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Venue: Manor Park
Sat 25th January 2003, 3pm kick-off.

Conditions: Dry after earlier downpour
Ground: One of the worst in the league - not helped by home team training on it in the morning! Reminsicent of Huish Park last season.

Att: 1,717 (including approx 500 Yeovil supporters).

Referee: Mr D Deadman (Herts). Assistants: J. Murfitt (Cambs), P. McCall (Cambs).

Bookings:
Yeovil: None
Nuneaton: Alford (18, foul), Quayle (31, diving), Lavery (51, foul)

Line up : (3-4-1-2)

		1. Chris Weale
	2. Adam Lockwood	14. Roy O'Brien	5. Colin Pluck
10. Nick Crittenden	6. Darren Way		8. Lee Johnson	11. Michael McIndoe
		20. Gavin Williams
	25. Kirk Jackson		16. Andy Lindegaard

Substitutes: 4. Terry Skiverton (sub 82 mins for Adam Lockwood) 18. Kim Grant 22. Steven Collis (GK) 24. Abdelhalim Elkholti (sub 64 mins for Nick Crittenden) 26. Jimmy Aggrey

Nuneaton Borough: 1. Chris MacKenzie 18. Andy Thackeray 17. Barry Williams 23. Jon Dyson 3. Michael Love 11. Daire Doyle 6. Richard Lavery 4. Jason Peake 24. Samuel Ricketts 10. Mark Quayle 9. Carl Alford
Subs : 25. Andy Wheeler (GK) 27. Mark McGregor (sub 73 mins for Carl Alford) 7. Daniel Williams 2. Adam Cooper (sub 26 mins for Barry Williams) 8. John Turner (90)

Scorers: Andy Lindegaard (12 mins, 0-1), Sam Ricketts (50 mins, 1-1)

The state of the pitch dictated that Yeovil’s normal game was simply not going to work, so they adopted a slightly longer ball game but still dominated the half. Move after move flowed towards the Nuneaton goal but foundered in the mud of the last third of the pitch. With this pressure a goal was inevitable, and it was ANDY LINDEGAARD who headed home Michael McIndoe’s far post cross after 12 minutes to put the Glovers into a well-deserved lead.

Yeovil continued to push forward but the Nuneaton defence held firm and denied the Glovers a further goal. Towards the half hour and rather against the run of play Mark Quayle finished a Borough attack by putting the ball into the net, but was judged offside. The disallowed goal seemed to sting Yeovil into action. Almost immediately Chris Mackenzie was fully stretched to tip Kirk Jackson’s header over the bar. The midfield five went into overdrive with a dazzling ten minute display of football, ending with attempts from Kirk Jackson and Andy Lindegaard that were just wide.

With two minutes to go Chris Mackenzie made two superb saves to keep Nuneaton in the game, the first after Kirk Jackson had run through the defence and launched a blistering shot from inside the box, and the second from a cracking Andy Lindegaard 30-yard drive.

Half Time : Nuneaton Borough 0 Yeovil Town 1

The two sides came out for the second half with reversed profiles, Nuneaton piling on the pressure and Yeovil playing reactively. With 5 minutes gone an appalling challenge by Richard Lavery earned him a yellow card and a lengthy stop to the game, but Yeovil’s free kick went straight to Nuneaton and was run most of the length of the field and fired into the net by SAM RICKETTS, watched by an apparently bemused Yeovil. Even that goal didn’t wake the Glovers up, Nuneaton dominating the game for another five minutes and holding equal honours for the following ten.

The substitution of Abdelhalim El Kholti on 65 minutes started another period of Yeovil domination, though not as convincing as the first half. Within a ten minute spell Michael McIndoe’s shot ricocheted off the post, Kirk Jackson missed a clear opportunity to put Yeovil back into the lead, Chris Weale made a fine save from Mark Quayle and Kirk Jackson chipped the ball just over the crossbar from Andy Lindegaard’s powerful run and cross.

With ten minutes left Nuneaton came back into the game. On the stroke of normal time Richard Lavery found the net but was judged offside, in added time Terry Skiverton’s shot was somehow saved by Chris Mackenzie, and with seconds left Chris Weale was fully stretched by a low, powerful drive to keep Yeovil in the points.

Overall match rating: 6.68 / 10
Performance: 6.2
Entertainment: 7.2

25 votes received.

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