Yeovil Town at Huish Park was the latest of our must win do or die shit or bust matches that we’ve had ever since the Brighton draw which left us with no room for slip ups whatsoever. When they’s come to SMS, Yeovil had put up a decent show and we were on the lucky side with two ridiculous penalty decisions going our way. It was in fact our first win of the season and fortunately, we were considerably different to what we are now.

Yeovil themselves are not completely out of the woods regarding relegation but they should be ok. I hope they stay up but of course, we should beat them and I hope we do – heavily. The ritual of looking out for other teams results has already started this weekend with there being a Friday night fixture which saw Huddersfield beat a totally shocking Millwall side 1-0 in a match which saw a very poor side triumph over a piss poor one. They are both above us in the league and we really wanted Millwall to win that one. Never mind, we can only do our own job.

Pards named the save starting XI again with a truckload of strikers on the bench in Connolly, Barnard and Papa Waigo, balanced out by Perry, Wotton and the returning Radhi Jaidi, five hundred quid lighter in the pocket after losing a ‘Morgan won’t score as long as he has a hole in his ass’ bet.

As you’d expect, Saints flew at the start of the game and a Fonte header and shots from Sir Rickie, Lallana and Puncheon all caused a bit of anxiety to the Yeovil keeper. At the other end, Yeovil were an occasional threat with Superkelv being forced to save from Bowditch who looked lively.

On the half hour and following a break from Antonio, lallana found himself clean through but as he went to collect the pass, it bobbled up behind him forcing him to try the Rene Higuita Scorpion kick thing which inevitably meant that the chance was cleared even though he managed to get it towards the goal. Yeovil took over for the reminder of the half though with Bowditch firing wide when he should have scored and then Tomlin twice going close, once with a header that crept wide and once with a low shot which would have been a goal if he’d not been playing against Superkelv, who got down a pushed it round the post. Both of the chances for Tomlin had come via our right flank where Otsemobor was getting run ragged. Half time, 0-0

Not impressed with the lack of goal threat from his side, Pards threw on Barnard for Antonio at the start of the second half. The opening of the half was quiet but around the hour mark it all started getting interesting as first Sir Rickie fired over and then a Punch effort from a rebound was held by the keeper. Yeovil were still posing a threat, especially down our right hand side where at times, you did wonder if Otsemobor was playing.

Frustration was growing and following a Barnard booking for what can politely be described as a ‘forwards tackle’ (a shit one) it all seemed to be going a bit pear shaped before Morgan Schneiderlin had a good go at making sure it did when, having being shoved by a Yeovil player, decided that the best course of action was of course, to take a big hack at his leg. Prat – off you go. Saints initially went to a 4-3-2 formation with Lallana and Puncheon either side of Hammond but it really wasn’t giving us the platform we needed to try and get the all important goal. Saints had another scare a few minutes later as Fonte took out a forward as he burst through and on another day, he could have been sent off as well.

I had to run out of the room for a second here as my 5 year old had come in demanding a drink. When I returned all off 30 seconds later, the total moron who was on Solent with Diamond Dave said ‘… and Saints are desperately seeking the equalizer’. ‘Fuck’, I said in a voice which was loud enough for me to wonder who else heard me say it. Needless to say it was still 0-0 so cheers, clueless, faceless radio commentator bloke. Back to the game….

Usually in this situation a manager has to decide whether to stick or twist – go solid and make sure of the draw or go for it. The first option today was never an option at all so what did we do – go kamikaze Pards took off Otsemobor (who had been generally poor all game) and Hammond and brought on Connolly and Papa Waigo, the latter rather hysterically, going to right back. Bearing in mind he doesn’t speak any English and his interpreter was in the bath, I bet he didn’t have a fucking clue where he was supposed to be. Lambert dropped deeper so we had a back 3, Papa stationed randomly on the right, Sir Rickie, Punch and Adam in midfield but all pushing forward and Barnard and Connolly up front. Championship Manager comes to Huish Park.

Papa Waigo got to work out on the right and immediately found himself in a great crossing position from which to pick out one of five attackers streaming into the penalty area. Unfortunately, no one was in row 17 behind the goal which was where the cross landed. I wonder if Papa has ever met George Lawrence. Meanwhile, on Radio Solent they are eulogising over Yeovil and talking them up like they’re something fantastic. Again I wonder if I’ve missed three Yeovil goal or something but fear not. Back to the game…

After our bizarre substitutions, Yeovil did the same and pulled off their one striker (Bowditch) and brought on a midfielder which was bizarre as we had 10 men but anyway. 90, 91, 92 and it wasn’t happening despite Saints camping in the last third and winning a succession of corners. The ball found its way out to Papa Waigo again who fired it across and as is more likely to be the case if the cross stays on the pitch, someone (LEE BARNARD!!!!!) got their head on it and nodded it past keeper McCarthy and into the net. Saints went nuts, the fans went nuts, Dave Merrington and the other prat stopped the Yeovil love-fest thy were having on the radio and remembered who their audience was.

There was still time as there always is, for us to have a go at throwing it away and we managed to let the Yeovil centre back jink into our area and fire into the side netting but soon enough, the whistle had gone and we’d prolonged our season again. This team does not know when it is beaten and we play until the 95th minute which is such a pleasant change to the last 5 years when we typically played until about the hour mark and then packed it in. Credit for this much go to Pards, Dean Wilkins and Wally Downes who have obviously instilled this discipline and fitness into this bunch of players. We won with 10 men which is the first tme we’ve done that since…. the last time Schneiderlin got himself sent off at Milton Keynes in the JPT. If you were being harsh you could say that in some games, Morgan playing is ike playing with 10 but we’re going to have to do without him now for 3 of the last 4 games. It’ll be interesting to see whether Wotton comes in or whether Punch will switch to central midfield.

Pards’ post match interviews focussed on the Schneiderlin sending off which sounds like it was totally deserved and the shenanigans that went on between the two benches which culminated in Dean Wilkins getting sent to the stands for reacting to the Yeovil bench demanding our players got sent off etc. It’s bad enough when players are waving imaginary cards about (an offence which would being an instant booking if I was in charge) but when the dug outs are doing it then there really is no hope. Pards sounded like he thought Wilkins was totally justified and good on him.

We are still 8 points behind and our game in hand is this week at home to Oldham. Win that and we have 3 games to catch up 5 points on Huddersfield who have two tricky away games and a home game against Colchester (managed by Hoofroyd, still with playoff ambitions themselves). I said that if we beat Bristol Rovers and Yeovil that I’d start to believe. Well, given the wins and the manner of them, I’d say it’s still a longshot but if you were to place a bet against us… would you be confident?