Do Prado’s first goal cancelled out

Yeovil 1, Saints 1

Saints were unchanged at Yeovil, with Fonte and Lallana both on the bench.

For once, it was our opponents who created the first opportunity after Seaborne’s slip allowed Andy Williams to get the wrong side of Harding and the full back was in no position to make a legal challenge, but attempted one anyway. Happily the referee concluded that Williams had gone to ground rather too easily so Saints escaped and eventually got their act together at the other end. It was nearly decisive as Lambert crashed a shot against the underside of the bar and defenders just managed to reach the bouncing ball first. Entertainment-wise this was a turning point as the contrasting styles of the two teams produced an eventful half, with Bowditch coming close from a long distance effort with Davis stranded off his line. In fact Yeovil relied on the long ball version of the game throughout, and it seemed to cause particular problems for Harding but no first half goals ensued.

Guly Do Prado replaced Chamberlain for the second period, played in often heavy rain that made things awkward for defenders. The Brazilian was able to show some nice touches, though, and he also delivered an assured finish after being played through by Butterfield and Schneiderlin.

Harding continued to struggle and Davis was far from the assured figure he had been at Hillsborough, rescued by Jaidi’s clearing header after a covering dash out towards Harding’s corner area had failed to come up with the ball.

Yeovil eventually got their penalty on 62 minutes when Seaborne fouled Gavin Williams (the hosts had three players called Williams) and Virgo converted from the spot.

Saints sent in a number of crosses and late on they forced a series of corners, but the home defence held firm until Do Prado almost broke the deadlock in added time – sadly his shot came back off the post. As in the previous game, Lallana replaced Barnard, himself carrying a knock, but in truth it was Lambert who was by far the least effective of our forward players.

LSSC Man of the Match: Danny Butterfield, who had a solid game in difficult conditions.

01 Davis