Venue: Huish Park
Tues 14th October 2003, 7.45pm kick-off.

Conditions: Mild, calm
Ground: Perfect

Scorers: Jake Edwards (74, 1-0), Gavin Williams (86 pen, 2-0)

Attendance: 5,035 - including approx 1,500 Bournemouth fans

Referee: Mick Fletcher (Worcestershire)
Assistant Refs: Kevin Barnes (Wiltshire) and Ian Harris (Cornwall)

Bookings:
Yeovil: Rodrigues (42, unsporting behaviour), Way (45, dissent), Lockwood (46, unsporting behaviour)
Bournemouth: Tindall (44, unsporting behaviour), O'Connor (60, dissent), Browning (60, unsporting behaviour)

Yeovil Town : (4-4-2)
13. Steven Collis
2. Adam Lockwood 4. Terry Skiverton 12. Hugo Rodrigues 5. Colin Pluck
20. Gavin Williams 6. Darren Way 8. Lee Johnson 3. Abdelhalim El Kholti
9. Kevin Gall 17. Jake Edwards

Subs: 1. Chris Weale 7. Adam Stansfield (77, for Edwards) 10. Nick Crittenden 23. Jamie Gosling (86, for El Kholti) 24. Paul Terry (57, for Lockwood)

Bournemouth:
13. Gareth Stewart 2. Neil Young 18. Jason Tindall 7. Carl Fletcher 3. Stephen Purches 11. Wade Elliott 12. Garreth O'Connor 4. Marcus Browning 22. Danny Thomas 9. Warren Feeney 16. Derek Holmes

Subs:
10. Steve Fletcher (59, for Holmes) 5. Karl Broadhurst (65, for Browning) 8. Brian Stock 17. Alan Connell 14. James Hayter (70, for Young)

Cherries pipped by the Glovers!

Just because they are a league side now, it really would not be the same if Yeovil could not carry on their own famous tradition of giant killing. The LDV Vans Trophy is certainly not the most illustrious of competitions but a 2-0 home win against 2nd division Bournemouth allowed that old die hard habit to continue, and for the fans to start dreaming of a trip to Cardiff, early days I know but that�s what the cup competitions are all about!

After 3 defeats in the last 4 league games it was imperative that Yeovil bounced back tonight, last season winning became a habit, losing can go the same way too! Not only was the manner of tonight�s performance important, a couple of players, after recent criticism were playing for their Yeovil lives it seems, and no one can come out of this game with more credit than the two continental Europeans within our ranks, for Hugo Rodrigues and Abdel El Kholti played absolute blinders, especially the giant Portuguese defender who made a mockery of his doubters, including the writer! One swallow does not make a summer though, and if these two start against Darlington on Saturday, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde should borrow their respective passports and disappear across the channel on Friday night and not come back until May.

The game started brightly, Yeovil certainly looked the livelier with crosses pinging into the Bournemouth box, but no real clear-cut chances being created. Lockwood and Pluck found plenty of space down the flanks and both managed to get balls over, whilst Hugo mopped up at the back and gave himself time to make a couple of superb cross field long diagonal passes into the path of El Kholti.

Just after the half hour mark Yeovil thought they had scored, Pluck hit a long ball from the half way line into the box for Jake Edwards, on from the start, to bring the ball down, but It got cleared of his toe just as he was about to pull the trigger, the ball came back into the box following a bad clearance from Bournemouth, and Edwards, still in the same spot this time fired home, the ball crashed off the bar and seemed to be well and truly over the line. Unfortunately there are no TV facilities in the Bartlett stand to prove me wrong but I�d love to see that one again to double check!

A few minutes later, at the other end Bournemouth too had a goal wiped out, this time for offside. Rodrigues brought down Feeney and conceded a free kick on the edge, the ball was whipped in, flicked on and hammered home, the linesman though flagged early and the goal did not stand, the only punishment was a booking for Hugo.

As the half drew to a close, both Tindell and Way were booked for separate incidents, and as the Yeovil man went into the book, fighting broke out in the away end between police and Bournemouth supporters prompting the ref Mr Fletcher to bring the half to an end, the best decision he�d made so far!

If the first half did not live up to expectation from a footballing perspective the second half did. Yeovil again starting the brighter and the more determined side than their Dorset neighbours. A penetrating run from Edwards into the box saw him curl a well-placed effort just wide of the right hand upright, and Williams, Gall and Johnson linked well before the latter unleashed a good drive from the edge of the area. Terry Skiverton, making his first home start of the season, slotted comfortably back into the heart of the defence and on 63 minutes he cleverly released Gall who drove a cross hard into the danger zone from the left which was cleared by the Cherries defence.

By now it was Yeovil doing all the attacking and unlike previous games were using the flanks well, two minutes later, Gall again linked with Paul Terry, on for Lockwood, and another hard cross was cleared, this time straight to the Bournemouth Skipper Carl Fletcher who had a clear sight of goal, a wonderful, perfectly timed tackle from Hugo Rodrigues, who don�t forget was on a card was the icing on the cake for his performance tonight. It was no surprise when on 74 minutes and this time from the right hand side Gall and Williams linked well to feed Jake Edwards, who had taken up a good position on the near post and he converted the low cross superbly into the back of Stewarts net right in front of the home terrace to score his first senior goal for the club. 3 minutes later he was replaced by Adam Stansfield, but he did enough in the second half to show that he can challenge Kirk Jackson for the position they both compete for.

Gall and Stansfield together can surely cause problems with their pace, by now Bournemouth had gone from 3 to 4 at the back, but it only took the fresh legs of Stansfield a couple of minutes before he broke free, he couldn�t beat the keeper with a rasping drive though.

Next it was Gall, yet again, sprinting down the right wing, he hit another low hard ball into the box but Fletcher couldn�t deal with it cleanly and was adjudged to have handled. A penalty was awarded and up stepped Gavin Williams to confidently stroke the ball home to give Yeovil a 2-0 victory and cap off a fine individual performance from the Welshman.

As the game drew to an end, the old champions swagger returned with the Glovers playing keep ball to the delight of the 5035 fans, swelled by a terrific following from Bournemouth. The home support cheered every pass as Yeovil began to show the arrogance that got them up to this level in the first place. With two home games coming up in the next week, starting with Darlington on Saturday, the comforting homely surroundings of Huish Park, and the reassuring convincing performance of tonight, especially in the second half, should send the club into the weekend with all the confidence they need, the confidence that should allow them to go out and perform with the consistency and swagger we all know they are capable of.

Jeremy Gear

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Hugo Rodrigues 10 431 Abdelhalim El Kholti 4 275 Gavin Williams 5 250 Darren Way 4 231 Jake Edwards 4 213 Lee Johnson 2 125 Terry Skiverton 2 100 Adam Lockwood 5 221 Kevin Gall 1 81

Overall match rating: 8.2 / 10
Performance: 8.3
Entertainment: 8.1

32 votes received.

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