City Discover Some Steel

Gary Johnson’s return to Yeovil started disastrously at Huish Park when Yeovil took a third minute lead with their first attack of the match. Matt Harold got in a centre from the left flank which was helped on by Phil Jevons to David Poole who turned the ball into the net.

Yeovil could have increased their lead on several occassions during a first half when the City midfield
failed to come to terms with their Yeovil counterparts.

The City defence with goalkeeper Basso outstanding worked overtime to keep the deficit to one goal at the interval.

The home crowd were, naturally, well up for this match and were tauntimg their former manager with chants
of ‘ Gary, Gary what’s the score’, as the teams trooped off at the interval.

Scott Murray who had needed to leave the field after 40 minutes to have stitches in a head wound, returned for the second half and it soon became obvious that City’s midfield were sticking tighter to their men and that the away team were coming back into the match.

They were rewarded after only 5 minutes of the second period when Matt Heywood’s header from Alex Russell’s corner entered the net despite the efforts of Lee Johnson to clear off the line.

The match now swung from one end to the other with City a far more purposeful outfit than in the first forty five minutes. Brazilian goalkeeper Basso was injured in a clash with Matt Harrold and, for the second time in three games, had to leave the field, Steve Phillips coming on as substitute. Marcus Stewart and Col Skuse entered the fray to replace Baz Savage and David Noble respectively and despite a late scare when Steve
Phillips was forced into a fine save by Matt Harrold.

City held on to gain a point. Yeovil will, no doubt, consider that their first half superiority merited all three points, but City have discovered some steel in their make up and will believe that their point was justified in a match that they would, no doubt, have lost only a short while ago.

Five points from three matches so far is a satisfactory return from the holiday matches and a home victory over Walsall on Monday would complete an excellent return, but that result will only be achieved with a lot of hard work and effort, ingredients that are becoming more and more evident under Gary Johnson’s stewardship.
By Peter Tully
By Peter Tully