After a season so far of mainly stable line-ups, Russell Slade made six changes to his starting line-up for the Johnstone's Paint Trophy tie against League Two side Shrewsbury Town. This is a competition that Yeovil have never got past the second round on, and in their brief involvement in it have managed some pretty poor results and performances with last season's exit at Leyton Orient pretty typical of past turn-outs. Hence it was little surprise that even with new sponsors, few were at Gay Meadow, and even fewer in the away end to see Scott Guyett, Daniel Webb and Anthony Tonkin all make their first starts of the season for the Glovers, whilst Anthony Barry, Ishmael Welsh and Wayne Gray were all taken off the subs bench to start the game.

Yeovil kicked off away from their supporters stood on the terrace and for the first five or 10 minutes at least got off to an OK start with the new look side getting the upper hand initially. However after an early attempt by Anthony Barry easily saved by home keeper Chris Mackenzie, Shrewsbury took control of the game and started a series of raids into the Yeovil half with a quickly taken short corner deflected for a second corner. Then Ben Davies whipped a cross across the face of the box that all players missed getting a boot on and the ball ultimately went out for a throw.

Shrewsbury midfielder Danny Hall fired an effort straight at Steve Mildenhall - a well hit shot but straight at the keeper. Then 30 seconds later Michael Symes whizzed past Scott Guyett, beating him for pace, only to drag his shot well wide of the target. A few minutes after that David Edwards fired in a drive from distance that drifted wide, but it was concerning as to how many chances and how much space Shrewsbury were able to create in the Yeovil half. Pretty much all of this was coming from winger Ben Davies and striker Michael Symes, neither of whom were being closed down once they got up a head of steam.

Yeovil rallied slightly towards the end of the first period. A neat turn by Ishmael Welsh saw him able to beat his man, firing a shot just over the bar that wouldn't dip down quickly enough. Ben Davies then was booked for tackling Ishmael from behind - a tackle that appeared to hurt the Shrewsbury winger more than his opponent. From the free kick Anthony Barry's free kick saw Scott Guyett flick the ball on and it took a deflection out for a corner.

Thus the half closed showing a slight improvement in Yeovil's first half play, but there still had to be concerns for the Glovers in terms of how little attacking play they had and in the main, bar the odd glimpse of Ishmael Welsh, how little wing-play Yeovil had produced. Wayne Gray and Danny Webb had been near spectators, receiving very little bar the odd ball in from set-pieces for them to get excited about. At the other end of the park, Shrewsbury managed to catch the Glovers out three times with quickly taken corners and free kicks and Yeovil needed to be far more alert to such things if they were to avoid conceding through being caught napping. Overall not the brightest 45 minutes that has been seen so far this season.

Shrewsbury once again assumed the upper hand, eight minutes into a fairly untidy half, with Ben Davies lashed in on the angle with the ball flying into the goal-netting sending half of Gay Meadow to their feet before they realised that the shot had merely struck the outside of the goal frame.

Wayne Gray shot wide of the target after Daniel Webb fed him, allowing Gray room to fire on goal - the first decent combination move that both strikers had managed between them since the match had started 55minutes previously. A few minutes later Daniel Webb lead with his elbow in a challenge on a Shrewsbury's Gavin Cowan that resulted in him landing with a yellow card, with probably the handshake from his opposite number perhaps persuading the match referee that a caution was sufficient for the offence. However, at the other end, Michael Symes once again got plenty of room to run straight down the centre of the Yeovil half, with the Yeovil defence backing off before he produced a fierce 20 yard drive that probably had Steve Mildenhall beaten but also had the outside of the post beaten as well.

Russell Slade chose that moment to shuffle his side, withdrawing Wayne Gray and bringing on Martin Brittain, allowing Arron Davies to move up front with Daniel Webb. Brittain almost immediately breathed life into the Yeovil attacking options and they won a series of free kicks during the minutes that followed. One such free kick resulted in Anthony Tonkin knocking the ball sideways and then from 30 yards out, Anthony BARRY blasted a low drive into the corner of the net with Shrewsbury's defence for once caught napping by the speed of the free kick, perhaps not expecting Barry to shoot from that distance. Midway through the first half and despite not dominating the game too much, the Glovers were in the lead.

Almost immediately, Ben Davies tried to do the same at the other end with his own free kick, curling the ball over the wall, but in doing so he managed to clear the crossbar. However, it didn't take too long before the home side got back on level terms. Terrell Forbes was penalised close to the corner flag trying to shield the ball out for a goal kick, with presumably the accusation being that Forbes had obstructed his opposite number, even if referees award such free kicks once in a blue moon. The set piece was taken and a David EDWARDS header saw the home side draw level despite the efforts of a Yeovil defender on the post attempting to clear the ball off the line.

Yeovil reacted well to the setback and almost straight from kickoff, Chris Cohen had the ball cleared off the line after Martin Brittain put in a superb cross for Cohen to latch onto. Webb headed wide and Asamoah headed wide as both sides tried to avoid penalties. But Yeovil were giving away handful after handful of free kicks around dangerous positions and when six minutes left yet another one was given away in the final third, a Ben Davies free kick found Michael SYMES and he netted to turn the game around and leave Yeovil very little time to pull the game back, having gone from 1-0 up to 2-1 down in the space of 17 minutes.

Martin Brittain attempted a drive on goal which Mackenzie held onto easily as the home crowd woke up for the first time, realising that their side could well be going through into the next round. Four minutes of injury time were awarded for Yeovil to somehow find a route back into the tie. The odd long range shot, including one by JP Kalala vaguely troubled the Shrewsbury goal during that time but realistically that was more through hope than through real intent. Rather like the trip to Chesterfield, Yeovil had looked somewhat inert as an attacking force until the substitutes came on, and when patterns start to form in a team, that is the time to get concerned. Let's hope Saturday's local derby can banish that sort of problem away before it becomes any great issue.

MOTM Vote Result:

Pos	Player
1	Ishmael Welsh-Elliott
2	Martin Brittain
3	Anthony Barry

Overall match rating: 3.7 / 10
Performance: 3.0
Entertainment: 4.4

6 votes received.

Any comments/questions please email ytfc.motm@tiscali.co.uk

Back to Top of Page