Venue: Ladysmead
Monday 4th August 2003, 7.30pm kick-off.

Conditions: Warm and sultry
Ground: Good

Scorers: Andy Lindegaard (31 mins, 0-1), Andy Lindegaard (40 mins, 0-2)

Attendance: 721

Referee: Mr Mike Malarky (Exeter)

Bookings:
Yeovil: None
Tiverton: None

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

Steve Collis,
Adam Lockwood, Colin Pluck, Steve Reed,
Andy Lindegaard, Nick Crittenden (Capt), Jamie Gosling, Ian Patchett, Abdelhalim El Kholti,
Jake Edwards, Adam Stansfield

Subs used: Chris Weale (46 mins, for Collis), Darren Way (46 mins, for Crittenden), Lee Johnson (46 mins, for Gosling), Hugo Rodriguez (46 mins, for Lockwood), Kevin Gall (67 mins, for Stansfield), Kirk Jackson (67 mins, for Edwards), Sam Croft (72 mins, for El Kholti), Glen Hobbs (72 mins, for Pluck), Gavin Williams (79 mins, for Lindegaard), Colin Pluck (again, 82 mins, for Williams).

Tiverton: 1. Stuart Fraser 2. Steve Winter 3. Danny Haines 4. Jason Rees 5. Matthew Aubrey 6. Rob Cousins 7. Kevin Nancekivell 8. Chris Holloway 9. Richard Pears 10. Jamie Mudge 11. Paul Chenoweth
Subs: 12. Steve Ovens (65 mins for Richard Pears), 14. David Steele (33 mins for Chris Holloway) 15. Shaun Goff (67 mins for Danny Haines) 16. Ben Harris (77 mins for Steve Winter) 17. Luke Vinnicombe (77 mins for Jason Rees)

With the big day only six days away, it was little surprise that the team that faced Dr Martens League Premier Division side Tiverton Town bore only a passing resemblance to that which will travel to Spotland this weekend. Gary Johnson chose instead to look at the rest of his squad, starting with only four or five players who are likely to kick-off the new season against Rochdale.

Yeovil opened brightly, with a short cross by Nick Crittenden being met by a quick header from Adam Stansfield but Stuart Fraser anticipated the shot well, and dived to make the save. Tiverton were looking useful enough though, and created a couple of half-chances themselves. After a header from a free kick had been planted wide, former Glover Steve Winter did the same when given too much space.

Overall though, it was the Glovers in control, and Abdelhalim El Kholti produced a rasping 25 yard drive when he latched onto a throughball following a strong run by Jamie Gosling. After just over half an hour, Yeovil finally breached the Tiverton defence. Abdelhalim El Kholti was fouled about 30 yards out on the flank, when Nick Crittenden's free kick was nodded down by Jake Edwards, Abdelhalim El Kholti grabbed the loose ball and pushed it back to Andy LINDEGAARD who looped a shot home from 15 yards out.

Tivvy were not to be discounted though as Jamie Mudge caught the Yeovil players pushing up in attack, beating El Kholti down the right wing, and when he sent the ball across the six yard line, Kevin Nancekivell looked certain to score, but completely failed to connect with the ball, as Colin Pluck put him under pressure.

The respective performances of the two sides in the final third was proving to be the difference between the two teams, and thus it proved when Yeovil doubled their lead out of seemingly nothing. Ian Patchett, another product of Yeovil's Youth Team policy, slotted a 10 yard through ball down the channel to Andy LINDEGAARD and the Yeovil-born player decided to emulate Kevin Gall's strike against Brentford by hitting a stunning 30 yard volley on the turn that gave Fraser not a hope.

Once Lindy gets a sniff of goal, there is very little stopping him, and he almost completed his hat-trick right on half time with another stunning strike. An overhead kick from 18 yards whistled past the post after he had connected with a Nick Crittenden cross.

A flurry of half-time substitutions saw Yeovil make four changes, and they took a short while to adjust with Kevin Nancekivell evading Colin Pluck and getting a free header in from a corner.

But when Yeovil got going, they attacked Tiverton in waves, largely by breaking from inside their own half, and one such effort saw the familiar duo of Lee Johnson and Darren Way combine through the length of the Tiverton half, only for Johnson's edge-of-the-box shot to go wide. Adam Stansfield nearly extended the lead when a bullet-like header from Hugo Rodrigues went straight down the middle of the park, leaving Stansfield in a one-on-one situation. But Stuart Fraser judged Stansfield's run well and just sneaked a toe in first.

Jake Edwards and Adam Stansfield created their own chances, as first Edwards shot first time from the edge of the area following a smart run by Darren Way, and then minutes later, Stuart Fraser got a hand to a Stansfield cross-cum-shot that the Tivvy keeper had initially misjudged as going wide.

Andy Lindegaard got one more chance to get his hat-trick when he turned and shot from long range, but once again Fraser was on hand to push the ball away. Lindegaard was replaced by Gavin Williams but he lasted only three minutes on the field, as a cut on a leg left him limping and Gary Johnson decided on a policy of better-safe-than-sorry for a player who has only just come back from injury. Colin Pluck therefore made his second appearance of the evening.

Such changes had not only produced a large number of personnel changes, but also a large number of formation switches, and the game gradually disintegrated as players on both sides lost their rhythm. Kevin Gall, operating as a very forward left-winger, came the closest when he had a curling shot cleared off the line, and there was a chance to see two of the youngsters as Under 17 defender Sam Croft came on, along with Glen Hobbs, a youngster from Plymouth who is on trial for the week after being judged a fortnight too old to play in the Under 17's league.

Overall though, it was a good workout, and the good news was that Gary Johnson reported no injuries to his squad after the game, with Williams diagnosed as merely a slight cut to the leg. In such humid conditions, it was no wonder the game slowed down at the end, but Tiverton provided a good standard of opposition, and really the only large difference between the two teams was the quality Yeovil showed once they got into the penalty box.

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