Glovers manager Gary Johnson stuck with the same side for the third match running as all players finally returned to the training ground for the first time this season. It's surely no coincidence that the ability to choose from a stable squad has coincided with the good run of form that the Glovers have had during November. They came up against a Lincoln side on top of the form table, who had recently ghosted into fifth place, having spent most of this season struggling in the bottom half of the table.

The Imps got in the first early chance of the match when Richard Butcher fired narrowly over the bar after some good work was executed out on the right wing. Then Marcus Richardson was denied by a superb tip-over save by Chris Weale as he palmed the ball round for a corner.

But this was a very open end-to-end game with Lincoln playing three up front, and Yeovil were able to carve open their own chances. Colin Miles headed over from a Lee Johnson corner, whilst another Johnson corner saw Bartosz Tarachulski's header cleared off the line by Kevin Sandwith. A third Johnson corner saw it played short to Darren Way who made himself room and shot just over the crossbar. Lincoln keeper Alan Marriott twice had to dive out of his area to stick the ball in the stand from through balls played onto the right wing.

Marcus RICHARDSON headed just over the bar for the home side, but just before the half hour mark, he was more successful. After a good advantage had been played by referee Mark Cowburn following a foul, a through ball got the Lincoln striker in behind the Yeovil defence and he pushed the ball past Chris Weale and into the corner to make it 1-0.

Richardson could have made it 2-0 eight minutes later with an almighty fluke. Pushing the ball across the face of the Yeovil goal, the Yeovil defence left what appeared to be a tame ball for Chris Weale, not realising he was stood on his near post. Fortunately, the cross-cum-shot went a foot wide of the back post.

In what was an excellent end-to-end flowing game being played at a frantic speed, Yeovil were again not lying down. Lee Johnson's snatch shot just missed the target, whilst Lincoln had to clear the ball off their goal line for a second time during the game when a deep cross from Bartosz Tarachulski was met by Gavin Williams on the back post only for his narrow angled drive to once again be cleared from danger with the keeper beaten.

For 44-and-a-half minutes, referee Mark Cowburn had an excellent first half. Letting the game flow, and making allowances for the combative style of both teams, his prescence on the pitch had barely been noticed. All that seemed to change across one single decision. As the game reached injury time, Gavin Williams miscontrolled a ball on the penalty spot and in chasing the loose 50/50 ball, he collided with home keeper Alan Marriott. With little protests from the Lincoln players, who seemed more concerned about the welfare of their own keeper, the worst Williams could have expected was a yellow card but despite bringing such a colour out of his pocket, referee Cowburn seemed to be influenced by the histrionics of the home supporters and changed his mind, bringing out a red card from his back pocket and keeping the yellow in his other hand. A dreadful decision, with the official's claim that Williams went in two-footed clearly proving to be unfounded by subsequent video and still camera clips. In the aftermath, Darren Way was booked for dissent as he went nose-to-nose with Cowburn giving him a good 60 seconds worth of his thoughts on the subject.

Rather like Yeovil's matches against Southend and Darlington, a sending off perhaps influenced the mentality of the side that felt aggrieved. Whilst Yeovil were still reorganising, Colin Miles allowed Richard Butcher to turn him inside out and the squared ball was put home by Gary TAYLOR-FLETCHER to leave Yeovil with a mountain to climb.

A conversation I had with a Lincoln City steward at half-time, saw us both agreeing that the decision to send off Williams was harsh to say the least. As we parted company, he predicted that Lincoln would also finish the game with ten men and that the referee would do his best to "even up" his mistake. I wasn't going to disagree and it didn't take long before that same steward was shaking his head ruefully from the corner of my eye at being proved right.

Just 14 minutes into the half, Ben Futcher tugged the shirt of Bartosz Tarachulski as he headed down the wing, and despite the Pole heading away from goal and a Lincoln defender being in the centre, everyone in the ground knew what was coming next. Off went Futcher for a supposed "professional foul" and the match referee could content himself by knowing that he'd treated both sides as wrongly as each other. No accusations of bias here please!

Kevin Gall was now on the field, having replaced a fairly anonymous Andrejs Stolcers at half time, and with Lincoln down to ten men Terry Skiverton was giving a "roving" position in place of Colin Miles, with the Yeovil club captain sometimes up front, sometimes in defence, but mostly making a bee-line up and down the centre of the park.

If referee Cowburn had really wanted to even the sides up, he had an opportunity to do so under far more just circumstances. Peter Gain - already on a yellow card - committed a knee high tackle on Lee Johnson that seemed an obvious yellow card. But by this time Cowburn had tied himself in knots and simply wasn't mentally fit to continue with the game. A long finger-wag and a point towards the tunnel was all that Gain got, although Keith Alexander's decision to substitute the player 30 seconds later spoke volumes for what the home manager thought of the situation.

Terry SKiverton thought he'd got a goal back for the Glovers when he fired home in a crowded penalty box. It appeared that Marriott had clawed the ball back from behind his goal-line, but as the Yeovil players started to celebrate, Cowburn and his linesman stood there and did nothing and play carried on.

Richardson should have made it 3-0, albeit against the run of play, as Yeovil pushed up in hope of staging a comeback. Facing a two-on-one, the chipped cross over Weale to the back post looked meat-and-drink for Richardson but somehow he spooned his chance over the bar with the goal gaping. But just as with his first half miss, the Lincoln striker got another chance just a minute later and he didn't waste it this time. After Simon Yeo's shot had been brilliantly blocked by Chris Weale, the striker covered up his disappointment by regathering the ball and chipping it to the back post where Marcus RICHARDSON this time got his goal.

Terry SKIVERTON finally got his side some respect with a deserved goal. Collecting a Paul Terry flick-on after a corner had been half cleared, he calmly slotted the ball into the net from eight yards out but with only nine minutes late a comeback was unlikely.

But the game ended with a mini-flood of bookings from Cowburn. Tarachulski, for a foul and Jevons for kicking the ball a yard away, combined with Simon Yeo for dissent all added to a game that was never dirty but was always competitive. Richardson again missed a chance to collect the match ball when a last ditch tackle by Darren Way blocked his attempt at an open goal and really if this game had finished 5:5 no-one would have been surprised. Such a shame though, that one man in the middle took the gloss away from what had been an exciting match played with a terrific tempo, in which Yeovil - with three balls cleared off the Lincoln goal-line - certainly played their part.

Badger

MOTM Vote Result:

Overall match rating: 6.4 / 10
Performance: 5.4
Entertainment: 7.4

10 votes received.

Any comments/questions please email [email protected]

Back to Top of Page