Half measures won’t do – boss

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ATHLETIC face an all-too familiar concern at Yeovil tomorrow (3pm).

Just as in the first two fixtures of this season, the visit to Huish Park last term contained two halves of football that were markedly different.

In the first 45 minutes, Athletic controlled the game and took a deserved lead through Chris Taylor.

In the second — just as against Sheffield United and Carlisle — the wheels came off and despite the Glovers being reduced to 10 men after a red card for Luke Ayling, a draw was the disappointing result for Athletic.

A point won't be enough to please Athletic boss Paul Dickov tomorrow and he is set to turn to his own players to try to get to the bottom of that second-half sinking feeling.

"I am not worried about the first two games of the season because in spells we looked a really good team,” said Dickov. "But we really do have to assess what happened in the second half of both those games."

While Athletic have so far lost to United in npower League One and gone out on penalties to Carlisle in the Carling Cup, this is Yeovil's first game of the season on home turf following 2-0 defeats at Brentford in the league and Exeter in the cup.

Said Dickov: "Last season we came away with a 1-1 draw in a game I thought we possibly should have won. Tomorrow we are going there looking to win the game.

"What we have to do is take both our first-half performances and put them into 90 minutes.

"We will be talking to the players as well. I want to know what their thoughts are on how we are performing in the second halves of games."

Yeovil boss Terry Skiverton turned over a huge number of players during the summer.

In came former Plymouth trio Bondz Ngala, Steve MacLean and on-trial Rory Fallon, while Curtis Haynes-Brown (Lowestoft), Kieran Agard (Everton), Anthony Edgar (West Ham) and Dominic Blizzard (Bristol Rovers) also signed up.

Other additions on loan include Norwich goalkeeper Jed Steer, QPR centre-back Max Ehmer and Tottenham striker John Obika — the latter now in his fourth temporary spell at Huish Park.

Midfielder Gavin Williams is back at Yeovil for a fourth time after being released by Bristol City, while former Arsenal full-back Kerrea Gilbert and ex-Reading winger Abdulai Bell-Baggie have both signed deals running until January.

Out of the exit door for Yeovil have gone Dean Bowditch - scorer of 15 goals last season - who has joined MK Dons), Craig Alcock (Peterborough), Adam Virgo (Bristol Rovers) and Andy Welsh (Carlisle), all departing on free transfers.