rather in vain.

The game became somewhat scrappy after the goal. Keigan Parker landed in the book for a foul on Matt Harrold, whilst some pretty dubious play-acting by Rory Prendergast, who is no stranger to those sort of theatrics, saw Kevin Gall land in the book and Prendergast leap to his feet without a care in the world. Less lucky was keeper Lee Jones, who aggravated a groin strain in leaping for a cross, and he had to limp off at a snails pace to be replaced by substitute keeper Lewis Edge.

All of this seemed to take the momentum from Yeovil's play, and Gary Johnson decided he wasn't going to let time tick by any longer. Perhaps surprisingly, it was a double-substitution that took place - Kevin Gall making way for David Poole whilst Paul Terry's place was taken by Arron Davies, allowing Darren Way to move back into his more familiar central position.

Nathan Jones is gradually getting into the forward positions that he has been brought in to try and achieve, and one of his Soccer AM step-overs left a Blackpool full-back floundering, resulting in a perfect cross falling onto the head of Matt Harrold. Sadly his header landed straight in the keeper's arms, with Harrold perhaps having got too good a contact on his attempt.

Phil Jevons showed his understanding with Matt Harrold is growing fast as the two combined in a simple one-two up the middle, but Jevons saw his shot head just wide of the post as half time approached.

For all of Yeovil's attacking play, it looked as though Yeovil were going to go in the dressing room with a rather unjust scoreline, but with injury time approaching they finally got their first League One goal, 2.5 matches into the season. In a move that was not too dissimilar to the one that Paul Terry scored at Charlton, David Poole ran half the length of the Huish Park pitch, and slipped the ball inside to Kevin AMANKWAAH who had followed him every inch of the way. An immediate shot from 10 yards out was buried by the fullback into the corner of the net to put a smile on the home side's faces, and boost the noise levels at Huish Park.

The second half proved to be a match played almost exclusively in one half of the field. Phil Jevons opened up proceedings by accepting a long ball up the left wing, from which he trapped, turned and shot from the corner of the area.

The Yeovil attack was relentless, but the lack of on-target shots was a concern. Phil Jevons and Matt Harrold both saw their chances screwed wide, with Harrold's header and a free kick from Jevons landing wide of the target. A Lee Johnson free kick went into the Blackpool wall.

But on more than a couple of occasions there were clear signs of lack of movement inside the penalty box at critical times. On one occasion, Kevin Amankwaah was unable to take a throw-in because of the lack of numbers moving for the ball. Eventually, almost by default, he chose Darren Way, and he is not the best player to act as a target man for such a ball!

Danny Coid landed in the book for a foul on Kevin Amankwaah, whilst Peter Clarke was booked for hauling down Phil Jevons on the corner of the area. Still the chances came in. Lee Johnson and Phil Jevons ran in tandem up the right wing before Jevo switched play bringing in Nathan Jones on the overlap but the left-back's shot was high and wide.

It took 40 minutes of the half before Blackpool got any sort of a serious ball into the Yeovil penalty area. Keith Southern's ball in was dangerous, but Efe Sodje was able to clear the whipped in cross for a corner.

Matt Harrold had picked up a pretty nasty looking bash to the head midway through the half and afterward was far less effective, and so it was little surprise when Luke Oliver was a late replacement for him.

In the end the momentum fizzled out, and if Keigan Parker's curling shot had been on target, Blackpool could have obtained a real old-fashioned smash'n'grab as his shot beat Chris Weale but also beat the far post. It was their one and only shot of the half, but it came close to being a winner at the death.

Yeovil therefore will have to wait a bit longer for their first League One win. Three games without a win is not the start they wanted but the performance against Blackpool and the second half at Rotherham shows that their overall standard of play is improving. The only real issue is the amount of chances that are being sent wide of the target - the post-match stats of 23 shots but 18 of them off target are quite telling, but when compared to Blackpool's meager 6 shots with only three on target, there's not an awful lot wrong with Yeovil's play that a spot of mid-week target practice and getting a certain Argentinian back on a plan to England wouldn't help cure.

Badger.

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Kevin Amankwaah 9 459 Nathan Jones 7 370 Darren Way 4 333 David Poole 4 163 Efe Sodje - 148 Lee Johnson 1 89 Matt Harrold - 81 Arron Davies 1 74 Terry Skiverton 1 44

Overall match rating: 6.9 / 10
Performance: 6.8
Entertainment: 7

27 votes received.

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

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