Walking in a Jevo Wonderland

Phil Jevons grabbed both goals to beat Hartlepool, as Yeovil�s rejuvenation continued its momentum, lifting the Glovers to a lofty 10th place in the table. Following the fine result at Doncaster earlier this week, Steve Thompson kept faith with the same side, the only change seeing Luke Oliver, fresh from a loan spell at Woking, return to the bench filling the gap vacated by Efe Sodje who surprisingly left for Southend on Friday. Speaking to Radio Bristol after the game, Thompson said that the Nigerian was unhappy about being left out of the squad, and the move may have been conjured by his agent. Southend made an offer which was accepted, and so the bandanna man was gone, great to watch, and a firm favourite with the fans, but the Yeovil boss appeared to be none too concerned about losing his services.

Sodje though will be missed by the fans, but his team did not need him, at least in the first half of today�s encounter as Yeovil dominated the opening period. David Poole, who has become Yeovil�s first choice winger of late tested Dimitrios Konstantopoulos with a long range shot following Chris Cohens� through ball. Cohen, who's looking to extend his loan spell until the end of the season was once again composed in midfield. It will be interesting to see if Darren Way - if he regains full fitness next week - will manage to shift the West Ham youngster from the starting line up. On today�s showing, Way will struggle.

Poole again was in the thick of things in the 11th minute, when his testing run into the Hartlepool box saw him chopped down, but the referee Mr Melin somehow saw no contact and waved play on subjecting him to a chorus of boos for the remainder of the game. Matty Harrold, who has led the Glovers recent rejuvenation, carved an opening for himself when he harried the central defenders into losing the ball. The tall striker broke free but with only the keeper to beat Harrold failed to find the target. Johnson then had an appeal for a penalty turned down on the edge following a strong run through the middle. Johnson tracking back then must have said something to the ref as he was booked in his own half. Johnson once again probed and pushed, but his dissent, as at Swansea, could have cost him dearly.

Poole again burst into the box down the left and his low cross was cleared when maybe a shot would have been the better option, seconds later Yeovil should have gone one up when Harrold, who was causing all sorts of problems for the Hartlepool defence with his aggressive style, squared a delightful ball into the path of the advancing Guyett and Skiverton in the six yard box but the chance was skied horribly into the car park at the Copse Road End. Yeovil needed to take advantage of the possession they were enjoying, and it wasn�t long before that happened. Amankwaah, with his familiar style ran from his right back berth and almost overran the ball before slipping it at full stretch into the path of Paul Terry, another player like Poole and Harrold who's benefiting from an extended run in the team. Terry then crossed into the box and found Jevons, who skilfully swivelled to unleash an unstoppable left footed hook shot into the Pools net to give Yeovil the lead they deserved. The game for Amankwaah was then over as he sustained a hamstring pull, but the door opened up for Andy Lindegaard, who made his first start for a little while following his loan spell at Crawley.

As the second half started it was evident that Hartlepool had received the customary half time rollicking as they upped their game and tempo and looked more of a threat going forward. Collis was called into action for one of the first occasions of the game after Guyett conceded a free kick. As the ball came in it came off the studs of Paul Terry but fortunately for the home side Collis was on hand to hold on. Another free kick, this time given away by Terry Skiverton, came even closer: The dead ball was whipped in by Gavin Strachan and found the head of Michael Nelson whose free header somehow squirmed inches wide of the upright.

If that was a warning to Yeovil of how slender a one goal lead can be then they took heed of that threat and acted accordingly. Matt Harrold, in his own half released David Poole down the left and his fine run and cross into the box seemed to take an age to find Jevons, but find him it did, and the cool Scouser knocked the ball across the face of the goal and watched it cross the line in the far corner to give the home side a 2 goal lead, even if it was against the run of play - if only they�d got a second against Bristol City! Jevons has found his scoring touch of late, amid speculation of a January transfer move, if that�s the case then he certainly increased his sales value on today's performance.

Hartlepool never gave up, and moments later they had a glorious chance to pull a goal back when substitute James Walker broke free down the left, his tantalising ball across the goal line only needed a toe to guide it home, but fortunately there were no size 10�s on hand and the ball squirmed away to safety.

The second goal for the Glovers certainly acted as a pressure relief valve, and their play reflected that as they began to confidently stroke the ball around, with Nathan Jones at the heart of many attacks, Jones has terrific energy and his clever ball inside to Harrold on the edge of the box was taken well by �the Prince� and his powerful shot narrowly sailed over the bar. Harrold was again denied the goal his performance deserved when he broke away down the right, his well struck shot at last beat the keeper but not the post, bouncing back into play the ball again fell at the feet of the Yeovil striker and his instant shot was cleared off the line to deny him his goal.

Yeovil made two late substitutions, Davies replacing the impressive Poole, who at last is living up to his promise, and Gall replacing Jevons who received a standing ovation from the Yeovil fans on 85 minutes.

So another good win for Yeovil, even though afterwards Steve Thompson said that it was not as fluent a performance as that against City and Doncaster the week before. The workrate though was just as good, and none of the 5480 that attended the game (although at least 10% started to leave on 80 minutes) will worry about the performance too much if it means 3 valuable points in the bag, and a step closer to league one survival.

MOTM Vote Result:

Overall match rating: 6.5 / 10
Performance: 6.6
Entertainment: 6.4

42 votes received.

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