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| Forest Green Rovers 3 Yeovil Town 0
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Scorers
McGregor (20, 1-0)
McGregor (36, 2-0)
Norton (77, 3-0)
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Attendance : 1,837
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Officials
R Desmond(Swindon)
I Restall (red trim)
R Green (yellow trim)
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Line-Up & Formation
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Tony Pennock |
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Tony Pounder |
Chris Sparks |
Kevan Brown |
Dean Chandler |
Jamie Pitman |
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Steve Thompson |
Rob Cousins |
Paul Tisdale |
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Matt Hayfield |
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Warren Patmore |
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Substitutes :
Jason Eaton (65, for Chandler)
Murray Fishlock (78, for Hayfield)
Adrian Foster (not used)
Ben Smith (41, for Thompson))
Anthony Tonkin (not used)
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Opposition Line-Up :
1. Perrin, 2. Hedges 3. Hatswell 4. Norton 5. Clark 6. Burns 7. Daley
8. Drysdale 9. MacGregor 10. Bailey 11. Cook
Substitutes :
Mehew, Domm, Sykes, Thomas (57, for Cook), Hunt (88, for MacGregor).
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Bookings :
Yeovil : Pitman (43, foul), Sparks (53, dissent),
Brown (54, foul)
Forest Green Rovers : Thomas (78, foul)
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Team Selection :
Chris Sparks came in for an injured Terry Skiverton whilst Kevan Brown
returned from suspension ousting Murray Fishlock. This allowed Dean
Chandler to shuffle his way back to his usual left-of-centre position.
Elsewhere there were two other changes as Steve Thompson preferred
himself to Ben Smith. Tony Pounder displaced Dave Piper, who despite
being one of the better players against Hayes, surprisingly dropped
entirely out of the sixteen.
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First Half :
A quiet start for both teams as the ball generally bobbled around in
a wet but playable pitch. Tackles were fierce and determined from the
Gloucestershire side, in particular their back line.
Little seemed to be giving either way. But it seemed inevitable that
at some stage Dave Norton, sold by Yeovil under duress, or Marc MacGregor,
being chased by Yeovil, would play a major part in the proceedings. And
in the 20th minute it was so. Steve Thompson was clattered by a fierce
tackle inside the Rovers half, but referee Mr Desmond, another of the
Conference's gloriously inconsistent officials, didn't bat an eyelid.
Play whizzed up the left wing via Jason Drysdale, through to Marc MacGREGOR who
turned inside the Yeovil defence, beat three players, and his
15 yard angled drive beat Tony
Pennock with ease.
Yeovil responded well, and Matt Hayfield had a shot well saved after
intelligent work by Thompson and Paul Tisdale. David Norton endeared
himself to the travelling army when his 35 yarder clipped the top of
the away end.
On 36 minutes and with only their second incisive move of the half,
Rovers were another goal up. Dennis Bailey received the ball, his
delicate pass found MacGregor in space, 10 yards out and unmarked.
There was only ever going to be one result. Marc MacGREGOR 2
Yeovil Town 0.
Ben Smith replaced Thompson five minutes before the break and made
an immediate impact when his casual flick put Tony Pounder through, but
his cross was wasted as it flew across the area. Meanwhile Jamie Pitman
chopped down Tony Daley and was rightly booked for his challenge.
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| Half Time : Forest Green Rovers 2 Yeovil Town 0
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Second Half :
The second half started as uneventfully as the first. Chris Sparks became the
second Yeovil player in the book when he challenged MacGregor for the ball, and
the Forest Green striker fell over clutching his hands on the ball, as if a
free kick was a foregone conclusion. Mr Desmond thought so as well, and Sparks
gave MacGregor an earful of his thoughts, convinced that MacGregor had made far
too much of the foul. It seemed that he had a strong case, but inexplicably,
Mr Desmond thought it worthy of a yellow card.
Sixty seconds later, and another needless booking, as the next foul was
committed by Kevan Brown on the side of the Yeovil area. He barely clipped the
heels of Tony Daley, but again Mr Desmond was swiftly out with his book.
Astonishing that two minor fouls should be punished so severely, when the
first half had been full of far more serious misdemeanours.
Forest Green replaced Rob Cook with Bradley Thomas as they began to get a
real stranglehold on the game. Yeovil were trying to push up to get a goal back,
yet were being caught on the break, and no more so when in the 64th minute,
Marc MacGregor broke through the centre, and suddenly found three Rovers
players breaking clear with just two Yeovil defenders to beat. Intelligently,
he pushed the ball wide for Tony Daley, but Daley's shot was wasted into the
side netting.
Yeovil reorganised to a 4-4-2 as Dean Chandler came off in favour of Jason
Eaton, with Hayfield pushing deeper into midfield, and Rob Cousins moving
across to the right back position, allowing Tony Pounder room to push foward.
Jason Eaton and Tony Pounder combined well on the right wing as a result of
this change, and when Pounder's cross was half-cleared, Matt Hayfield drove
home from the edge of the area, and Rovers' keeper Steve Perrin was forced to
make a finger-tip save onto his right hand post.
This served only to wake up the home side, and Tony Daley tried a 25 yard
shot that Pennock brilliantly turned around for a corner. But little of this
mattered when on 77 minutes, MacGregor pushed the ball to David Norton, who
had been ominously pushing forward during the previous ten minutes. He managed
a one-two with Tony Daley, that left him in five yards of shooting space just
inside the area. It was as predictable to watch as it was maddening, as with
all the time in the world, David NORTON placed the ball with the out-step
with his right foot past Pennock's left hand for an unassailable 3-0 lead, as
The Lawn, for once, erupted in noise, knowing the three points were safe. For Norton,
it was the sweetest of debuts against his former club.
There was enough time for Mr Desmond to dish out a few more yellow cards,
and for Jason Drysdale to curl a free kick over the crossbar, but that was
pretty much that, and Yeovil finished the game never really looking like
they were even going to land themselves a consolation.
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| Final Score : Forest Green Rovers 3 Yeovil Town 0
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Web Site Verdict :
Second to nearly every 50-50 ball, out muscled and out performed,
Yeovil's dislike of Boxing Day continued through to 1999. Rovers'
mixture of brawn at the back, and brains and talent up front, defied
their league position. Daley and MacGregor were the thorns in Yeovil's
side, and Rovers played in a manner that suggested that escaping
relegation mattered more than a side needing to gain promotion.
Yeovil's weak limp-wristed performance got them what both sides deserved.
There is a worrying attitude to Yeovil's performances against these
so-called lesser teams. How can a team that played with so much pride, fight
and determination against teams at the top of the table, limp out of a tie
so poorly against a team in the bottom three, only just over a week after
they had been given a lesson in what bottom three sides were capable of ?
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Thommo's Verdict :
That performance was more that disappointing; it was dreadful. I've got my ideas
as to why. Mostly, I would say we displayed a lack of heart. It's very easy to
blame it on a lack of heart, but I think it's something that I have to highlight,
because the players have been showing a lot of heart all season. Obviously,
I wasn't at Scarborough, but I think this was the first time I could really
say that. Even when we were losing at Kidderminster, I felt it was because we
were outplayed. But today we were not only outplayed, we were out-fought.
They won about 80 or 90 per cent of the second balls in any of the 50:50
or even 60:40 tackles.
With McGregor and Norton scoring, that's football isn't it. They played quite well,
and in fact their whole team did, they deserved their win, and you can't take
that away from them.
I was very disappointed with both of the first two goals from a defensive
point of view, but they were really isolated incidents in an overall disappointing
performance.
We didn't really do much up front in the whole game. In the second half, we
maybe created only one or two chances in the whole half.
There's a lot of thinking to be done for next week as to who plays. The players
have to respond in the right way now. That's two bad defeats, and you can go one
of two ways now. You can go into your shell or you can come out fighting. I
think we've got to come out and show that we are good players. The league position
I would say shouldn't lie, but it certainly lied today.
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Man of the Match :
As voted for in Paul Chesterman's internet poll of YTFC fans.
1. Kevan Brown - 19%
2. Jamie Pitman - 15%
3. Ben Smith - 12%
4. Matt Hayfield - 11%
4. Tony Pounder - 11%
MATCH RATING - 3.6
Performance - 3.4
Entertainment - 3.7
Thirteen votes received
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