A late fitness test for club captain Terry Skiverton saw him once again withdraw from the squad to face the pre-season title favourites Northampton Town, as Gary Johnson made one change to the side that beat Shrewsbury last weekend, replacing a semi-fit Colin Miles with Kevin Gall, who fitted in at right wing, with Paul Terry dropping into the right-back slot.

Northampton started a little brighter, winning three early corners, but without gaining too much out of them. David Galbraith shot through a crowd of players from one of these set pieces but Chris Weale comfortably collected the ball, meanwhile Roy O'Brien was at his cool, calm and collected best when he took the ball off winger Josh Low when Northampton's 165K record signing span his way into the box, only to find O'Brien as the immovable object.

Just 14 minutes into the match though, the Glovers took the lead. Shortly after Gavin Williams had hit a shot over the bar, an outstanding move from end to end was finished in style. Paul Terry collected a ball from his own half, recollected the ball after an exquisite one-two with Andrejs Stolcers had seen the Latvian casually back-heel the ball back to Terry, and the right-back ran all the way through to the edge of the area before delivering the simplest of passes to Phil JEVONS. Eight yards out and on the angle, Jevons seems to miss few of these sort of chances and the end result was as predictable as you could get - the ball being passed into the corner to put the Glovers 1-0 up.

Darren Way forced Cobblers keeper Paul Rachubka into a strong save when his angled drive from the edge of the area which the keeper did well to hold onto. At the other end, Northampton were getting frustrated, and that was emphasised when Fred Murray landed in the book for persistent fouling.

Yeovil haven't been having much luck with penalty decisions this week, and they were denied another one on the half hour mark when Phil Jevons - about to tee up and shoot from the same position as he had scored from - was hauled down by Northampton defender Chris Willmott. However, like Tuesday no penalty was given.

As the half wore on though, Yeovil just began to take their foot off the gas a bit too much, and after one up'n'under ball had seen Roy O'Brien and Liam Fontaine struggle to bring it under control, Scott McGleish's lobbed attempt had to be headed off the line by Paul Terry. But that was as close as Northampton came to scoring, and the Glovers went in at the break largely deserving their half time lead.

It's not that often you see five sets of substitutions read out at the start of a second half. Gary Johnson's were forced with Gavin Williams and Phil Jevons being swapped for Adrian Caceres and Bartosz Tarachulski. Colin Calderwood's appeared to be an extreme tactical gamble in the form of a triple substitution, whilst keeping the starting 3-4-3 formation. Andrejs Stolcers continued where Yeovil had left off by having a shot blocked by a defender in a goalmouth scramble.

Chris Willmott got away with a second penalty appeal early into the half when he handled Bartosz Tarachulski's attempt to hook the ball back across the Northampton penalty area. No doubt that the ball hit the Cobblers captain's arm - just a question of whether the referee saw it, and whether he felt the close range hook was a case of ball-hit-hand or hand-hit-ball.

Scott McGleish had last week scored what turned out to be the winning goal last week against Bristol Rovers when he attempted an overhead kick and he tried one again eight minutes into the half when a cross had gone to the back post. Somehow Chris Weale anticipated it and palmed it away for a corner. Two corners later and barely a minute more on the clock, Wealey produced another monster block - taking the ball off Chris Willmott's head at the back post after the ball had been flicked across the area with the goal seemingly gaping.

Yeovil were by now dropping deeper and deeper as tired legs from Tuesday seemed to be creeping in amongst those who had played at Torquay. Playing on the break was their main source of attack, and Bartosz Tarachulski produced a run that landed Tommy Jaszczun in the book when a cynical shirt-pull stopped the Pole's run.

Lee Williamson executed possibly one of the worst dives seen at Huish Park, hoping to get a penalty. Somehow referee Mick Russell didn't consider the dive to be worthy of more than a talking to, although that didn't last with Williamson fouling Lee Johnson a minute later - the Cobblers midfielder finally landing in the book.

With Yeovil gradually getting forced into their own half, particularly down the flanks, Kevin Gall was replaced by Andy Lindegaard in a straight one-for-one positional swap.

As Northampton surged forward Martin Smith headed a right wing cross back across the face of the Yeovil goal. Northampton's problem was that for all their territory, that was as close as they were coming to threatening Chris Weale's goal.

But just when it seemed as though Yeovil were going to get away with it, a right wing move eleven minutes from time undid all their first-half hard work. Josh Low broke away after a Yeovil corner was cleared, and put a ball across the face of the Yeovil box. Martin Smith slid in and missed the ball and probably that "accidental dummy" was enough to wrong-foot Chris Weale, giving Eric SABIN the chance to sweep the ball home on the back post. Probably fair on the increasing balance of play, but immensely frustrating for the tired Yeovil players.

The only danger now for the Glovers was that they might come away with nothing, but they managed to hang on. Lee Williamson turned and shot inside the box, as did Andrejs Stolcers at the other end for what was a rare second half Yeovil chance. There was then the obligatory nasty injury time moment when a David Rowson cross whistled across the face of the Yeovil penalty box with no Cobblers striker getting on the end of it. Thankfully the whistle blew without any damage done ... ten minutes more of the match, and the Huish Park unbroken record could have been in jeopardy. Thankfully with no major midweek games coming up for once, Gary Johnson can rest his troops for the County Cup and prepare them fully for Friday night's trip to Rochdale.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Player MOTM Score Chris Weale 24 748 Roy O'Brien 23 672 Others 3

Overall match rating: 6.5 / 10
Performance: 5.9
Entertainment: 6.9

50 votes received.

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