27th July 2016
Salisbury 2 Yeovil Town 3
Yeovil continued their pre-season schedule with an exciting victory over Salisbury.
Darren Way made one change from the side who faced Merthyr Town just over a week ago. Trialist Alex Lawless, who was released by Luton in the summer, came in for fellow trialist Dom Gape who drops to the bench.
Yeovil starting team: (4-3-3) Krysiak; Dickson, Lacey, Smith, Shephard; Dolan, Lawless, Dawson; Khan, Eaves, Hedges.
Yeovil started well and put pressure on Salisbury in the early stages; Otis Khan had an early shot straight at home goalkeeper Charlie Searle before Matt Dolan fired narrowly wide following Tom Eaves marauding run.
The Glovers pressing strategy was working with Salisbury nearly gifting Yeovil the opening goal; a defensive mix-up saw the ball roll past goalkeeper Searle but it was cleared away just in time.
Way’s men were knocking at the door now and Eaves was a whisker away from writing his name on the scoresheet when he finished neatly, only to see the linesman raise his flag for offside.
Salisbury manager Steve Claridge was sat in the director’s box to oversee his team’s fortunes but could only watch on as Eaves went on another mazy run down the left-hand side and crossed for Ryan Hedges to finish from close-range with 17 minutes on the clock.
Hedges came close to adding a second but saw his shot saved well by Searle, with Eaves missing the follow-up chance.
The on-loan Swansea forward looked a threat whenever he broke forward but fired narrowly wide after fashioning another shooting opportunity.
Eaves was the next to try his luck but some last ditch defending saw his effort deflect out for a corner.
Salisbury had rarely threatened but equalised against the run of play on 38 minutes when Tommy Wright’s shot from the edge of the area took a huge deflection off Alex Lacey and looped over the helpless Artur Krysiak into the net.
Otis Khan had a couple of late free-kicks but, despite the Glovers having the majority of chances, the two teams went in level at the break.
It was not long until Yeovil would double their lead though. Four minutes after the restart, a Salisbury corner was collected by Krysiak; his early ball over the top found Khan who crossed for Eaves – in turn, the former Bolton striker found Hedges to tap home his second of the night.
Just before the hour, the Glovers scored a third. Eaves was provider turned poacher as he latched onto Dickson’s pass and finished emphatically past Searle.
In front of 691 supporters, The Ray Mac crowd were nearly treated to a Hedges hat-trick but goalkeeper Searle just managed to clear Eaves cross before his fellow frontman could profit.
With 14 minutes to play, Way made wholesale changes as he replaced his entire team with a mixture of contracted players and trialists.
The match looked to be petering out but just as the game ticked into injury time, a wicked Salisbury free-kick was headed in by the unfortunate Josh Ezewele for an own goal.
That was the final notable action in an enthralling, end-to-end encounter which finished with the Glovers running out 3-2 winners.