This was the sort of performance that management tend to call 'professional'. I call it dull. It may seem churlish to complain when the side win an FA Trophy away tie by four goals, but high entertainment this was not. After taking a fortunate 2-0 lead early on, Yeovil sat back, but Bedford weren't really good enough to fight back into the game.
Yeovil opened the scoring after just five minutes, when Jamie Pitman's free-kick into the area was quite spectacularly missed by the keeper James Heeps (see the photo near the bottom of this report), and the ball ended in the net via a defender (Paul Covington I think, difficult to be sure from our vantage point). And any Eagles' hopes of an upset were pretty much finished off when the lead was doubled on 15 minutes. Again there was an element of luck, as Ben Smith's cross found defender Gary Williams, only for his clearance to hit Warren Patmore and rebound into the net.
That's pretty much it for the first half. Yeovil sat back and allowed Bedford to come at them for the rest of the half, but the home side couldn't muster a single effort on goal of note before the break.
The second half started much the same, except that Bedford's crosses were now occasionally finding heads in the penalty area, Eddie Lawley putting a good chance wide, while Chris Payne headed over.
Yeovil did push the game a little more around the hour mark, and another pair of goals finished off the contest. The first was a much more impressive strike, as Jamie Pitman's cross was headed back across goal by Warren Patmore for Jason Eaton to meet on the half-volley, his goal perhaps justifying Steve Thompson's surprising decision to start Jason ahead of Adrian Foster.
The scoring was completed by Rob Cousins, getting only his third goal for the club (but his second in two games. Could be on 20 by the end of the season!). Was it a cross, or was it a shot? I don't think many of us really cared as it dipped over Heeps and into the far top corner of the net.
That's about it. The team did enough to go into Monday's draw for the 5th round of the Trophy (last 16). Wembley gets closer...
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Below: The ball can be seen by the left knee of Paul Covington (Bedford's No 4). So what on earth is the keeper up to?! James Heeps missed the ball by, er, heaps.
The result is a Covington own-goal, and a fifth minute lead for Yeovil. |
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Below: The ball is up there somewhere! Glen Poole awaits the return of a skyer. |
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Pictures and text (c) 2000 D J Stevenson. |
