Tuesday 20 th October 2026
FA Cup, Fourth Qualifying Round – Replay – Yeovil Town (A) 2-5
Meh, I didn’t really fancy spending a Saturday in Chesterfield anyway…
As you’d expect from a stadium that has (briefly) hosted Championship football, Huish Park
is blessed with some fine facilities and a lush green playing surface (which after Saturday,
we know is much more to Billy Rowley’s taste than our apparently overgrown hayfield). No
trip to the West Country is complete without sampling a traditional pasty. Sadly, they were
out of those, so I had to settle for the vegan Sri Lankan curry filling instead. It was, as they
say in those parts, “gert lush, my babber”. From what I saw of the burgers though, they
were far from ‘gert’ or ‘lush’ – the one I saw was, frankly, raw…
If the burger was a bullet dodged, there was no dodging them for the boys on the pitch.
Despite putting out a strong starting eleven, Yeovil’s proved to be stronger, and they set
about doing what they should have done at two-nil up on Saturday. There was no shame at
all in the defeat – Yeovil’s elevated status and resources were the difference – and the
Tanners can be proud of their performance; from what I’ve read since on ‘the socials’, they
impressed the locals with their fight and determination as well. That was after ninety
minutes, of course – after just two, they were more likely cursing us…
Eventual man of the match Slavi Spasov was dispossessed by Dicko in the midfield, and Mark
picked up the loose ball, running at the defence. A defender nicked it off his toe, but the ball
ran across the box, where Kofi was waiting to finish crisply into the bottom corner for an
unlikely but welcome early lead. The goal only really served to poke the bear though, and
Yeovil didn’t take long to respond. Jones put in Davies after eight minutes, Sonny turning a
cross-come-shot behind, and on fifteen minutes, they went one better, Spasov evading
Cam’s marking to nod in Gubbins’ floated ball from the left.
McGavin went close, and Davies made a spurious penalty shout, and with twenty-four
minutes played, the growing pressure culminated in a second goal. Radcliffe was the
provider, picking out Jones with a defence-splitting pass. Jones’ finish, it must be said, was
expert – clipped first time past Sonny and in off the post.
Tanners stuck to their task, albeit that task was mostly defending – you know you’re under
the cosh when you have Anas making goal-saving challenges in the right back position. Then,
when we did manage to break out at the end of the half, instead of getting a goal back, we
ended up going a man down. Mark picked up the ball on the edge of his own box, advanced,
and dinked a promising-looking ball forward for Charlie to chase. Jones beat him to it, the
ball ran loose, and in trying to win the resulting fifty-fifty with Jack Kingdon, Charlie went in
studs up. Boom – straight red. He was probably still smarting from the fact that Davies had
only received a yellow for a similar assault on him on the half-hour, but either way, his
dismissal made a difficult task that bit harder.
Four minutes were added on at the end of the half. One passage of play saw some heroic
defending from the Tanners, blocks from Cam and Dicko in particular proving decisive, but
the storm could not be weathered, and Yeovil racked up a third before the whistle. Jones
slipped in Powell on the left of the box, and his shot was initially saved by Sonny.
Regrettably, he couldn’t get his second hand on the ball, and it squirmed out to Spasov to
tuck in his second. Now we know why Rowley likes short soggy grass so much…
Halftime – Yeovil Town 3, Tanners 1.
Tanners made three switches at the break – Marcel, Matty and Kofi out; Tom, Connor and
Kemall in. Daly and Davies also left the field for Yeovil. Now what was it that happened on
Saturday when multiple subs were made with Tanners two down…? Come on, you were all
thinking it! Sadly, there were no dramatic comebacks tonight…
Tanners had a couple of forays forward, but Yeovil were mostly happy to pass it around, tire
us out and look to pick us off. It looked inevitable that they’d put another one away sooner
or later, and this duly came to pass just before the hour. McGavin scooped in a free kick,
Sonny, Mark and Cam all got in each other’s way, and Lennon, one of the halftime subs, had
the simple task of tapping it in at the back post.
With twenty-five minutes left, Ian gave the tired legs of Anas and Dicko a break, freshening
things up by introducing Nathan and Harry. With barely a minute having passed, the change
almost paid immediate dividends. Harry did well to retain possession on the left, before
passing inside. The ball bobbled off an outstretched Yeovil leg for Mark to nod it down to
Connor, who played a fantastic reverse pass through to Nathan. He outpaced the defence
and got his shot away, but Jos Barker had watched the move developing and he was out
quickly to save with his feet.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – this Tanners side rarely lies down. It was to
their credit that, three goals and one man down, they kept going, and they got some reward
with a great goal in the seventy-sixth minute. Barker’s long kick was intercepted by Niran,
who fed it forward to Tom. One clever little pass later, it was at Connor’s feet, and he
finished emphatically for four-two.
Tanners didn’t have enough in the tank to make that goal any more than a consolation
though. McGavin fired narrowly over for Yeovil, Tom did the same for us. Connor also had a
back post header go wide. With four minutes left, Yeovil grabbed a fifth. Spasov won the
ball and fed in Nardiello on the right. His first-time cross made it all the way to the back post
where Lennon pipped Louie to the ball for a tap in. Harsh on the Tanners, that, but that’s
what National League sides do to Step Three sides playing half a match with ten men. Sonny
at least won us a small victory at the death, saving well from Jones with the home fans
baying for a sixth.
Fulltime – Yeovil Town 5, Tanners 2.
I may be too easily pleased – winning’s nice, but all I really want to see is the team playing
good football, and doing their very best. To a man, they ‘left it all on the pitch’, and worked
their metaphorical socks off. For context, in just two games, we scored five against a high-
flying National League team – before this tie, it had taken the collective efforts of seven Step
One sides to score seven against them, and four of those came in one game. Huge credit
also to the travelling Green Army, adding one hundred and ninety-eight souls to the overall
attendance of two thousand and ninety-four. On a cold wet night over a hundred miles from
home, that’s proper support.
So that’s the Cup done for this season. It’s back to Trophy business on Saturday, when
Eastbourne Borough come to The Grove. Nine wins in their last ten, kicked off with an eight-
game winning streak, tells me that’s going to be a tough one… COYT!
