Yeovil v Scunthorpe United

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Football League Two

Yeovil :
Weale, Lindegaard, Skiverton, Guyett, Rose, Gall (Stolcers 45(Amankwaah 79)), Way, Johnson, Davies, Jevons, Tarachulski (Fallon 70)
Subs not used:
Terry, Collis

Scunthorpe United :
Musselwhite, Angus, Butler, Crosby (Byrne 51), Ridley, Taylor, Sparrow, Baraclough (Williams 58), Corden (Keogh 85), Hayes, Torpey
Subs not used:
Rankine, Evans

SULSESC REPORT

by Mark Borrill at Huish Park

FOLLOWING complex and highly detailed logistical planning, and thereafter paying avid attention to meteorological conditions, we stumbled into Yeovil.

“Now where’s the ground then,” asked ‘backseat’ Skeels.

“Don’t know,” answered driver Whitworth, helpfully explaining that last season he had abandoned his car and taken a taxi from the town centre.

Enter ‘navigator’ Borrill, blessed with years of wisdom and allegedly a professional in road transportation. (How’s My Driving? Dial 0800 Shit). He timidly admitted that last season he had found the ground but without having seen Yeovil town itself, thus being equally disorientated.

However, in true Victorian explorer traditions, unaided by native assistance, we found a sign offering left or straight on options to the ground. Turn right, says I, right? “But the sign says…”

Turn bloody right, I insist, I know where I am and there’s a pub and a chippy down there. Thankfully, I was right – it does happen occasionally – and by now things are looking good, too good as it happens.

The game’s on, we have found the place, are fed and watered and having donned layer after layer of clothing, we waddled off looking like an obese American family in the direction of Hush Stadium. I know there’s an ‘i’ missing, but that’s a better and more accurate description of the place.

For those of you still reading this self indulgent drivel, I suppose I had better mention the game. After all, that’s why we went. Half-time, 2-1 up, top of the league, playing inexplicably well, exceeding our own expectations, and being bolstered by ‘Mrs. Skeels’ phoning in the half-times which led us to believe that Radcliffe Borough were beating Swansea, whilst Southend were losing at Bayern Munich.

Now, for those of you with mild dispositions, stop reading now, since the prophecy of things looking too good to last proved accurate. At 4-2 down with just a few minutes left on the clock, it represented, to me, an absolute travesty of a scoreline. Despite being disrupted by injuries and thus enforced substitutions, United had continued to play the predominant role and how we failed to get at least the point we deserved is beyond me.

So a 4-3 defeat was signalled by the final whistle and the Hush Stadium still didn’t require that silent letter ‘i’.

As for ourselves, by then we were feeling numb, both physically and mentally, from the cold and disappointment.

On the plus side, we had played very well, scored three times, looked like a decent side again and had displayed more squad strength-in-depth than for several years.

On the down side, apart from the obvious defeat, I am worried that after having played so well for nothing, psychologically, automatic promotion is now beyond us.

Of late, our form has been relegation level only, some performances have been truly awful, we are getting nothing on our travels and, with very limited prospects away for the remainder of the season, are immeasurably increasing the pressure on the team at home.

This was a truly crucial and indeed cruel defeat whose consequences will prove disastrous. But I am not always, or even often, right so here’s hoping thqat just because I can find a decent chippy in deepest Somerset, it doesn’t mean I know anything about predicting (How’s My Punditry? Dial 0800 Crap).