Steve Thompson chose to make three changes to Saturday's starting line-up against Huddersfield Town although in reality the transition between the two line-ups was far more subtle than that. Saturday's substitutes Kevin Gall and Colin Miles were preferred to the men they replaced in that game with Arron Davies and Liam Fontaine getting in some bench warming, whilst Darren Way made a welcome comeback replacing loan signing Chris Cohen, who has been barred from becoming cup-tied by his parent club West Ham United.

Yeovil started in a reasonably positive fashion, with Phil Jevons getting the night going by flashing a drive from the edge of the area just wide of the goalframe with just two minutes gone. Disappearing out onto the opposite right flank, Jevons then won a free kick which Lee Johnson took with visiting keeper Alan Fettis having to be alert to catch on the first bounce low down as an incoming Kevin Gall put him under pressure. Next Gally got a nice ball down the right channel that allowed him to cut in towards goal, but the narrow angle was to defeat him, and his shot rolled agonisingly across the face of the Macclesfield goal, with Phil Jevons unable to return the ball back across goal for a second time.

Macclesfield got their first vague offering on goal when Martin Bullock got in front of the goal-frame but his attempt landed straight out of the ground and into the Copse End car park. As they weathered that opening 10 minutes, the Silkmen gradually managed to get the hang of how to nullify the early Yeovil threat, closing down the home players and giving them as little time on the ball as possible. Thus the game became scrappy with neither side really getting on the ball for any length of time.

If the Glovers had been going to sleep a bit, they had their wake-up call 15 minutes in when Clyde Wijnhard attempted to execute his own form of Groundhog Day echoing his goal scored in the original tie. Receiving the ball from a wild defensive hoof, he ran onto it into the Yeovil half, and after spotting an advancing Chris Weale, proceeded to execute a perfect lob over the home keeper. Thankfully this time, Wealey didn't end up with Wijnhard's knee in his face and even more thankfully the Huish Park pitch is made of firmer stuff than the Macclesfield turf, and Wijnhard's lob incredibly took one bounce right in front of the gaping goal, and cleared the crossbar! What a let-off!

Yeovil didn't need any second alarm bells to ring to shape themselves into action. Five minutes after that scare, they grabbed the lead and in some fashion. A ball in from the right flank saw Darren WAY with his back to goal. With a quick step and turn he made room for himself, and lashed the ball over keeper Alan Fettis and into the back of the net for a cracking 20 yarder. 1-0 up, and for the first time in the tie, Yeovil were ahead.

If that was meant to result in Yeovil grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck, it didn't really happen. Macclesfield were forced to take off Martin Bullock with half an hour gone as they reshuffled their pack, whilst Jonathan Parkin managed to break down the middle of the Yeovil defence and fire a shot that was already going wide but ended up curling even wider. But overall this was a flat 45 minutes worth of football. It was unlikely that many in the crowd would complain at having got their noses in front, but overall the Glovers looked unlikely to extend that lead, and Macclesfield looked like a side that would need another Wijnhard special to unlock a resolute Glovers defence.

Matt Harrold replaced an ineffective Pablo Bastianini at half time with the Argentinian not enjoying his first half battle with Macclesfield captain David Morley one bit. Morley stuck to him like glue, and it really needed Pablo to do something surprising to shake off the irritance of his marker. The more unpredictable, pacier Harrold was doubtless brought in to do just that.

David Beresford was probably Macclesfield's only creative source on the pitch other than Wijnhard, and he produced a 30 yard left wing run that saw him cut inside three minutes after the break to produce Macclesfield's first on target shot of the game, though the weak shot was food and drink for Chris Weale.

Macclesfield's tactics, despite being a goal down, appeared to be to try and contain Yeovil's play rather than push forward in numbers. Presumably they hoped that by the law of averages, something would come their way during the remaining 45 minutes.

Every now and again, the Glovers would force something on the break and seven minutes into the half Lee Johnson broke through the visitors back line, letting fly from the edge of the box and seeing his shot head just wide of the post. But in the main, their play was just a touch too casual, with too many passes going astray, and somehow you began to fear that one of those misplaced passes might be punished. Not that Paul Harsley's looping header on the hour mark that sailed into the Westland Stand was exactly anything to send shivers down any home fan in the ground.

Again Yeovil threatened on the break, as Phil Jevons received a nice chipped ball over the top, allowing him to control it once and then fire the ball on goal. The body of Kevin McIntyre got in the way and Macclesfield were able to get the ball out for a corner.

With little happening in the game, the Glovers fans in the two stands were doing their best to make some noise in the direction of referee Mick Fletcher, whose inconsistent approach to the positioning of free kicks and throw-ins was exasperating. Macclesfield were allowed to continually get away with blatant infringements with the referee clearly not paying attention to what they were doing on occasions, so when he pulled up a Yeovil throw taken a yard too high up the field, the stands certainly put forward their opinions in volume!

Still Macclesfield held onto possession far better than they had in the first half, even if they appeared to know little about what to do with the ball once they got to Yeovil's 18 yard line. Yeovil when they went forward were doing so well in numbers, but the passes were not connecting well, and it was clear that they desperately needed a second goal to calm a few of the nerves that were developing on and off the field.

Finally, with under 20 minutes left, Macclesfield's resoluteness was broken and the floodgates were opened. Paul TERRY, who had been switched out to the left-flank earlier in the half in an attempt to liven things up, made a run in from the flank, and picked up a loose ball from a Kevin Gall cross just inside the area. Firing in on the angle, the ball took a slight deflection off a Macclesfield defender and that was enough to defeat keeper Alan Fettis and finally give Yeovil that two goal cushion they had been craving. Paul set off like a bat out of hell to celebrate his first goal of the season right in front of his brother - Chelsea star John Terry - and the ground erupted in relief.

If Darren Way's opener had been spectacular in a solo vein, Yeovil's third was probably the pick of the night's crop thanks to the superb multi-man move that brought it about. Just two minutes after Terry's goal, quick passing between Nathan Jones and Matt Harrold saw Yeovil's left back scream for the return ball, and as Harrold laid it off, Jones perfectly picked out Lee JOHNSON on the back post, who was able to execute a simple six yard tap-in to a brilliantly executed goal.

Efetobore Sodje replaced Darren Way straight after the third goal as Steve Thompson got an opportunity to rest players ahead of the big trip to Swansea. Phil Jevons was also withdrawn for Arron Davies. Sodje got into the action quickly when he had to block out Jonathan Parkin, but with the big striker having barely played this season, his movement was that of a slow sea tanker, and when he did poke his boot in for Macclesfield's second and final on-target shot of the night, Chris Weale was able to comfortably gather the ball low down to his left. Parkin did manage another shot of sorts after he'd dubiously won a free kick against Sodje, but his first attempt at the dead ball was smashed into the defensive wall, and his second chance on the rebound went high into the Westland Stand to jeers from the home crowd, who were now finally relaxing knowing that a second round trip to Walsall was on the cards.

The icing on the cake arrived in injury time. Some nice interchanges between Matt Harrold and Lee Johnson saw the pair release Paul Terry to steam through the middle of the park, and when his simple pass to Arron DAVIES split the Macclesfield back line in two, Davies drilled the ball past keeper Fettis for a 4-0 scoreline.

The end scoreline was slightly flattering on the Glovers given the balance of play for 70 minutes - Yeovil have played better and lost this season! But it was about time that one of Yeovil's matches resulted in someone taking a pasting off them and the chance to have four goalscorers go home happy will have done team confidence no harm whatsoever.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Darren Way 9 776 Lee Johnson 3 294 Nathan Jones 1 212 Paul Terry 2 176 Kevin Gall - 94 Phil Jevons 1 82 Kevin Amankwaah 1 72

Overall match rating: 5.3 / 10
Performance: 5
Entertainment: 5.6

17 votes received.

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

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