Through the seasons before us..

Yeovil Town – 0
Nottingham Forest – 3 

“Where were you at Wembley” was one of the banners amongst the home support, before the game it was easy enough to answer – many of us where sat at home or in the pub watching Yeovil get spanked by Blackpool!  If you were anything like me, you might even have found yourself rooting for the Somerset team – since it’s hardly their fault for capitalising on us being a bit rubbish in the playoff second leg!

So revenge wasn’t exactly on the agenda for me – I just wanted to see the Reds continue the run of good results in the league, and register another good result which takes us up to eighth in the league, win the game in hand we have, and we’d be second on goal difference.  Real credit is due to both Smoulds and the players for this resurgent form that has made our faltering start to the season seem a while ago now.

It was very much the game-of-two-halves that we so often hear about, with a scrappy first half followed by a more decisive second – certainly from Forest’s point of view.  Judging by the description of the latter two goals from Junior Agogo and Kris Commons in the second half, goals-on-monday will be a real treat for Reds fans!  So in the league, it’s played three, scored nine, conceded none – you’ve got to be happy with that!

Probably the most interesting factors of the first half were that Cohen was warmly welcomed back by the Glovers fans, and that both Yeovil and Forest had won a corner inside the first two minutes!  Cohen picked up a booking for a foul, Stewart had a decent shot which Smith saved, Larrieu in the Yeovil goal came out well to deny Tyson after good work from Agogo, and that’s probably all that’s worth noting of a pretty poor first half.

The second half looked set to be more of the same, after ten minutes of drudgery though, Yeovil crafted a great chance – Scott Guyett’s goalbound header was cleared off the line by Junior Agogo of all people.  Forest scored with their first real chance – Sammy Clingan played the ball to Grant Holt in the air, who was able to direct the ball to Luke ‘goalmachine’ Chambers to head his fourth of the season.

Commons was brought on for Tyson after around an hour, and immediately looked lively – having a shot from distance.  Shortly after this Holt put Agogo through who caught it sweetly on the half-volley bringing a good save from Larrieu in the Yeovil goal.  Clearly being a goal behind Chambers in the scoring stakes was a sore point for Junior, but he would soon level the rightback’s goal tally.

Agogo got possession from a loose ball, beating the final defender – and had the presence of mind to check the position of Larrieu – who was quite far off his line – and confidently lofted a cheeky lob from around 35 yards into the gaping goal.  Not to be outdone, Kris Commons was fed by Holt, he turned and smashed a cheeky volley off the crossbar and in.

It could’ve been four too.  Junior Agogo was withdrawn for Emile Sinclair, and his first touch was a goalbound shot after more good work from Commons on the left, unfortunately it struck Grant Holt and missed the target denying the youngster a second goal as a late substitute.  Commons finished up the game with another effort from range which Larrieu needed to palm around the post for a corner.

All in all, a fantastic result from what sounded like a scrappy game.  We are starting to create and convert chances with much more regularity – and the habit of clean sheets in the league is certainly a pleasing one also.  It might not have been pretty for the majority of the game, but at this stage – who cares?  Big congratulations to Smoulds and the boys – three points off the automatic places, with a game in hand – that’s better, isn’t it?