Rovers v Yeovil

Last Time Out...

Most Expats will tell you that one of the things they miss the most about living overseas is not being able to go and watch their football team so often.  We listen to every match on our respective team's player service; we watch the highlights of our last match; we read the opinions of fans who were there on the forums.  During games we sometimes hear fans moaning and complaining about the match and then we read the continued whinging on messageboards.  We think "You don't know you're born, you lot, try NOT being there!" 

Occasionally, our team gets an appearance on TV.  Bliss!  We expats get to see our team play live.  Its a real highlight for us.

Then we watch the utter crap that the team dishes up in the name of football and suddenly, not being able to see what is going on gains a certain appeal!

What an awful match Monday night's game against Crawley was!  I thought only Gary Woods, Rob Jones and James Husband gave an "average-plus" account of themselves.  The rest - poor with a few sinking as low as inept.

But we scratched a point out of the game.  A lucky bounce in a last minute goalmouth scramble and it would have been three.  Rovers would have moved to the top of the table possibly in the most unspectacular manner ever.  Some say that scratching points out of games when playing badly in a trait of champions.  I wouldn't disagree with this opinion, but I would say that teams exhibiting such traits generally play well, but have the odd poor day at the office.  They don't play poorly for four games in a row.  Rovers need to improve.

In fairness, I don't think this point is lost on the players.  I am certainly sure that if it hadn't dawned on the players that the team performance was awful on Monday, Bryan Flynn and Rob Jones would have clarified the point on Tuesday.  Rob's comment in his post-match interview was simple and lucid.  "NOT GOOD ENOUGH!"

Meanwhile...

Yeovil's last outing was on Saturday at home to Scunthorpe United, who went into the match on a four-game unbeaten run.  Watching the 20 minutes of highlights provided by Glovers' Player, I saw Yeovil completely dominate Scunny.

The game had a pattern.  The ball would come out of the Iron's defence into midfield where Yeovil won it by simply out-competing their opponents.  They then attacked quickly and stylishly.  One of the best moves saw a series of passes move the ball to Sam Foley who's shot was spectacularly tipped over the top corner of the goal by Sam Slocombe.

Unfortunately for Scunny, the save gave them no respite.  From the corner, Byron Webster headed in from inside the 6-yard box.

The second half saw Yeovil continue in this same, relentless fashion.  Hayter and Madden had both been within inches of extending the Somerset team's lead before the referee correctly adjudged Callum Kennedy to have fouled Foley in the box.  James Hayter cooly made it two.  Patrick Madden completed the scoring  with his 18th of the season, turning in a cross from the right.

On recent evidence, Rovers could be confused by Yeovil's apparent wish to dick about in midfield rather than attempting to boot the ball as far as possible in the direction of the opponents goal to give your striker a 50/50 chance, at best to do something.  This strangely familiar approach worked for Yeovil.  They repeatedly opened up the Scunthorpe defence through the midfield and, as their 16 shots in the game demonstrate, never seemed to lack the confidence  to have a dig at goal.

To put that figure in perspective, 16 shots is just one fewer than Rovers have managed in their last 270 minutes of football.  For Rovers to exceed the 13 efforts on target (including 3 goals) that Yeovil managed during this game, you'd have to include all efforts from the last four Rovers' outings.

Yeovil Town 3 : 0 Scunthorpe United

Earlier this Season...

Yeovil inflicted Donny's first, and until just two weeks ago, only away defeat at Huish Park.

It was fair enough really.  The scrappy first half, was notable only for a Rueben Reid effort that rattled Gary Woods' bar followed by a great last-ditch tackle from Rob Jones to deny James Hayter an easy rebound.  But Hayter was not to be denied the satisfaction of scoring against a former employer in the second half, when Reid placed a cross onto his head for him to give Yeovil the lead.  

Gozie Ugwu, on loan from Reading, came off the bench to chip Gary Woods to make it 2:0. A late consolation from Billy Paynter wasn't enough and Yeovil deserved the points.

Yeovil 2 : 1 Rovers

The Season so far...

It all started well for Yeovil as they remained unbeaten for their first four games.  They then lost six consecutive matches before rallying with a sequence of 4 wins in five.  Their form remained very reasonable before exploding into a frankly superb 8-match winning streak.  They look to make it 9 today at the Keepmoat.

This run has seen the Glovers climb from 12th to an effective season high 5th (they were leading the table after the second game of the season).

Donny have got lucky.  While it's frustrating to think that had we picked up any more than 2 points from the last 12 available, we would be leading the pack and really should be pulling clear, somehow, our form has only caused us to lose one place.  We are still very much in the title race.

Yeovil Season High: 1st (August)

Yeovil Season Low: 16th (October)

...and so to the Game

Without any doubt, this is the biggest challenge faced so far by Bryan Flynn and sadly for the Rovers, they have to show much more than they have shown against Crawley and the MK Dons to stand any chance at all.

The table above shows Yeovil to be efficient in front of goal and able to create plenty of chances, obviously a winning combination.  The only slightly heartening point I can glean from the data is that they also allow their opponents plenty of chances. 

But even in this aspect, they have improved of late and are miserly when it comes to conceding goals.

The goal time chart shows that in the last 15 minutes of each half, Yeovil go nuts.  12 scored in the final fifteen minutes of the first half and 17 at the end of the second indicate fitness isn't an issue with the Glovers.  Oppoenents must maintain concentration levels.

From the Rovers' perspective, I think the important thing is who is available?  Thanks Neil Grainger, he got this from the horse's mouth.  Paul Keegan has been back in training and feels he should be in contention.  Keegs also reported Iain Hume and David Syers to be on their way back.  All three are very welcome.  Keegan is proving to be the grunt-man of the Rovers' team, doing all the ugly stuff  that keeps the team working.  We have missed Humey's work-rate and creativity up front and Syers has transformed himself this season from a player who could barely get a game in the division below to an integral part of a leading League 1 team.

The referee today is Eddie Ilderton.  In 24 matches this season, Ilderton has shown 81 yellow cards, including two "second yellows".  3.4 cautions per game is high but it looks like it has the desired effect for Ilderton.  Including the second yellows, only 4 players have received their marching-orders during his games.

Forum Corner

Funnily enough, I wasn't the only critic of the Rovers' performances this week.  Some fans are starting to voice discontent about the manager.  Here I don't agree.  I really don't think things are much different from when Deano was in charge.  Performance-wise, we haven't really torn up trees regularly all season, especially at home.  We have battled though, hence our league position.  Besides, do we really want our chairman getting into the bad habits of the chairmen at Wolves, Forest and Chelsea in sacking the manager whenever there is more than one cloud in the sky?

A thread I really liked was posted by Neil Grainger about how he received a phone call from Paul Keegan to thank him for buying a season ticket during their first week of sale.  Other fans reported calls from other players for the same reason.  We fans love our clubs and the players who represent it.  I absolutely love the fact that my local team, FC Winterthur have players who will stop me in the street to say hello!  All actions from clubs that show this level of appreciation for fans are truly excellent and long may they continue!

Onto the Yeovil boards and my my, aren't things positive, for some reason!  No doubts about their manager, Gary Johnson is being proposed for a peerage!  Apparently, Johnson, in his second successful spell in Somerset, already has the freedom of Yeovil.  An honour that allows him to drive cattle through the council chambers while the council is in session, or something like that.

Finally a thread, about a point picked up by both sets of fans.  The fact that League 1 is going down to the wire.  It certainly is, and isn't it great to be competing in a league where we're still talking about two from seven for the automatic places?  Sure, I'd prefer to be 10 points clear watching everyone else scrapping for second, but this is the next best thing.

Yeovil fans were not so impressed at the superficiality of their entry in that article, speculating that it could mean that they are slipping in under the radar.  Well tried, but an eight match unbeaten run kinda draws attention.  Try losing a few to remain inconspicuous.  Today would be a good time to start!

Enjoy the match everyone!