When you are trying to end a run of five league defeats, the last thing you need is to head up north without your club captain, vice captain, first choice goalkeeper, another of one of your most regular midfield players, and to take two players - Scott Guyett and Liam Fontaine - to put in your back line who have barely kicked a ball in a match during the last month. Add in a stand-in goalkeeper for your subs bench currently playing for Bridgwater Town and this was hardly ideal to break that run.

Phil Jevons partnered Matt Harrold up front as Nathan Jones moved into the left-wing slot he had briefly occupied at the start of the Walsall FA Cup game. Kevin Gall shuffled across to take Paul Terry's vacant position on the right wing, whilst Scott Guyett had the big task of filling Terry Skiverton's boots. Liam Fontaine, with 45 minutes of football and two injuries and an illness in the past six weeks went straight back into the side at left back, whilst Steve Collis got his second start of the season. Other than that, the remainder of the team stayed the same!

A good start by the Glovers saw them almost score three minutes into the game. Phil Jevons cleared the ball from the edge of his own box out onto the wing, finding Kevin Gall, who made a 50 yard run before delivering a useful looking ball into the box for Matt Harrold. Unfortunately the ball bobbled on the poor Rotherham pitch and the ball got stuck under the boot of Harrold as he rushed in and keeper Neil Cutler safely gathered.

Rotherham were on the whole knocking it long but they did manage an effective ground ball move eight minutes later. Paul McLaren knocked the ball wide on the right for John Mullin to pick up, he in turn fed David Worrell on the overlap and the only thing lacking from Worrell's excellent cross was the finishing touch as McLaren blazed over the bar as he ran in for the return ball.

Phil Jevons set up Matt Harold a minute later after the striker had run down the left flank. Jevo's near post ball was well times for Harrold to run on to and only a superb sliding block by Rotherham defender Shaun Barker stopped what would have been a likely goal for Harrold.

At the other end, Lee Williamson blazed over the bar. But a minute later, Williamson got his ball direction spot on when he put in a right wing cross into the box. Rotherham top scorer Deon BURTON was left vacant at the back post and he had the time to chest the ball down and fire home from a narrow angle with neither Kevin Amankwaah nor Steve Collis able to react in time. 1-0 and once again the Glovers had conceded an early goal and would need to fight back the hard way.

Straight from kick-off Chris Cohen showed the right attitude by letting fly from 25 yards out. Keeper Neil Cutler parried the ball, but almost had a nasty moment when the ball dropped behind him, but the spin on the shot wasn't quite strong enough to send the loose ball over the goal line.

The Glovers response seemed to be wilting a bit though following the Burton goal with concerns that Yeovil were coming up against a firm brick wall in the Rotherham back line, but 14 minutes after that opening goal, they did manage to snatch an equaliser, albeit with a slight touch of fortune to it. Phil Jevons wound his way down the left wing, cut inside his marker and thus putting the ball from his left foot and onto his right, whereupon he curled in a shot on goal towards the far post. Rotherham defender Colin MURDOCK for some reason saw the ball as a cross to be headed clear, but only succeeded in deflecting the ball enough to wrongfoot keeper Neil Cutler and to put Yeovil level. The tannoy gave Jevons as the scorer, the press association have gone for a Murdock own goal, but Thommo said after the game that Jevo wanted to claim it for his own. Whatever, Yeovil were back on level terms which was the only thing that really mattered.

Just four minutes later and Yeovil took the lead with their next attack. Kevin Amankwaah took advantage of a sloppy Rotherham clearance that failed to get out of their own half. Lofting the ball back into the box, Phil Jevons controlled and laid the ball off for Matt HARROLD, who repeated his Brentford goal, by firing sweetly home from 12 yards out right in front of 200 rather happy Yeovil supporters. Rotherham unsurprisingly as a side trying to break 16 matches without a win, looked shellshocked and demoralised.

The half ended with little happening of note. Shaun Barker landed in the book for taking out Phil Jevons from behind, five minutes after Efetobore Sodje had also been booked for fouling Martin Butler. Barker could have few complaints - the foul itself warranted a booking on it's own, but as he had committed around four other poor first half tackles, he was lucky to have not been booked before. Paul Evans completed the half by curling a shot to Steve Collis's near post, but the Yeovil keeper had it covered comfortably.

Half time lasted a little longer than anticipated. We were treated to the dubious delights of "Rotherham's own Jive Bunny" - yes that abomination of a "musical recording artist" (and I use that term loosely) that "graced" (and I use that term even more loosely) the charts in 1989. Rotherham's PA announcer seemed almost proud that they owned such a rich source of music, though perhaps when your donation to the comedy world is the Chuckle Brothers, maybe putting a dancing rabbit on a pedestal is the right thing to do to try and hide the horrifying truth about your town.

That wasn't the only distraction. Mr J. Bunny got an extended performance out on the pitch thanks to a 22 minute half time break leaving spectators wondering what was going on. A message over the tannoy asking for someone to visit the referees room gave the game away - linesman Steve Drew had retired at half time and was replaced by fourth official Ian Nolan, with presumably the tannoy message being a call for a replacement fourth official.

However, Yeovil didn't let the lengthy break disturb their rhythm. Commencing the second half well on top and forcing a succession of corners, Gregor Roberton had to clear the ball off his own line on the hour mark when a misdirected ball from one of his own team-mates came flying towards his own goal.

Rotherham had already made their first substitution at half time with Michael Keane coming on into a left wing position. It took Yeovil a short while to get used to the extra pace Keane introduced, but he was snuffed out fairly quickly. That forced Ray Harford into introducing another change with Andy Monkhouse replacing Paul McLaren, much to the delight of many Rotherham fans who had spent much of the second half berating McLaren's performance.

Kevin Amankwaah put in an excellent blocking tackle inside his own penalty area after Martin Butler had got a fortunate ricochet off Scott Guyett's legs, taking him past the Yeovil centre-back and into the penalty box. But Amankwaah's block stopped him from getting any shot on goal. In reality neither side was threatening the goal as the half went on, and more substitutions seemed to be the only significant action of note. Kevin Gall was replaced by the more defensive minded Andy Lindegaard in a straight swap, whilst Rotherham also made their final substitution.

The home side were spending most of the second half lumping good old-fashioned missiles from above, from 40 or 50 yards up field, with the sole purposes of relying on the law of averages - that at some point on a pitch that was by now cut up very badly, that a Yeovil defender would make a mistake and that a loose ball or a trailing leg would give Rotherham a glimmer of hope. This made for a poor quality second half, and Steve Thompson recognised that his side were unlikely to increase their lead, replacing Phil Jevons with Colin Miles, resulting in a 5-4-1 line-up to end the game on.

Martin Butler looped a header over the bar for the home side with four minutes left, and it was at that point that you realised just how little the home side's pressure was counting. For all of the times that the ball entered the Yeovil penalty area, usually at a trajectory that would have alerted local air traffic control, so Efetobore Sodje or Scott Guyett delivered the ball with their head straight out following the same up'n'under method that it had come in on. Andy Monkhouse landed in the book for chopping Nathan Jones down on one of the few occasions that Yeovil threatened to get out of their own half but not even five minutes of injury time and a finish beyond 5.00pm could give Rotherham enough time to get Yeovil keeper Steve Collis breaking into a sweat. The Yeovil back line were seeing to that.

Understandably, there was relief on the final whistle from the players and management, although I'm sure in the cold light of day and with the video tape in front of them, they will realise how little chances Rotherham created. Even if the Press Association stats somewhat bizarrely claim that Rotherham had 17 chances during the match with Yeovil having only two and outgoing manager Mick Harford claimed his side "murdered" Yeovil, I am struggling to remember where all these chances came from. Whatever, the stats will show that for once Yeovil were the victors and with four goals scored in their last two matches, finally the problems with what to do with the ball in the penalty box seem to be a thing of the past.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Matt Harrold 4 557 Efe Sodje 5 486 Scott Guyett 2 229 Lee Johnson 2 179 Chris Cohen 1 157

Overall match rating: 6.6 / 10
Performance: 6.5
Entertainment: 6.7

14 votes received.

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

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