L1: Yeovil 0 Gillingham 0

What a comeback! I thought I'd fallen out of love with the game, I thought over recent years it had become boring, formulaic, predictable; too much boot up in the air and far too little skill. Yesterday showed that while there are still many problems, the game still possesses the ability to enthrall and enrapture. Outplayed for most of the game and two scores down with less than 10 minutes to go, the opposition under unrelenting pressure and then cracking, two players dismissed from the field and then the one score required; then a penalty awarded with less than a minute remaining to level the match; and then, unbelievably, the winning score in time added on and scored by the smallest man on the pitch, but fittingly one with more skill and flair in his little finger than most others have in their entire bodies, pandemonium in the stands, the opposition crushed, strangers hugging strangers with tears in their eyes, wonderful!

So much for the rugby. Bad Luck Scotland, you were the better side for most of the game, but this Wales side doesn't give up. Let's hope for more games of the same calibre for the rest of the 6 Nations.

Meanwhile, back at Huish Park, a football match briefly threatened to begin but in the end had the life sucked out of it by a difficult pitch cutting up badly, aided and abetted by two sides who seemed keener not to concede rather than going all out to win. The gray skies and icy wind didn't help the general mood and it was one of those afternoons that had to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Yeovil lined up with a 4-4-2 formation and made 1 change from last week's away win at Wycombe, Gavin Tomlin failing a fitness test and being replaced by Ryan Mason.

1. Alex McCarthy: 7/10 - Usual consistent display. Only beaten once by the Gills attack and then saved by the post. Solid.

6. Terrell Forbes: 5/10 and 7/10. 5 for his first half performance at right back when he was ok defensively but added nothing going forwards; and 7 for his second half performance at centre-half where he did everything asked.

4. Stefan Stam: 7/10 - The more he plays, the better he gets. Commanding in the air in particular, hopefully the injury that forced him off at half-time won't be too severe.

5. Steven Caulker: 8/10 - On a day that defences dominated he was the stand out defender. Reminds me more and more of Mark Shail, but he's better than Shaily was.

28. Nathan Smith: 6/10 - The rumour is that Nathan Jones is going to take a back seat on the pitch to concentrate on his coaching, so hopefully Smith will have a good run in the left back spot now. Decent game for him yesterday, sound defensively (one mix-up between himself and Caulker aside) and the occasional threat going forward. He needs to play to improve.

13. Ryan Mason: 5/10 - Poor first half stuck out on the right, improved after the break when playing more centrally. Unlucky with a couple of long-range efforts. Looked frustrated throughout.

20. Owain Tudur Jones: 5/10 - Skivo praised his contribution after the game, I wasn't so impressed. No room for him in a crowded midfield to stretch his legs and to my mind was dragged down to the lowest common denominator amidst a sea of mediocrity. In other words, he didn't do very much.

25. Shaun MacDonald: 5/10 - And nor did Shaun. To be fair to both him and Tudur-Jones the massed ranks of Gillingham midfielders meant they were both seriously out-numbered whenever they received the ball, but neither were able to impose any sort of control on the game. They weren't helped by the poor state of the pitch come to that.

11. Andy Welsh: 5/10 - One of those infuriating Welsh performances which left you thinking about what might have been. Got into good positions at times but the final ball was always lacking.

9. Sam Williams: 5/10 - Didn't get much service, didn't do much with what service he did get. Never seen him beaten as much in the air, so naturally we kept knocking the ball up to his head. Uninspiring.

14. Dean Bowditch: 5/10 - As with Williams, didn't get much service but when he did get the ball was closed down very quickly. When he shot his shots were always blocked and when he did have one golden opportunity in the second half he preferred to pass to a not-so-well-positioned Kieran Murtagh instead. Not a game to write home about.

Subs:
2. Craig Alcock (46 mins for Stefan Stam): 7/10 - Took over from Forbes at right-back and while sound defensively added more of a threat going forward. One cross to the far post in particular should have been converted. The enforced rest he's taken over the last game and a half might well have done him some good.

8. Keiran Murtagh (80 mins for Ryan Mason): N/A - Not really on long enough to make an impression except for one shot, which unfortunately he aimed right at the keeper.

If I had to choose one word to describe the match yesterday it would be 'tedious'. Or possibly 'mediocre'. The pitch cut up very badly very quickly and left any attempts at playing a passing game untenable. Gillingham (not unreasonably given their position) packed the midfield and looked marginally the better side for most of the game albeit creating very little in the way of chances, one effort which hit the post aside. Yeovil didn't manage anything in the way of sustained pressure until the last quarter of the game and then it was too little, too late. The stats show the Glovers having 3 efforts on target throughout the whole game and 3 off, with the Gills making McCarthy save twice with 6 off-target. Those stats, ladies and gentlemen, tell you all you need to know.

The result leaves the Glovers in 14th position on 35 points and 30 games played, 5 points away from the relegation zone. For our sins we've got to go and do it all again on Tuesday night, when play-off chasing Colchester are the visitors. The weather forecast for the Yeovil area is for light rain on Monday and heavy rain on Tuesday, followed by freezing temperatures Tuesday night. Can't wait.