This seasons shambolic rehash of what was known as the Johnston's Paint Trophy has pissed off a lot of fans.
What was more or less a straightforward knock out competition for teams in Leagues one and two, has spawned in to something much more toxic.
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| Huish Park |
Group stages have replaced the early knock out stages and most controversially, some Premiership and championship clubs have entered the fray but have been invited to play their under 23/ reserve sides. Many supporters fear this is the thin end of the wedge in a sinister plan to meddle with this country's beautiful pyramid system, paving the way for introducing premier league development teams in to the lower leagues.
As a Rovers fan, I've got some fond memories of the trophy during it's Johnston's paint sponsorship. In 2006/7, we went all the way to the final, eventually loosing in extra time, 3-2 to Doncaster at the Millennium stadium in what was a fantastic day out. That year the competition had also delivered a two legged area final against Bristol City, we hadn't played them for 6 years, both legs were sell outs and Rovers won 1-0 on aggregate courtesy of a Rickie Lambert thunderbolt. Fond memories indeed.
Rovers first game tonight was against Reading under 23's. This was not an attractive proposition and I was well up for voting with my feet and joining the #Bteamboycott. I did want to take in a game though and had a look at the fixture list; both Brislington and Hallen were playing in the Western league but going to a game so close to home with Rovers playing at the mem seemed weird. Plus I was keen to get back on track with the long and winding road to doing the 92. I settled on a trip to watch Yeovil play Portsmouth. Only one problem though, this was also a EFL Trophy game. I justified going along as both were league two teams so I could still sort of maintain that I wasn't endorsing the new format.
I set off for Yeovil from Bristol at 6, due to a bit of rush hour traffic and getting stuck behind numerous lorries and tractors on the way, it took a lot longer than it should have. This did give me time to enjoy BBC radio Somerset on the way though and I learned another ridiculous fact about the new format for the competition: Apparently if the game finished as a draw, both teams would get a point but they would also have a penalty shoot out for the grand prize of an extra point in the group table. Usually when there is a penalty shoot out, there is a lot at steak. I wondered what it would be like to watch one where neither side would care that much, would the players still do that huddle thing in the centre circle? Would the goalie go on a wild sprint down the touch line if he saved the decisive penalty? The team news was that Pompey had made 11 changes to the starting eleven from their last league game. They clearly weren't that inspired by the new format either then.
I parked up just a couple of minutes before kick off ensuring this would be very much a smash and grab job. An in and out ground hop. No sampling of a local ale in a nice pub and doing a lap of the ground before going in. I trotted from my car toward Huish Park. First impressions were good, set on the edge of town, it was surrounded by a lot of tress and I walked through a nice training pitch to get to the ticket office. After paying £10 to get in I just had time to buy a pasty for the rather steep price of £4 from the snack bar.
Huish Park is made up of two terraces behind the goals, one covered, one open and two all seater stands along the sides. Just the two seated stands were open tonight. Built in 1990, Huish Park is a decent lower league ground, fairly modern, there are no supporting pillars in sight, the main stand which I was in was about 2/3 full and there was a decent atmosphere at times. Yeovil Town FC have had a roller coaster few years. A long established non league club, they won the conference in 2003 and entered the football league for the first time and have remained their ever since. It is in the last few years that things really got interesting, in 2013 they gained promotion to the championship via the play offs, masterminded by adopted West County cockney Gary Johnson. Despite some good early results, they were unable to avoid relegation back to league one, things got worse the next season as they got relegated again. The next season (last season) was a struggle and at times it looked like they were going to achieve an unenviable hat-trick of relegation's and find themselves back in non league. Then ex player Darren Way stepped forward, took over as manager mid season, steadied the ship and pulled them to safety. Now they look to build again.
Not having had time to buy a programme, I took in the team news via twitter. The front pair stuck out for Yeovil. Izale Mcleod had joined at the start of the season, a player who has scored plenty where ever he has been, and he's been a lot of places. Tom Eaves was also upfront for them, I knew I recognised the name but it took me a while to remember where from, he'd been on loan at Rovers from Bolton in the 2012/13 season. He must have been about 19 then and did very well. Rovers were a struggling league two team then, he was with us for about half a season and scored 7 goals in 15 games, I remember in particular a wonder strike away to Wimbledon in what was otherwise a miserable 3-1 defeat, in what was mainly a miserable season. A tall, powerful and skillful goal scorer, the consensus at the time was that he was too good for us and would be making his mark in the Championship or higher before too long. The next season he went on loan to Shrewsbury, then in league one and did pretty well again. After that I couldn't remember hearing about where he was and who he was playing for. I was a bit surprised to see him at Yeovil, a struggling league two club. A quick check online showed me that since leaving Shrewsbury in 2013 he'd not had much luck finding the back of the net in various loan spells and had been released by Bolton. Football is a funny game. I always remember the case of 'The Geordie Gashead' aka Stuart Nicholson. He had a loan spell at Rovers in the 2006/7 season from West Brom. Aged 19 or 20, he was absolutely fantastic for us, tearing league two defences apart, scoring important goals and justifiably keeping Rickie Lambert on the bench. He went back to West Brom with what was thought to be short term injury. Great things were expected. It wasn't until a few years later that I suddenly realised I hadn't heard anything about him. A check on wikipedia showed that the following season he'd had another loan spell in league two, scoring 1 in 15, got released by West Brom the next year and has never played in the football league since, scratching around with a few conference north clubs and some Australian sides. Not to say he hasn't achieved great things in the game and is still probably making a living from it, but it just shows how unpredictable football can be especially if you chuck in an injury or two.
The game got off to a quick start with the home team making the early running. Pompey took the lead though, very much against the run of play when striker Matt Smith powerfully headed in a cross from the left with their first attack of the game. A fair few Pompey fans had made the journey up from the south coast. Even from the opposite side of the pitch, I could clearly make out the unmistakable figure of Mr Portsmouth, rallying his troops with his trusty bell. Yeovil, in an effort to quiet him down replied straight away, with the brilliantly named Bevis Mugabi scoring via a deflected free kick. From then on Yeovil took control, their midfielders were bossing the central areas and Eaves and Mcleod were combining well upfront. Before half time, Eaves had helped him self to two goals, one after a great run from the half way line. Mcleod also scored with a lovely chip after a nice one two. In between all this Michael Smith got another for Pompey after showing his strength with his back to goal and managing to turn his defender before in to the bottom corner. 4-2 at half time!
After a two pound cup of tea (most expensive of the season by far) I was ready for the second half. It wasn't as frenetic as the first, just the one goal was added to the total and that was when Smith completed his hat-trick with a looping header which seemed to wrong foot the young keeper.
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| Michael Smith nods in his third goal on the night. |
Pompey pressed for the equaliser, but it wasn't to be and we were all spared the prospect of a socially awkward penalty shoot out. Full time 4-3. Some impressive forward play on show. Smith's hat-trick was well earned, Mcleod looked a class act as usual and Tom Eaves looked the complete package. I'm sure if he stays fit, he will be a great signing for Yeovil.
As predicted, many clubs recorded their lowest ever attendances for a 'competitive' match in these first round of fixtures in the newly formatted EFL Trophy. Lets hope this proves to be an ill fated, one season only experiment. I enjoyed my trip to Huish Park, though feel I should return and enjoy it with all 4 stands open.
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