Saints progressed to the next round of the Carling Cup in front of a bumper crowd at St Marys last night. The club were said to be thrilled with the response of fans to their reduced prices with juniors paying just £1! Over 7,000 tickets were sold in walk up sales prior to kick off.
Many of the Saints first team were playing, stand in skipper Jermaine Wright, striker Gregorz Rasiak and defender Alex Ostlund being the only absentees. Burley also gave home debuts to Chris Makin and Adam Lallana, the latter turning in a particularly eye catching performance.
Saints opened the scoring on 25 minutes following a mix up in the Yeovil defence which resulted in Chris Cohen scoring an own goal.
The visitors replied almost immediately, John Viafara and Pele got in each other’s way, the clearance bobbled to Wayne Gray who finished emphatically past Kelvin Davis.
Saints pegged the visitors back with an instant reply of their own when Rudi Skacel thumped a thunderous drive into the net after a free kick was rolled to him.
Five minutes later Saints effectively put the game out of Yeovil’s reach when Jones flicked on a Davis goal kick for Wright-Phillips to turn quickly and slot a shot into the bottom left corner in a style similar to Thierry Henry.
In the second half Nathan Dyer came on to replace Adam Lallana and he got into the action almost immediately when the raced onto a pass from fellow substitute Ricardo Fuller, he then cut into the box and finished well past beleaguered Yeovil goalie Mildenhall.
Saints then capped a five star performance with a fifth goal when Ricardo Fuller crossed for Kenwyne Jones to tap into an empty net.
Yeovil did pull one more goal back right before the end when Matt Harold headed in.
All in all an excellent performance that will do much to encourage Saints even if it was against lower league opposition.
Player Ratings
Kelvin Davis 7
Could do nothing about either of the goals, looked fairly assured when dealing with what little else he had to do.
Chris Makin 7
Had a solid enough home debut, looked good defensively and also provided some overlap for Lallana.
Gareth Bale 7
Had little to do, dealt with the threat of Paul Terry on the wing, had four free kick attempts, three were off target but then again he can’t do it every week!
Chris Baird 8
The stand in Captain organized the defence brilliantly, if he keeps turning in these performaces it will be difficult for Lundekvam and Svensson to regain their places in the starting line up.
Pele 6
Was involved in the mix up for the opening goal, his distribution from defence looked a little slack at time, could prove costly against better teams.
Adam Lallana 8
Looks to be the latest excellent youngster to roll of the Saints production line, looked to have excellent control, he was very skillful, he also has an eye for a killer pass, very encouraging.
Rudi Skacel 9
Was always a threat running at the Yeovil defence, he scored an excellent goal and was also effective helping out Bale in defence.
John Viafara 6
Looked good at winning the ball and running with it, still needs to work on his passing which was woeful at times. Some of the balls he tried to play were unexplainable.
Andrew Surman 7
Had a solid game, nothing spectacular but did do anything wrong.
Kenwyne Jones 7
Won a lot of balls in the air and used his pace to good effect, he deserved his goal but had another good chance earlier on which he blasted wide.
Bradley Wright-Phillips 8
Took his goal very well, he was always a threat running at the defence, looks to be a Premiership standard player already.
Nathan Dyer 8
A very composed finish for his goal, frightened the life out of the Yeovil defence with his searing pace.
Ricardo Fuller 7
Held the ball up well, a good cross for Jones to tap in.
Some nice touches and good passes, seemed to want to receive the ball at every chance.