CAPTAIN Fantastic Peter Clarke produced one of the best defensive performances you could wish to see.
Not only did he inspire 10-man Town to fight back for an against-the-odds point at Huish Park – which could turn out to be pivotal come the League I shake-up in May – the 29-year-old centre-back oozed all the qualities of persistence, passion and precision which Town will need to turn their 13-match unbeaten league run since the turn of the year into a successful promotion push.
Tackling with ferocity and accuracy, and making countless clearances with head and boot, Clarke set the glowing benchmark for application which enabled Lee Clark’s side to recover from Lee Peltier’s crazy 13th-minute red card and the 38th-minute strike by Andrew Williams which gave lively Yeovil plenty of hope.
The home side, with Dean Bowditch and Oli Johnson taking advantage of the extra space, looked capable of adding to their tally in the first half, even though Clark kept his most experienced players in midfield and maintained a regular back four (after right-back Peltier’s sending-off) by replacing the unlucky midfield starter Chris Atkinson with natural full-back Jack Hunt.
It was a different story in the second half, however, as Town – with pacy striker Benik Afobe on for hamstring injury victim Lee Novak – bristled with determination and played with such fluency on a difficult cut-up surface that it looked like they had 11 men and Yeovil’s 10.
That was particularly so after impressive centre-back Antony Kay had powered in his fourth goal of the season from an Anthony Pilkington corner after 58 minutes.
While he collected a 12th booking of the season for celebrating among the jubilant travelling contingent of around 250 Town fans – and later suffered a bloody head wound in a clash with sub Sam Williams which needed stitches – Kay instilled a massive amount of belief in a Town line-up which was already going the extra yard in adversity.
Suddenly Pilkington and Gary Roberts became a teasing factor, Afobe’s pace gave the valuable option of the ball over the top and Town’s busy midfield pairing of Scott Arfield and Kevin Kilbane were able to keep Yeovil pinned in their own half.
