Yeovil v Swans | Vital Football

Yeovil v Swans

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Yeovil 1 - Swans 6

Swansea City: Kristoffer Nordfeldt; Connor Roberts (Kyle Naughton 46), Mike van der Hoorn (Brandon Cooper 61), Joe Rodon (Cian Harries 61), Jake Bidwell (Declan John 61); Jay Fulton (Jack Evans 61), Matt Grimes (George Byers 46); Nathan Dyer (Joel Asoro 46), Bersant Celina (Yan Dhanda 61), Wayne Routledge (Barrie McKay 61); Oli McBurnie (Courtney Baker-Richardson 61).
Subs not used: Erwin Mulder.

Roberts, Fulton, Routledge and Celina all started after being substitutes at Crawley.
Naughton, Byers, McKay and Dhanda dropped to the bench, Benda and Cullen missed out

Sad to see the decline of Yeovil Town, recently relegated from the EFL for the first time in 16 seasons, and now playing in the National League next season. They were a Championship side as recently as season 2013-14, but suffered successive relegations with such renowned managers as Gary Johnson and Paul Sturrock, plus our ex-player Darren Way.

It looks as if they are not staging a comeback anytime soon either as the Swans tore them to shreds with some slick one touch football. Although with their new owner, local businessman Chris Hatton, taking over the club last month and promising a £10m injection of funds for player recruitment, their future could be a lot brighter.

A surprising hat trick from midfielder Fulton, never a prolific scorer, here’s a link to the highlights -

 
Head Coach Steve Cooper sets Swansea City goal challenge.

McBurnie was the Swans' top scorer with 24 goals in all competitions last season, with Bersant Celina (8) the only other player to manage more than five goals.

Cooper wants to see a number of players chip in by getting on the scoresheet with regularity during the upcoming 2019-20 season, and avoid an over-reliance on any one player or area of the pitch.

Midfielder Jay Fulton signalled his intent with a hat-trick in the 6-1 win over Yeovil, while the likes of George Byers, Barrie McKay and Wayne Routledge have also found the net during the early stages of pre-season.

And Cooper has revealed he wants his side to be willing to get themselves in the box, or take aim at goal, when the opportunity presents itself.

"There is no doubt that last season we were probably a bit too reliant on Oli to score goals," said Cooper following the win at Huish Park.

Ideally we want goals coming from all areas of the pitch, so was good to see that from Jay.

George scored at the weekend for us too, albeit from a set play, but it gives them confidence.

We have given the players a licence to get forward and give us more bodies high up the pitch and you could see that tonight and to get goals at the end of that is good.

We have set that challenge to the players to provide goals from all areas of the pitch.

So if we are doing that in pre-season then the message is being taken on board, and we want to maintain that throughout the season."
 
A good report from Yeovil here:

Yeovil Town were firmly beaten this evening, as Swansea City put six goals past them. The Championship side have provided competitive opposition in pre-season friendlies over the past decade, but on this occasion there was a wide gap between the two teams, with Jay Fulton grabbing a hat-trick at Huish Park in a 1-6 scoreline, where only a first half headed goal from Tom Bradbury gave the Glovers any joy.

Darren Sarll's side went into the match using the same rough shape and line-up that he had used in the two previous friendlies. Matt Worthington had limped off at Bideford on Friday night and he was replaced by Nestor Shako. The half time substitution in that game against Hereford saw Gabriel Rogers replace Ryan Seager and that was also maintained, even though Seager was fit and available on the bench. The only other change was a new trialist occupying the No.10 shirt, with Bradley Ash not in the squad on the night.

On a pitch that appeared to have been heavily saturated by the sprinkler system, to the point of being almost waterlogged, Swansea opened the scoring with two goals in the opening nine minutes. Four minutes into the match Wayne Routledge threaded a pass down the middle to Bersant Celina and he passed the ball under the body of Stuart Nelson for an early lead. That was quickly followed by Jay Fulton curling a shot from the edge of the box into the top left hand corner to put Swansea 0-2 up.

Having started the match in such a dominant mood, with Celina striking the inside of the post five minutes later, Swansea would have been frustrated to even give Yeovil a sniff of a chance on goal. But that was what they did just over half an hour into the game when a Carl Dickinson free kick was headed back across goal by Tom Bradbury giving the Glovers a bit of happiness with their first major effort on target and a 1-2 scoreline.

But all that didn't last too long. Just before the break, a Matt Grimes ball into the box was met by an excellent header from Oli McBurnie. Stuart Nelson parried the attempt well, but he couldn't hold onto the ball and that allowed Jay Fulton the ability to follow up and tap the loose ball home from two yards out and give the Welshmen a 1-3 half time lead.

Yeovil's first half trialist hadn't done an awful lot, nor seen the ball and so another trialist in David Moyo took to the field for his third chance to impress. But nine minutes into the half, Swansea extended their lead with a free kick that Yeovil didn't really anticpate quickly enough. Bersant Celina took a free kick short across the face of the box, and Jay Fultongot time to read the pass and fire a shot from 18 yards out that cannoned off the underside of the bar.

Despite the goal glut, Stuart Nelson was having an impressive game, doing enough to make Celina fire over the crossbar, but then getting his hand on the ball when Wayne Routledge tried to round him for another goal. A single handed save from another Celina shot helped keep the scoreline down. Both sides rang the changes, with Swansea bringing six new players on, having introduced three more at half time, whilst Yeovil saw Ryan Seager come on, alongside another new trialist.

But Swansea were still dominant even with a new team, and Barrie McKay made it look a bit too easy when he ran through the middle unchecked for a 75th minute goal that put his side 1-5 up. And as Yeovil made further changes, with Courtney Duffus and George Calverley coming on with another trialist, it didn't stop Swansea's momentum. A 90th minute run by George Byers saw him shoot from the edge of the box, and although Nelson once again saved, the ball fell at the feet of Courtney Baker-Richardson who made it 1-6 in favour of the Championship side, in a rather one-sided night at Huish Park.

Full Time: Yeovil Town 1 Swansea City 6.

Scorers: Bersant Celina (0-1, 4 mins), Jay Fulton (0-2, 9 mins), Tom Bradbury (1-2, 33 mins), Jay Fulton (1-3, 42 mins), Jay Fulton (1-4, 54 mins), Barrie McKay (1-5, 75 mins), Courtney Baker-Richardson (1-6, 90 mins)
 
The goal conceded has got to be mentioned as once again it was a set piece failure. The free kick goes over the top of our static defence for Yeovil defender Bradbury to head the ball into the net unchallenged and past the statuesque Nordfelt. Not good enough and we need to sort this out pronto.

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