Yeovil Town completed their preseason schedule with an impressive 3-2 win over the Swansea under-21 side at Huish Park tonight.
After going a goal behind to a Henry Jones strike on ten minutes, Yeovil levelled through Alex Lacey before further goals from subs Ryan Bird and Brandon Beresford sealed the win for Yeovil. Alex Samuel’s stoppage time goal for the Swans was a mere consolation. The victory ensured Yeovil go into Saturday’s League Two opener at Exeter City in good heart winning their last two friendlies.
There were few surprises in Paul Sturrock’s starting line up but on the bench, he included four trialists in Sonny Black, Shaun Keith, Brandon Beresford and the best known of the quartet, former Bristol City winger Jennison Myrie-Williams. For their part, Swansea included the former loan pair of Stephen Kingsley and Josh Sheehan in their starting eleven, just months after the duo left Huish Park.
In a complete contrast to the previous pre-season outing at Huish Park against Bristol City, the first half had a decidedly open nature about it. By the time the Welsh youngsters had taken the lead on ten minutes, Yeovil could have been at least one goal up. Alex Lacey’s header from Marc Laird’s free kick went over, Jamie Burrows had an effort saved by keeper Josh Vickers who then parried a twenty yarder from Wes Fogden.
That lead for Swansea was given to them by Henry Jones, an impressive figure in the under-21 side. Owain Jones played a low driven pass to his namesake and he controlled before finishing well right footed. It took Yeovil just eight minutes to equalise. Having already given fair warning in the second minute, it was the same combination of a Laird free kick and a Lacey header that saw the Glovers level matters.
Two minutes later and Vickers in the Swansea goal produced his third good save of the night when Matt Dolan’s set piece found Shaun Jeffers, his header bringing the best out of the Swans keeper. Both Henry and Owain Jones tried their luck with shots before the game settled down a bit with fewer clear cut chances.
Henry Jones then came close to scoring a second but pulled one shot wide and failed to get any real contact on the other.
At half time, Paul Sturrock made four changes including giving an early opportunity to both Beresford and Myrie-Williams in midfield. And two of the subs went close early on with Ryan Bird bringing another great stop from Vickers and Beresford’s shot then flicked off Bird and just over the bar.
Yeovil then took the lead through that man Bird on 70 minutes. Jakub Sokolik received the ball from Artur Krysiak and hit a firm pass through into the right channel; Bird then controlled and hit a sweet right foot finish into the far corner.
The Swans immediately looked a step livelier and almost grabbed an equaliser on 77 minutes when Josh Sheehan curled a lovely effort towards the top corner but saw Krysiak tip the ball over for a corner.
Myrie-Williams had a late chance for Yeovil but his left foot effort didn’t trouble Vickers. But the icing on the cake came with three minutes left after a corner was cleared as far as Brandon Beresford who hammered home a left footed drive that was too hot for Vickers to handle.
Yeovil: Weale, Sokolik, Smith, Dolan, Lacey, Arthurworrey, Laird, Fogden, Beck, Jeffers, Burrows
Subs: Krysiak for Weale 45 min, Bird for Beck 45 min, Beresford for Arthurworrey 45 min, Myrie-Williams for Burrows 45 min, Black for Laird 58 min, Keith for Dolan 64 min
