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:
Player |
MOTM |
Score |
Darren Way |
17 |
457 |
Kevin Amankwaah |
11 |
347 |
Andy Lindegaard |
5 |
238 |
Paul Terry |
5 |
151 |
Arron Davies |
4 |
151 |
Phil Jevons |
4 |
117 |
Terry Skiverton |
2 |
79 |
Michael Rose |
3 |
68 |
Lee Johnson |
- |
68 |
Chris Weale |
- |
53 |
Kevin Gall |
1 |
49 |
Bartosz Tarachulski |
1 |
19 |
|
Overall match rating: 5.3 / 10
Performance: 5.6
Entertainment: 5
53 votes received.
Any comments/questions please email ytfcmotm@ntlworld.com
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