Glovers boss Gary Johnson made just one change to the starting line-up that had performed so well at Northampton, swapping over Bartosz Tarachulski who landed in the starting line-up ahead of Rory Fallon as the main target man. Otherwise the sixteen stayed exactly as it was, allowing an unusual moment of stability in the Glovers team.

That stability seemed to reap instant dividends within the opening few minutes. A though ball was lofted into the penalty box and as Darren Way ran onto it, visiting keeper Lee Harrison had a rush of blood to the head and stormed off his goal-line, taking out Way in the process for a clear penalty. Arron Davies slammed the ball into an empty net but Fletcher had already blown his whistle, leaving the official looking somewhat embarrassed.

Harrison was yellow-carded where he might have expected to walk on a professional foul, and then did himself no favours whatsoever by appearing to aim a gloved hand at Way's face. Remarkably referee Mick Fletcher allowed him to stay on the field of play.

Up stepped Phil JEVONS for the penalty and there was only one possible outcome - the keeper went the wrong way and Yeovil had a dream start and Mr Fletcher probably heaved a sigh of relief.

Michael Rose exploited the swirling wind when he lobbed a cross-cum-shot that hit the top of the crossbar with Harrison stranded just a couple of minutes later as Yeovil tore into Orient during the opening spell. Arron Davies stripped Orient defender for pace on a bouncing through-ball and his shot struck visiting defender Gabriel Zakuani who would have scored a spectacular own goal were it not for acrobatics by Harrison. Next up was Lee Johnson who produced a left wing cross that Bartosz Tarachulski struck on the volley only to be denied again by another excellent save from the visitor's keeper.

Midway through the first half Orient were again stretched when Andy Lindegaard controlled and turned with the ball at his feet after another excellent pass. Racing towards the Orient penalty area, a reckless challenge by an Orient defender looked like it was going to be a real shocker. Lindy managed to divert his way mainly out of the way, but it still seemed a nailed on free kick on the edge of the area until Fletcher surprised the majority of the home crowd by waving a yellow card at Lindy instead of the Orient culprit.

Yeovil seemed to gradually lose their momentum from this moment onwards, and a half that looked as though it was going to deliver a real hatful gradually deteriorated in the wind. Yeovil still held most of the possession but the wind saw too many passes going astray. Andrew Scott became the visitors second booking when he upended Lee Johnson with Fletcher making it clear the card was for persistent fouling, as a legacy of Orient's untidy start.

Ten minutes from the break, Yeovil should have had their second penalty of the afternoon when John Mackie clearly dragged Bartosz Tarachulski to the floor right in front of Fletcher, but the referee waved play on. That was the last seen of Bartosz though as he limped off with a slight knock to be replaced by Rory Fallon.

It took Orient 39 minutes to have their first shot of any note, and it was a pretty dire attempt. Andrew Scott's swing at the ball took it curling well wide of the target as neither side gained control of the conditions. Paul Terry could have made it 2-0 right on half time when he shot from eight yards but Harrison's legs got in the way and Lee Johnson couldn't collect the rebound. The Glovers had to be content with a single goal and it was now going to be a difficult 45 minutes against the wind.

Arron Davies became the second Yeovil player to clip the woodwork when his cross clipped the back of the crossbar three minutes into the half. Daryl McMahon landed in the book for a pretty awful tackle on Darren Way that in fairness led to repeated apologies from the visiting midfielder to Way.

Orient were holding the ball a lot more in the second period but were really doing little with it, and it was surprising that in the wind assisted conditions that they seemed so shot-shy, not ever attempting a long ranger to worry Chris Weale. Michael Simpson's lobbed ball over the top found former Bristol Rovers winger Wayne Carlisle but his first time shot whistled across the face of the Yeovil goal with no Orient player within any sort of distance from the ball.

It took Orient a total of 64 minutes to actually hit an on-target shot. Lee Steele burst down the left wing, fed Tom Youngs who drove at goal on the angle of the area, but Chris Weale was down low and saved comfortably.

Yeovil still had occasional sporadic attacks in a half where they kept men firmly behind the ball in much the same way as the midweek game at Doncaster, but without the opposition having any real ability to hurt them. Arron Davies kept Lee Harrison's hands warm by firmly striking a ball on the volley around the penalty spot as a rare break for Yeovil kept the visitors on their toes.

The trouble with a 1-0 margin is that all it takes is a single mistake and in windy conditions that seems almost inevitable. For that reason both Terry Skiverton and Kevin Amankwaah will have been thanking Chris Weale after the game. The central defensive partnership, who had been inpenetrable all game, committed their one and only mistake of the match when they dithered over who would clear a bit of Route One from Orient, and Lee Steele sneaked between the pair on his way to goal. Thankfully Wealey judged the Orient striker's run to perfection - taking the ball clean off his feet to ruin Orient's best chance of an equaliser.

Efe Echanomi who scored against the Glovers at Brisbane Road, was introduced as pace to a fairly inert Orient front line, but his role was short and not so sweet, lasting just 12 minutes. After Lee Johnson had been booked for upending the substitute, just three minutes later Echanomi's game was over in fairly stupid fashion. Being man-marked by Andy Lindegaard, the youngster twice whacked his elbow into Lindegaard's face, 20 yards off the ball for one of the easiest red cards Mick Fletcher will brandish all season. Quite what was going on in Echanomi's head is difficult to know, but it was suicide for his side's chances of a comeback.

Yeovil arrested immediate control of the game again, as Lindy was forced to leave the field, suffering from double-vision. Kevin Gall replaced him with the aim of stretching an Orient team now having to still push up with a man shot. Rory Fallon burst through on the break from a Lee Johnson pass but Harrison dived low to his right and saved comfortably.

Gally's impression on the game was immediate, executing a number of end-to-end 70 yard runs of the pitch that forced Orient to back-pedal, took the pressure off the Glovers back-line and even gave plenty of chances to extend their single goal lead. Lee Johnson received a Gally pass after one such run but the strike went wide. Gally himself should have finished off a couple of his runs with better finishing, landing one in the car park when it should have been on target. But his runs were serving their purpose by stopping Orient from making any late surge. Fallon also put two other chances wide of the target with Yeovil's shooting unusually wayward.

Orient could only muster one last attempt in six minutes of injury time and even that only got as far as a backpost cross, with Wealey superbly backpedalling and catching a swirling ball. Michael Simpson's 'afters' on the keeper sparked a spot of injury time handbags that led to Simpson and Skiverton landing in the book but Orient never really created anything to deserve an equaliser, and the only disappointment was that the Glovers hadn't put the game out of sight by the final whistle.

Three points is three points though, and that's all that Yeovil need to do between now and the end of the season. It may not have been pretty and it certainly wasn't a game to live in the memory, but we've been spoilt rotten at Huish Park this season, and certainly one glance at the table should tell everyone just how lucky we are.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Overall match rating: 5.3 / 10
Performance: 5.6
Entertainment: 5

53 votes received.

Any comments/questions please email [email protected]

Back to Top of Page