Glovers boss Steve Thompson made two changes to the line-up that faced Tranmere last weekend. One was enforced, with club captain Terry Skiverton pulling out with knee ligament damage. Colin Miles dropped into the back three as a direct replacement. Kevin Amankwaah was passed fit to face his former club, with Andy Lindegaard dropped to the bench. Kevin Gall slipped out of the sixteen entirely as David Poole made his return after a two-week layoff. Adam Lockwood took over the captain's armband with neither Skivo or Phil Jevons being on the pitch. Bristol City's biggest crowd of the season, helped by nearly 2,700 travelling supporters were all anticipating the first ever league meeting between these two clubs at Ashton Gate, spiced up with the second meeting of minds between Steve Thompson and his former boss Gary Johnson, who got a warm welcome from the travelling supporters when he entered the field.

The early start was predictably frenetic with most of the play getting broken up in midfield. Chris Cohen had a shot blocked by a Bristol City defender with chances few and far between early on. However, it was clear that Bristol City had the edge out wide, with both Kevin Amankwaah and Nathan Jones struggling to cope with City's 4-4-2 formation and the doubling up on the flanks, and weren't getting too much protection from their colleagues when the home side put runs in. Conversely Yeovil's midfield attempts to set free Kevin Amankwaah on the flank were being badly misplaced, with the first three attempts landing out for throw-ins.

On the other flank though, a freak 13th minute goal stunned the Glovers and probably had most of the home support scratching their heads in disbelief. Bradley ORR, who has never scored for City before, was allowed far too much space on the right flank he was operating on. Chris Cohen made a belated attempt to close him down, but when Orr's cross was put in, it miscued straight over the top of a flat-footed Steve Collis and landed in the top corner on the far post. Whilst Collis would have struggled to save any such fluke, he was certainly beaten by a mile, not even attempting a save for the strike.

Yeovil attempted to respond, with Nathan Jones seeing his cross headed wide of the post by former team-mate Liam Fontaine for a corner. Then Paul Terry had appeals for a penalty turned down when Mark McCammon's arm got in the way of a shot on goal, with the striker having his arms away from his body. Referee Graham Salisbury presumably felt it was ball-to-hand.

Just 21 minutes into the match though Yeovil's misery was doubled. Scott Guyett fouled Cole Skuse on the edge of the box. Luke Wilkshire's free kick spun off the top of the wall and Steve Collis looked to be able to calmly collect the looping ball. But City striker Mark McCAMMON stole in front of him and flicked the ball first time into the back of the net for a soft soft goal.

For the second time, Yeovil tried to come back, and Arron Davies was extremely unlucky not to score when he cut down the right flank, moved inside and then struck an angled ball across the face of the area that was semi-blocked by Liam Fontaine, only for the ball to loop over home keeper Adriano Basso and spin narrowly wide of the far post. So close!

Craig Rocastle was booked when he tried to interfere in the taking of a Bristol City free kick. Steve Thompson abandoned the starting 3-5-2 formation about half an hour into the match, pushing Kevin Amankwaah into midfield in front of Adam Lockwood, whilst Chris Cohen moved out wide to sit in front of Nathan Jones and this seemed to have an immediate effect upon the game. Chris Cohen broke free cutting in from the right wing and after he had turned Liam Fontaine, only a brilliant recovery from the defender to block Cohen's shot forced the ball off for a corner.

Despite the Glovers now getting an even par on the game as the half closed, City still should have been 3-0 up before the half time whistle blew. Luke Wilkshire's left wing cross found Mark McCammon totally unmarked in the penalty box, but his tame header went straight into the arms of Steve Collis. At the other end Kevin Amankwaah unsettled the City defence in his new role with two weaving runs through the centre of midfield, with City suddenly uncertain as to who was meant to be marking who. No doubt both managers would have to do their half time tweaking, although inevitably Gary Johnson had the easier task.

The half-time break saw Steve Thompson take off Colin Miles and Matt Harrold - the latter had barely been in the game, being heavily marked by the Bristol City defence and getting very little joy out of Louis Carey. David Poole came onto the pitch as did Phil Jevons, the result being a slightly more attack-minded Glovers line-up for the second half. The first action from Phil Jevons was actually to head the ball clear close to his own goal line five minutes into the half, as City put in a deep cross to the back post.

Adam Lockwood was booked for a foul in Steve Brooker as the Glovers struggled to get going against a City side that were intent on keeping their marking tight, and it was a frustrating 15 minutes or so with little sign that Yeovil were going to get back into it, even if they were seeing a lot more of the ball. A Nathan Jones free kick was curled over a Bristol City wall and Adam Lockwood's header couldn't be kept down despite him cleanly winning the ball, and Yeovil needed to take chances like this to get back into the game.

One of the dangers though was that their attack-minded tactics to try and claw the game back would backfire. Steve Brooker broke the Yeovil offside trap as the Glovers pushed up, but luckily for Yeovil, as he reached the edge of the area, he tried to go for the spectacular rather than simple finish and badly sliced his shot wide of the target. That was to be Brooker's last action of the game as he limped off, having picked up a knock earlier in the half, replaced by David Cotterill.

Just when Yeovil's attempts to get the match going looked to be running into a rut, they pulled a goal back out of the blue. Paul Terry's run through midfield went unchecked, and his shot from the edge of the area was spilled clumsily by keeper Adriano Basso into the path of Phil Jevons. He in turn fed the ball back to Arron DAVIES who cleverly made room for himself, then smacked the ball into the bottom right hand corner for his eighth goal of the season. At last - game on!

City immediately withdrew David Noble for Alex Russell in midfield, and not for the first time in this half, the Glovers got caught pushing up to try and produce goals. Mark McCammon burst through on the break down the left channel, unselfishly squared it to Cole Skuse, but the midfielder skewed his shot wide from six yards out. In fact Bristol City had the upper hand during this middle period of the second half, taking good advantage of Yeovil's attempts to push up. Adam Lockwood produced an excellent blocking tackle for a corner, Scott Guyett also weighed in with a stunningly deft piece of tackling on the edge of his area, sliding in and coming out with the ball glued to his boot whilst Steve Collis also redeemed his first half performance with two superb parried saves inside 30 seconds of each other.

But the game swung back Yeovil's way once again. Chris Cohen brilliantly kept a ball in play on the left touchline when probably most would have given up, the ball skidded down the line to Arron Davies who forced Basso to save low at his near post for a corner. Minutes later Davies again gave the Bristol defence the slip when he broke behind their back-line. As they screamed for an offside that rightfully never came, Basso blocked with his legs and the loose ball was hacked away.

Referee Graham Salisbury bravely booked Luke Wilkshire in the closing minutes as he cynically threw himself down in the penalty box a fair distance from a David Poole challenge right under the most partisan area of the Bristol City ground. They duly hurled abuse at the referee, although Wilkshire just looked a bit sheepish.

At the other end, Phil Jevons almost achieved an extraordinary equaliser. Pablo Bastianini may be gone from these shores, but the 40 yard cheeky lobbed volley was heading right for the top corner before Basso scrambled back, got a palm to the ball, and then had to watch as the ball span slowly and agonisingly on the wrong side of the post (or the right side of your name is Basso) for a corner.

Kevin Amankwaah had been borderline for around 10 minutes and Andy Lindegaard had twice stood up with the intention of replacing him, only to see Kevin's communication with the bench indicate that he was willing to carry on. But in the end, the right-back who had barely trained all week had to come off, and Lindy took his place. To give the City fans credit, he got a fantastic reception from his former supporters as he slowly made his way round the pitch to disappear down the tunnel.

There was still a bit of time for some late comedy. City had just brought on Bas Savage, one of Gary Johnson's signings since he has arrived at Ashton Gate. The substitute striker's first touch was to find himself put through in a one-on-one with Steve Collis. His second touch was to trip over his own shoelaces on the edge of the box and land face down in the turf right in front of the away end for one of the funniest moments of this season. Whoops!

Yeovil almost grabbed the equaliser at the death when Cole Skuse rather naively kept a ball from going out for a throw-in but in doing so gifted the ball straight to Chris Cohen who raced through, threading the ball through to Arron Davies, but Skuse's blushes were saved by a defensive block inside the penalty area. Sadly it wasn't to be!

Far too often this season, Yeovil Town have lost games not over 90 minutes but over 15-20 minute periods of games. This match falls firmly into that category, and the Glovers slow start and two defensive mistakes gifted Bristol City their win. At 2-0 down it was always going to be difficult to come back from, but to their credit, the second half showed a huge amount of spirit and it is that spirit and effort that they must take into the remaining six games. However, if they are to avoid any more downfalls, they really have to cut out the silly lapses - they are proving far too costly this season.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Chris Cohen 7 565 Arron Davies 6 518 Paul Terry 1 200 Scott Guyett 2 188 Craig Rocastle 1 129

Overall match rating: 6.4 / 10
Performance: 5.9
Entertainment: 6.9

17 votes received.

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