Glovers’ Morgan is back with a bang
YEOVIL striker Adam Morgan became the Glovers’ hero on his return to action after a year out of favour – not that his manager Terry Skiverton saw it.
With Town trailing 2-1 in stoppage time, they were awarded a penalty for a challenge on Joel Grant by Gills’ defender Gavin Hoyte.
Morgan hadn’t featured for Yeovil since last March, but showed enough confidence to claim the ball and step forward to take the spotkick.
Glovers acting manager Skiverton couldn’t bear to watch, retreating to the tunnel, but he needn’t have worried as Morgan slotted the ball past Stuart Nelson to make it 2-2.
It earned Yeovil a deserved point after they’d seen Gozie Ugwu’s first-half opener cancelled out by Gillingham goals from John Marquis and Luke Norris.
Skiverton said: “We brought Adam out of the cold and he’s been training really well for the last couple of weeks.
“He’s got his fitness up and he’s had his head down. It was almost as if the script was written for him when he took that penalty.
“He was close to leaving the club at one stage but I said when I took over I would give everyone a chance. I told him that if he stepped out of line he would be gone but he hasn’t so far.
“He was a brave lad to step up for the penalty and I actually went down the tunnel because I was too nervous to watch!”
The Gills saw their march towards the playoffs halted by the draw - and boss Justin Edinburgh felt the officials played a key role in both Yeovil goals.
He said: “It certainly wasn’t a penalty. I’ve looked back at the incident on the DVD and it wasn’t a foul but I have to be careful what I say. I’m sure the ref won’t sleep well tonight though.
“We also felt that Yeovil’s first goal was offside so the ref played a key part in both of their goals.
“But we didn’t play like we can in the first half and we had words at half-time because we had to improve. It was below the standards we’ve been setting.” Yeovil went ahead on 21 minutes when Byron Webster flicked on Sam Foley’s free-kick and Ugwu shot low into the corner of the net.
Both James Hayter and Ugwu missed great chances to extend the Glovers’ lead and early in the second half the visitors levelled with Marquis pouncing after Artur Krysiak spilled Cody McDonald’s free-kick.
Norris then put the visitors in front with a low shot from the edge of the area with just three minutes left. But in stoppage time Hoyte felled Grant and Morgan kept his cool from the spot.