It's all fallen apart. It's not just 'season over', as reported last week, everything's gone pear-shaped. The team spirit has gone, the goodwill of the supporters has been lost, and who knows what's happened to the the team's shape, fitness and tactical awareness?

Yeovil started the day 3rd in the league, were playing the team then in 16th, who hadn't scored at home since December. Yet few were confident of getting a result, and that lack of belief was soon borne out: Northwich tore Yeovil apart in the first half, and should have won by more.

Although the Glovers were without Kevan Brown (his job as captain being taken by Tony Pennock), the return of Hayfield and Tisdale gave some grounds for optimism. Matt Hale also came into the side, making his début at left back. This pushed Glen Poole into the midfield.

Northwich started brighter, and stayed on top throughout. Things went so badly for Yeovil that as early as the 2nd minute the front two were bawling at eachother. Meanwhile the Vics went close with a Cooke header and a Vicary shot before they opened the scoring with a superb effort. Val Owen, by far the best player on the pitch, ran unchallenged through the midfield and picked out Darren Vicary in the left channel, whose cross was tapped in by Ian Cooke.

Rob Cousins had to clear off the line to keep out Cooke, and Tisdale was on hand as the rebound also went goalwards. Owen thundered a volley against the underside of the Yeovil bar just before extending the lead; he was given far too much time and space at the edge of the Glovers area, and fired home neatly inside the far post.

Yeovil weren't in the game at all at this point. The midfield was ineffective, so was being bypassed with long balls up to Patmore and Foster. But neither got the better of the Vics defenders, their lack of pace being particularly noticable. The immobile Patmore in particular seemed to find it hard to get going.

Yeovil's first attempt didn't come until after the first half-hour had passed, and it came from Glen Poole, who fired well over, the ball quite possibly landing somewhere near Manchester. Yeovil's second effort was from Poole too (a free-kick which was on target, but not a difficult save for ex-Yeovil keeper Malcolm Rigby). Yeovil's third effort on goal came from Glen Poole. And the fourth effort came from, er, Glen Poole. Anyone noticed a pattern yet?! What makes this worse is that Poole wasn't really having a great game in midfield, and looked more comfortable when moved back to left-back late on. This just shows how poor the rest of the team were.

Yeovil did finish the second half defending slightly stronger than at the start, and this continued in the second half. But the Vics had so much of the play that they still carved out a number of chances. Crookes fired a volley close just before Cooke bagged his second goal. Predictably Val Owen started the move, and Cooke delivered a low shot just out of Pennock's reach.

Warren Patmore had the one golden opportunity that Yeovil created. He was offside, but no flag came when he had just Rigby to beat. However, Wazza was slow to react, and the keeper got in the block. Patmore was immediately substituted, heading straight down the tunnel.

A late effort from Owen brought a good save from Pennock. A fourth goal would have given a fair score-line, such was the gap in the teams here today. Yeovil drop to 5th in the table, and look like they will drop much further by the end of the season.

Results and updated table

above: malcolm rigby parades his area in front of flags from his ex-club.

above: rigby saves at the feet of hayfield

above: val owen caused yeovil great difficulties in the first half. here he's challenged by matt hale and rob cousins.