Colin Miles was passed fit for the trip to Walsall in the FA Cup leaving only Darren Way and Liam Fontaine sidelined from the Glovers first team squad. With Chris Cohen also passed to play by his parent club West Ham and Lee Johnson back from suspension, that left just the wide and front positions open for grabs. Paul Terry moved out wide to accommodate Cohen and Johnson whilst Nathan Jones started on the left wing - a position more familiar to him in his pre-Yeovil days. Phil Jevons and Kevin Gall became yet another set of strikers paired up to attempt to end a two game run in which the Glovers have pushed, harried, pressurised, but ultimately failed to do the obvious and hit the back of the net.

Referee Paul Armstrong was the official for the game - no stranger to controversy having overseen some pretty inept performances by officials in past Yeovil matches. He was the man in black for the now legendary Torquay "basketball" incident in the LDV last season and he opened up his account two minutes into the game by ignoring one of the most obvious backpasses to a Walsall keeper you could ever see. A minute later and the first foul of the game saw Paul Terry land in the book for a challenge on Julian Bennett. In fairness it was a deserved yellow card, but his brandishing of the colour did tend to make you think "here we go again".

Chris Weale made a fine 10th minute stop when he blocked a narrow angled shot from Walsall top scorer Matt Fryatt, clutching the fierce drive at the first attempt. At the other end Phil Jevons had appeals for a penalty turned down when his run towards goal appeared to be blocked off by Daniel Fox - referee Armstrong saw nothing wrong and waved play on.

But on the whole Walsall were dominating and in particular down the right flank. It didn't take long for Steve Thompson to concede that picking Colin Miles in the starting line-up was not the right decision - the left-back had clearly not recovered from his dead leg, even if Walsall manager Paul Merson was to bizarrely claim that Miles had "bottled it" - perhaps Mr Merson should remember that Milesy still has one more trip to the Bescot to come this season before talking about whether opposition players have bottle or not. Milesy was replaced by Arron Davies who went into a left-wing position as Nathan Jones ended his 12 minutes as a left winger, dropping to his more usual role.

Five minutes later though, disaster struck. A looping ball seemed to be misjudged by Efetobore Sodje and as the ball pinged off his head, he seemed to lose track of where it was, Fryatt stepped around him to take advantage and when Sodje turned to find the ball, Fryatt went down like the proverbial sack of spuds as if a sniper in the away end had just got him. Referee Armstrong saw it as a foul, and although video replays on the Main Stand side show Sodje laying hands on Fryatt, the throw to the ground was somewhat dubious. Up stepped Matt FRYATT himself, and despite Chris Weale guessing the right way, the ball cut into the corner of the net leaving Wealey with little chance. 1-0 and not the best of starts overall.

Referee Armstrong continued to show his incompetance by reprieving Sodje with just a yellow card. As last man he was lucky to stay on the field, although for once Yeovil were able to gain a small crumb of comfort from the official's erratic performance. After the match, the Western Daily Press appear to have picked up a view from the official that Fryatt did not have the ball under control at the time of the "foul" - but that is true, then why a yellow card - surely a mere brush of a shoulder for a non-goalscoring opportunity (according to Mr Armstrong) doesn't justify a booking? Yet a professional foul would justify a red. It would seem that Armstrong couldn't quite make up his mind what he'd seen ...

Back at the football and Yeovil were coming up with the powderpuff attack football they'd managed against Oldham last week. Plenty of possession, plenty of territory, plenty of the ball pinging around the Walsall penalty area, but only a range of off-target shots to vaguely trouble Walsall's 18 year old third choice keeper. As soon as the ball dipped into the Walsall box, so it came out like it was on elastic, with Ian Roper and Julian Bennett invariably finding it all too easy to cope. Bennett was a player with Colin Miles-type tackling tendencies - a player with balls - as he unfortunately found out for himself when Kevin Amankwaah throttled a piledriver of a shot into the nether regions. Every male in the Bescot Stadium winced, but Bennett after wobbling a few strides and sucking in a bit of air, decided he wasn't going to let something as trivial as that bother him!

The half trickled out in a midfield nothingness. Walsall didn't look like extending their lead. Yeovil didn't look like making the Walsall keeper break sweat. It was an uncomfortable case of deja vu so far.

The second half opened with Yeovil's best spell of the match. Lee Johnson commenced proceedings by firing a ball across the face of the Walsall box which Craig Pead had to smash over his own crossbar for a corner. Yeovil enjoyed a succession of five or six corners all in the opening period with Chris Cohen showing a bit of variety from the traditional Lee Johnson ones. They weren't bad either - one saw Terry Skiverton's header blocked by a defender on his goal-line with the away following shouting for a handball, whilst another saw Skivo's flicked header head across the face of goal, with Efetobore Sodje straining to try and get a toe-poke on the end of it as it whistled past the post.

The Armstrong decisions continued to be bizarre - Arron Davies was clearly chopped down on the edge of the area but the match referee chose to see it differently. Walsall's only chances appeared to be on the break and a long punt up field saw Chris Weale dive out of his area with Skivo getting very swiftly out of his way, and Wealey producing a giant of a header that Skivo himself would have been proud of, to take the ball clear of an incoming Walsall striker.

Terry Skiverton became the third Yeovil player to land in the book for a foul on the right flank. A minute later Walsall managed to get the ball in the back of the net with a header from the resultant free kick, but Ian Roper was found guilty of blocking off Chris Weale very early on as the ball was swung across, with the whistle having gone by the time the ball hit the back of the net. Wealey then had to save a deflected shot from substitute Anthony Gerrard, doing well to hold onto the redirected ball.

Both sides made changes, with Yeovil's resulting in a slight reshuffle. Gally and Arron came off with the two big guns - Pablo Bastianini and Matt Harrold on in their place. Phil Jevons nominally went to a left-wing position although in reality Yeovil were now pushing up in numbers now in hope of an equaliser. With just nine minutes left it looked as though that move had paid off. After a cross in from the right was only punched by keeper Rene Gilmartin, it was met by an incoming and unmarked Jevons. Chesting the ball down he struck it superbly, with the shot beating the displaced keeper but that man Julian Bennett got his body in the way again - this time wisely using his head. Damnations!

On such things can a game turn. Two minutes later it was game over at 2-0. On the break Walsall ended up with spare men to play with and Jorge LEITAO smacked a fierce drive from a narrow angle that flew past Wealey into the back of the net. Crumb of comfort No.2 for Glovers fans - at least at 2-0, it couldn't be argued that Paul Armstrong's performance had totally contributed to their downfall. Leitao had his joy cut short - Armstrong (yep him again) booked him for enjoying putting his side into round three a little too much. Tut tut!

With Terry Skiverton now playing a box-to-box role for the remaining seven minutes, gaps opened up all over the place and Matt Fryatt could have made it 3-0 when he caught Yeovil on the break in the 89th minute - pushing his shot wide of the target. Then Chris Weale had to get down to save from Daryl Taylor as another Walsall break opened things up. Phil Jevons put one over the bar, and then Yeovil's day and referee Armstrong's performance was summed up with a right wing cross that floated invitingly for Terry Skiverton, but was clearly taken off his head by the hand of Anthony Gerrard. A clear penalty, a clear red card, but not in the eyes of the match official. Come back Trevor Kettle all is forgiven!

Yeovil's performance didn't deserve them a victory, but it doesn't help when such decisions go against you. A little bit of luck would not go amiss! That said, it would not get rid of the underlying problem - the current inability to hit a barn door. Goals from strikers do tend to come like London buses but the current situation is compounded by all of the strikers seemingly suffering from the same malaise. The reavailability of Lee Johnson in midfield helped matters in that there was a touch more creativity out there, but on the other hand, the wingers were too narrow and therefore you couldn't just point the finger at the front two, given that Kevin Amankwaah and Nathan Jones got in more crosses than the wingers did. There is a definite lack of balance within the side, and Thommo and the players realistically have December to sort it out. If that fails then there's little doubt that some serious dealing in the transfer market will have to be done, meaning that some of those players may not see it out into February in a green and white shirt.

Badger

The short trip to The Bescot Stadium brought back memories of Richard Cooper and all that, however a lot of water has passed under the bridge since that night and yesterday we arrived - although we did not depart - as equals.

The exterior of The Bescot Stadium ran Huish Park pretty close as the most uncared for ground in League One, looking distinctly faded and worn, however supporters were welcomed into the excellent clubhouse for just £1.00 (50p for children) where you could all mix and chat with the opposition supporters, with some 400 or so people inside at any one time it made me wonder how much money we are losing each game by not having pushed such a facility earlier in our league status. You can make opposition supporters welcome in the Football League, and you can profit from it too, so let's hope things get moving at HP before we drop back into League Two or beyond!

.... What, such talk ... well we looked like a side going in only one direction yesterday and although I am still of the belief that a proven goalscorer could change our season quite where we are going to get one from is a mystery to me. The old problem of location and wages probably seperates us from clubs in a similar position to ours such as Walsall and Oldham who can attract players from a wide area and a wide selection of clubs without falling off the face of the earth into rural Somerset. 'The Saddlers' had Fryatt and Oldham had Warne, and there lay the only difference.

Walsall have developed their ground since our last visit and the impressive home end is now a double decker affair, the crowd was pretty quiet really even after they scored and the game had the atmosphere of two run of the mill league one sides doing battle in an FA Cup tie that hardly gripped the imagination of the nation - so much so that you had to 'find' the goals on the interactive facility. I suppose in one way it is a back handed compliment to us that we are no longer in the media glare on such occasions, and there were no tin foil cups on display either.

Once again a fair number made the trip to the midlands, early estimations being 400 - 500. Fair play to the boys at the end as they came over in what was once again disappointing circumstances to the usual warm reception. The warm bond between the players and supporters still exists although I detect discontent, myself included, merely because the aforementioned lack of firepower at present does worry me.

After the game the attentions now turn to a big week on the road, where results will be far more important in shaping our season than yesterday was.

Tim Lancaster

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Terry Skiverton 6 480 Chris Cohen 5 335 Lee Johnson 4 300 Chris Weale 2 180 Phil Jevons - 180 Kevin Amankwaah 1 90 Kevin Gall 1 80 Nathan Jones 1 70

Overall match rating: 4.55 / 10
Performance: 4.5
Entertainment: 4.6

20 votes received.

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

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