MATCH REPORT: Chippenham Town 2-3 Yeovil Town | Club Friendly Match | Saturday 12th July 2025

A last-gasp winner from Yeovil denies us a result despite a good showing.

The Bluebirds once again impressed in a narrow pre-season defeat at the hands of National League side Yeovil Town at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium.

On what was a very warm afternoon in Wiltshire, it was the Glovers with the first few opportunities early on in the game. Tahvon Campbell was sent free down the left hand side after four minutes, the new summer signing continued his run into the box. Unfortunately for him the finish wasn’t quite there as it was that much wide of the target that it went out for a Chippenham throw in on the far side.

The number sixteen for the visitors then tried an effort from range, however Caine Bradbury did well to put him under pressure. His shot was high and wide over the bar.

A couple minutes later, Gary Horgan’s side then started to grow more into the game. New signing Queen Castro saw his cross cleared only as far as Jake Evans who had a snapshot from the edge of the area. The Yeovil keeper Aidan Stone was equal to it diving low to his right hand side. 

The Bluebirds then took the lead with just under fifteen minutes gone in the game. Bradbury with a lovely weighted through ball towards Tom Owen-Evans, the number ten struck his effort towards the far post. Where it actually clipped the right post of Stone’s goal and bounced into the net. The hosts had the lead and they certainly deserved it for the decent start they had to the match.

Yeovil had a good response to going a goal down. A free kick was delivered in from the right towards the back post, where the Jake Wannell got his head to it and saw his effort denied by an unbelievable save from Will Henry, as he was scrambling to his left. Thankfully for Chippenham, the offside flag had already been raised. 

Henry was tested yet again as this time the trialist wearing number eight for Yeovil had a go from outside the box. The Bluebirds number one made a smart save down to his left, tipping the ball round the post and out for a corner. 

Great link up play was then shown from Castro and Ethan Vaughan as the National League South outfit pushed for a second goal. It was the former who eventually delivered the cross that found its way to Harry Parsons in the middle. The number nine scuffed his effort a little bit and Stone was able to make the save, the football on display from Chippenham in the first half however was exceptional as they went into the break leading by a goal to nil.

Gary Horgan’s boys showed grit and determination in the first forty five minutes and they had to show even more in the second half because two minutes after the restart, Yeovil found themselves level. Campbell found the unmarked trialist wearing number eight in the penalty area, who had a simple finish into the bottom left corner. Poor defending from the Bluebirds which they really could not have afforded to happen against a side from the division above. 

It was the home side who would then look like the team from the league above however, and very poor defending was shown once again. Owen-Evans was given all the time in the world to pick out Ezio Touray who was free in the centre. The new striker at Chippenham fired his effort home, nothing Stone could have done about that one. A real striker’s finish and the home fans were happy once again as they saw their side regain the lead.

This pre-season encounter had everything however. And the Glovers showed that they were not going to crumble after Chippenham took the lead again. A few moments later, they were awarded a penalty after a poor pass out from the back from Henry left Evans under a lot of pressure from the Yeovil number twenty seven. Evans had no choice but to bring him down inside the box and give away a penalty. The Bluebirds experienced it all so far in this second half, from the highs of going a goal in front again, to now the lows of conceding a penalty all in the space of about four minutes.

The Bluebirds were then back up to the highs because Henry produced a trademark penalty save to deny Campbell from equalling the score. The number one diving across to his right to pull off an excellent penalty save. 

Gary Horgan and co then made a whole host of changes and saw first team debuts being shown to young academy Bluebirds Harry Messenger and Ollie Smith. 

After those changes were made, the game went really quiet until the last five minutes of the match. It all seemed to go a little bit wild when former Bluebird Harvey Greenslade equalised for the Glovers with a free header from a corner. He guided his effort towards the bottom right past the young goalkeeper Josh Sawyer. 

And then with the last kick of the game from another corner, Yeovil found the winner. The ball was pinballing around in the box before striker Aaron Jarvis poked home the winner. Again, not great defending from Chippenham and they would have been disappointed hearing the final whistle go right after that goal was scored as well. All in all however, some very positive signs for Chippenham Town again in pre-season against higher league opposition, as they fell to defeat against Yeovil Town by three goals to two.

Chippenham Town: Will Henry (Josh Sawyer 71) Lewis Colwell (Harry Messenger 60) Ethan Vaughan (Trialist 60), Canice Carroll, (Luke Haines 60), Freddie Grant, Jake Evans (Tom Mehew 60), Caine Bradbury (Reece Fleet 60), Quevin Castro (Trialist 60), Tom Owen-Evans (Olaf Koszela 60) Harry Parsons (Touray 45) Trialist (Ollie Smith 70)