19th October 2013
Yeovil Town picked up their first Skybet Championship home point of the season with a goalless draw at home to Brighton this afternoon.
In a game punctuated by errors, fussy refereeing and wasted chances, both sides had opportunities to gain all three points but apart from a twenty minute spell in the second half, the game never lived up to the promised spectacle. However the point stemmed a run of five successive home defeats suffered by the hosts.
Manager Gary Johnson made four changes to the side that lost heavily to Middlesbrough before the international break. Joel Grant and Andy Williams dropped to the bench while Joe Ralls and Paddy Madden didn’t even make the squad. In their place came in Kevin Dawson, Sam Hoskins, James Hayter and new loan signing from Wigan Athletic, Fraser Fyvie.
Ashley Barnes skied his shot on three minutes after a quick free kick found Will Buckley and he swung over a low cross. Kevin Dawson then became the first of seven players to earn a yellow card from ref Gary Sutton for a foul on Craig Conway.
Yeovil keeper Wayne Hennessey dived full length to stop a goal bound glancing headers from Barnes before new man Fyvie’s free kick was tipped away by Seagulls goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak.
Fyvie then went off holding his shoulder on 21 minutes to be replaced by Luke Ayling who reverted to his normal right back position, allowing Joe Edwards to return to central midfield.
Buckley went close with a delicious outside of the foot curler on the half hour but Sam Hoskins tested Kuszczak too with a shot that the ex-Manchester United keeper got down low to save.
As the half ended. Hoskins was given a yellow card for simulation and Hayter for a foul in the last couple of minutes.
Yeovil started much more energetically after the break with Hoskins and Ed Upson both forcing Kuszczak into saves. Visiting boss Oscar Garcia, assisted by former Yeovil 
Town assistant Nathan Jones, made a switch bringing on new loanee Leroy Lita for his first taste of action in a Seagulls shirt.
Yeovil continued to up the gears and Upson shot over the bar from a clearance. Andy Williams came on for Hayter and both Shane Duffy and Hoskins missed the target. For Brighton, Lita’s turn and shot was blocked.
Buckley then missed the chance of the game when clean through one on one with Hennessey but the big keeper did enough to hurry Buckley and his shot screwed wide when he should have scored. Kuszczak then saved from Hoskins again.
Lita almost grabbed a late winner when he cottoned on to a through ball from Buckley but thankfully for the home crowd, he blazed his effort way over the bar.
With five minutes to go, Duffy got on to the end of an Upson free kick and headed against the post; proof that today wasn’t going to be Yeovil’s day. And with Barnsley picking up maximum points at home to Middlesbrough, it left Yeovil rooted to the bottom of the table.