When this draw came out of the hat for Stuart Housley's team, it was tempting to fear the worst. Having seen the League Cup match against Brentford a month previously in West London, the young Bees were one of the best passing teams at this sort of level of football I'd seen this season, and in the League Cup match, it took Yeovil 45 minutes to adjust and come up with some tactics that would not allow Brentford any time on the ball. Now in this FA Youth Cup match, the challenge would be to stop them from doing that across 90 minutes. The only bright spark was that since that game, Brentford's form had faltered a touch, and in the end despite them at one stage leading their League Cup group, like Yeovil they also failed to qualify to the next stage.

The Glovers were not helped in that keeper John Steele was still not ready to make his comeback in goal following his hand injury, meaning that Peter Burridge continued his spell between the sticks. In addition midfielder Greg Taafe had picked up an injury that kept him out of Saturday's defeat at Wycombe and so Matt Concliffe had to perform a slightly unfamiliar role at right-back on the night. Captain Gary Bowles continued his on-off selection at the back as he returned to the squad having missed Saturday's match.

As expected the opening period saw Brentford gain much of the early possession. Peter Burridge was forced to clip a near post header onto the top of the angle of post and crossbar 13 minutes into the match as he dealt with one too many corners and free kicks the home side were gaining to stick the ball into the Yeovil penalty box.

Gary Bowles headed just wide from a Tom Clarke corner three minutes later at the other end, but on the whole this was a half being edged by Brentford and Peter Burridge got down well at his left hand post to smother another Brentford shot on goal. From that save he sharply released Jamie Morgan up the wing who prepared to catch Brentford on the break. One thing though Yeovil should have learned from their previous encounter with the Bees is that right-winger Adam Bernard is a tricky customer when given the ball at his feet and he intercepted Morgan's attempt to take the ball up field, putting Brentford back on the attack, but thankfully Bernard shot well wide of the target when presented with his opportunity.

At the other end, a Yeovil breakaway stretched the Brentford defence, and Danny O'Brien was fed the ball down the right flank with the winger cutting inside and firing a shot that almost looked from the main stand side as though he had opened the scoring, but the angled shot landed into the side netting. Liam Horder also forced Brentford keeper Seb Proctor into a strong save from another Yeovil corner, showing that the Glovers had their own attacking ideas. Not a bad half for Yeovil by any means. Even though Brentford had been stronger in terms of possession and territory, the Glovers had already shown far more signs of being able to match their hosts than they had in their previous meeting.

The second half kicked off with neither side really getting a grip on proceedings, with the battle going on in midfield with some fully committed tackles going in from both sides as they fought for supremancy. Brentford's attacks were well presented in terms of their build-up, they were lacking the final ball as the Yeovil defence organised itself well, and the best they were offering during the opening period of the second half was the odd low cross that fizzed across the face of the box but without any Brentford striker genuinely looking as though they were going to get on the end of things.

Just after Brentford had made their first substitution of the night though, their plans were rocked by a spot of genius from Glovers midfielder/striker Tom CLARKE. Taking the ball on just over the halfway line on the left flank, he ran forward 10 yards or so, then with the Brentford keeper only slightly off his line, Clarke unleashed a thunderous shot that as soon as it was hit you knew exactly where it was going. Looping straight over the surprised home keeper it comfortably beat him and thumped into the back of the net, putting Yeovil 1-0 up and resulting in a mass bundle of players all running to the spot where Clarke had hit his superb shot.

Now behind, Brentford changed their tactics at last. For a side that is so gifted at passing the ball, the young Bees do tend to do a little bit too much of the safe sideways variety that is no doubt part of their workouts on the training ground, but in a match situation Yeovil were finding it easier and easier to combat. Brentford's change of plans was to go for long range shots and balls into the box, doubtless to try and upset the Yeovil defence and their young keeper Peter Burridge, but whatever was thrown their way, they seemed equal to it. The closest Brentford came was when Ivailo Dimitrov sent a long range shot looping towards the goal, but Burridge showed a keen spring in his step to backpedal and palm the ball over his own bar for a wonderful save.

Liam Horder went close at the other end with Yeovil tending to counterattack the Brentford, turning his marker and leaving him on the deck on the edge of the box, but perhaps surprised at the room he suddenly found himself in that saw him somewhat scuff his shot and home keeper Seb Brown got down low to make a save. But with eight minutes left, the Glovers polished off the match with a superbly worked team goal. Liam Horder picked up the ball in midfield, and played the ball into the path of Tom CLARKE who was in more or less the same position as he was when he hit the opening goal. This time he chose to run with the ball and after beating a Brentford defender for pace, he entered the penalty area then used that as his cue to fire the ball into the bottom right hand corner and take Yeovil into the next round of the FA Youth Cup.

Brentford attempted to fight their way back, but in the main their attempts on goal were far too optimistic and wide of the target to significantly bother Yeovil. In the dying minutes, a Tom Clarke curling free kick over a Brentford wall was well placed but lacked the power necessary to give him the match ball. Brentford did manage to get the ball in the back of the net in injury time but the whistle had long since blown for a foul on Gary Bowles in the build-up to the goal, and in the end those final minutes ticked down in comfortable fashion for Yeovil. A brilliant win for the Glovers and whilst Clarke's two goals will doubtless represent the highlight of the match, the performance of the back four for Yeovil was superb and worthy of mention in the way that they stopped Brentford getting the ball at their feet inside the penalty box during pretty much the whole of the match and that was no mean feat.

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