The first half was a generally scrappy affair, both sides had a few chances, but on balance Cheltenham probably just about edged it. Yeovil really should have had a penalty in the 13th minute when Matt Harrold’s shot was handled by the oncoming defender.

The next good chance came in the 29th minute when David Poole made a good run down the right. His cross found Luciano Alvarez unmarked at the far post but he was unable to hit the target. Matthew Pears went close in the 37th minute after a good cross from Gavin McCallum.

Yeovil started the second half like a different team. Trialist Sam AYORINDE replaced Matt Harrold after 46 minutes and less than 60 seconds later he’d put Yeovil 1-0 up with his first touch of the game. Unfortunately that was his only real contribution and he was fairly disappointing for the rest of the match.

The lead was doubled after 55 minutes when Craig ALCOCK scored with a good close range header. At this point it looked as though Yeovil were in complete control and you couldn’t really see Cheltenham getting back into it. However, two minutes later they came close, only to be denied by a goal line clearance from David Poole.

After 59 minutes the visitors were back in the game, a cleared corner found it’s way back into the Yeovil penalty area and some bad defending allowed David BIRD to head home and make it 2-1. Less than three minutes later and it was all square. Steve Collis made an excellent save from a close range shot but the rebound fell to centre forward Gary BRADSHAW who made no mistake from six yards out.

Andy Holmes went off injured in the 87th minute, which left Yeovil playing the last few minutes with only 10 men. In the last minute of injury time Steve Collis made another close range save but, as before, the rebound fell to a Cheltenham player and this time it was Ryan PARKER who slotted the ball home for the winning goal.

Mike Kerrigan

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