Gloverscast #347 – “I hope we sign him, then we’ve got Rod and Todd”
2024-07-22
Ian and Ben welcome Tom Bailey from Three Valleys Radio to the podcast to chat through the latest round of pre-season action.
Ian Perkins
The FSA want your views
2024-07-20
As part of the Gloverscast’s Associate Membership of the Football Supporters Association we’ve been contacted for some views from supporters on a couple of bits that are going to impact National League clubs and football in general in the next few months.
In April the Athletic revealed discussions had taken place for the top 16 teams in the National League Premier to play 16 under-21 teams from the Premier League. Last weekend the Non League Paper reported that the National League Clubs have been told that competition will kick-off this season and is likely to being in November.
Here’s what we know about the competition:
- 16 clubs from National League and 16 Premier League Academy sides will enter and EFL Trophy style cup.
- There will be four regional groups of eight teams.
- Group games will only be between National League and Premier League teams. The top two will qualify for quarter finals.
- National League Clubs will host group and knockout matches until the final.
- Matches will be available on National League TV.
So, what are your thoughts about the competition? Are you supportive? Who will benefit? There’s a quick snap poll below, but share any comments below.
Loading ...Independent football regulator
The second is around the introduction of the Football Governance Bill which looks set to be introduced by Labour after work done by Tracey Crouch in the previous Government.
A very top line summary of the bill indicates that the regulator would:
- Create a statutory, strengthened owners’ and directors’ tests to make sure a club’s custodians are suitable and protect fans from irresponsible owners. The tests will consist of 3 key elements: a fitness test (owners and directors), a source of wealth test (owners only), and a requirement for financial plans and resources (owners only).
- Enhanced financial regulation to improve the financial resilience of clubs across the football pyramid, ensuring that clubs take sensible financial decisions and risks are mitigated so they do not jeopardise the club’s future.
- Placing fan engagement requirements on clubs and requiring clubs to comply with heritage protections. This will require clubs to have a framework in place to regularly meet a representative group of fans to discuss key strategic matters at the club, and other issues of interest to supporters (including club heritage).
- Require clubs to seek approval if they propose a sale or relocation of their home ground.
- Prevent English clubs from joining breakaway or unlicensed leagues.
- Introduce a backstop power to intervene in the distribution of broadcast revenue where necessary (subject to certain thresholds being met).
- Establish a ‘Football Club Corporate Governance Code’. Clubs will be required to report on corporate governance, setting out how they are applying the code.
With all that, let us know on this poll and if you have any other thoughts comment below.
Loading ...Cooper: We turned over the ball too much
2024-07-20
Yeovil’s final pre-season action at Huish Park saw them fall to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of League One Exeter City last night. An early gift for Sonny Cox allowed the former Glover loanee to put the Grecians 1-0 up after four minutes, giving Mark Cooper’s side an uphill struggle for the remainder of the evening.
Speaking to the club’s official YouTube channel, Cooper said: “[It was a] good workout for us. First 10-15 minutes we were really good with the ball [but we] gave a horrendous goal away which turned the game around.
“Exeter gave us a real test with the ball and the rotations were really good, so it was a tough evening for us, but that’s what we wanted. It’s no real benefit for us winning 5, 6 ,7-1 in the friendlies it’s about when we come up against real quality teams and League One players, that we have to make sure we’re organised. So, still lot still lots to ponder for us.”
Last season Sonny Cox scored a couple of important goals for the Glovers while on loan, before returning to make an impact for Exeter and it took him a few minutes to show what he’s capable of. Cooper said: “It was just a rubbish goal to give away. We’re in control of the of the ball, a loose turnover and you know, Sonny Cox goes through and scores, does what he does really well and a great finish.
“That panicked us a little bit and we started turning the ball over far too much. That was the crux tonight, we turned the ball over far too much, and if you do that against teams that are two leagues higher than you, it’s going to be a long a long evening and it was. But for us, fitness is key at the moment, we’ve still got over three weeks so we’ve got a real good week next week to get stuck into the boys and get more stuff nailed down.”
The Glovers showed an improvement in the second half, with Frank Nouble grabbing a goal after a loose pass from an Exeter defender, and Dylan Morgan missing a penalty. The boss felt this was more down to Exeter making wholesale changes, though: “Yeah, but we have to be honest. Exeter put all their kids on the pitch, which gave us chance to get closer to them and you know, even then you saw their young boys were really good and scored a couple of goals. You know, I think they change and put nearly all kids on with half an hour to go, which gave us a chance to get closer to them which we did, obviously missed a penalty to make it even more interesting, but that’s just a good workout for us.”
There were spots on the bench for youth players Cody Koerner and Krystian Woods as well as a new left-sided defensive trialist that we believe is Brandon Haunstrup. There was no sign of Jacob Roddy who’s been involved in the first three pre-season matches. The boss admitted that he still feels the squad is a bit light: “We’re a couple of players short. We know that and we’re looking and seeing who’s available, who can we attract when we get to a position where we can move to bring somebody in.”
On the academy he added: “It’s important that we keep trying to push the young boys. We’re trying to get that sort of connection with the with the Academy that if they are good enough, there’s a realistic pathway for them and we put another couple on tonight.”
Yeovil travel to Farnborough next Saturday before visiting Buckland Athletic and Weston-super-Mare with the National League South opponents “the more useful test” of where the players are ahead of the National League kick off on the 10th August.
Gloverscast #346 – “He put some swazz on it”
2024-07-12
Rob Manley joins Ian, Ben and Dave to talk about the first pre-season friendly at Melksham and the latest news from Huish Park. Plus we take your GCQs with some controversial egg opinions.
Bradfords back on the front as Yeovil launch new kit
2024-07-04
Yeovil Town have unveiled the new home and away shirt for the 2024/25 season today with Bradfords returning as the front of shirt sponsor for the first time since the 2008/09 season.
The new kits are manufactured by Errea and feature the glove design, which has been a feature on the new artwork used on the club’s social media channels, in subtle stripes.
The home is green – of course – and the away shirt is white and is modelled by the toughest centre back pairing in National League, Jake Wannell and Morgan Williams.
Speaking the club’s official site regarding the new sponsorship with Bradfords, club CEO Keith Weston, said:“We are thrilled to welcome Bradfords as our main sponsor for the 2024/25 season. Their long-standing support is invaluable to our club’s success, and we look forward to this renewed collaboration, creating memorable experiences for our fans and achieving great things together. We hope to create similar memories to those from our successful rise in the 2000s.”
What do you think? Give it a score from 1 – 7 and let us know in the comments!
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YeoGov Poll: YTFC summer business so far
2024-07-04
It’s polling day across the United Kingdom, so we thought we’d take our own poll today.
We want to know how you’re feeling about Yeovil Town’s summer business so far. Below are the ins and outs and we want you to score on the scale on 1-7, with 7 being happiest.
| IN | OUT |
|---|---|
| Harvey Greenslade - Bristol Rovers | Will Dawes - Chippenham |
| Brett McGavin - Torquay United | Rhys Murphy - Dorking |
| Jordan Thomas - Hampton & Richmond | Malachi Linton - W*ymouth |
| Aaron Jarvis - Torquay United | Benjani Jr - Released |
| Sam Pearson - Retained | Ollie Haste - Released |
| Finn Cousin-Dawson - Bradford | Jake Hyde - Chelmsford |
| Ollie Wright - Southampton (L) | Alex Fisher - Released |
| Matt Gould - Altrincham | Josh Owers - Released |
| Jordan Stevens - Released |
Loading ...Glovers Past #33 – Ollie Bassett
2024-07-03
On this episode, we speak to Ollie Bassett who, when he made his debut for Paul Sturrock’s side in 2015 was the youngest player to represent the club at EFL level. He made just two first-team appearances for the club but talks about his memories good and bad of that time and a career which has since taken him from Dorchester to being named the Player of the Year in the Canadian Premier League – via New Zealand, Australia and Nuneaton!
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Gloverscast #345 – “The Yeo Yo-yo test”
2024-07-01
As fate would have it, Ian, Ben and Dave are back chatting after a vintage England performance. We talk about the signing of Ollie Wright, the surprise departure of Rhys Rosser and talk through the latest YeoGov survey.
YeoGov 2024: How are YTFC supporters feeling?
2024-06-30
It’s the summer of polling it seems, and once again, at the Gloverscast we’ve completed the most comprehensive survey of Yeovil Town FC supporters out there. For the third year in a row we asked supporters to score how they feel about issues on the pitch and off the pitch on a scale of 1-7.
Who took part?
This year, 387 supporters completed the survey – down on the 552 and 499 from the previous seasons. More than half of respondents (54%) were over 45 years old and 90% were male.
What did they tell us?
One of the major developments at the club since Martin Hellier’s takeover last summer has been the improvement to the facilities and match day experience, and that is coming through clearly in the data. We’ve seen a jump of nearly 2 points on the match day experience, customer service and atmosphere and a nearly 3 point jump in Huish Park being ‘well looked after’.
There’s also been an improvement in the perception of the food and drink offering and value for money. With the quality of food increasing to 4.47 vs 3.15 and drink to 4.85 from 3.53. Supporters also think they’re getting better value for money than previous seasons, with the average score 4.34 out of 7, compared to 3.15 and 2.88 in 2022/23 and 2021/22.
In other areas off the pitch, supporters have recognised the improvements made. Supporters feel communication has significantly improved, feel more valued and proud of the club. There is also a recognition that the club has made more effort in the community in the last 12 months.
Areas where there has been improvement, but the score is average is around listening, and who to contact.
On the pitch
Of course, it was a championship winning season for the Glovers and that is reflected in the scores with support for the job Mark Cooper and the job he did.
And if any wasn’t sure, Jake Wannell was voted as player of the season – again.
The Future
Looking to the future of the club, supporters are narrowly more optimistic than they were last season (we surveyed just after Martin Hellier took over.)
Supporters Groups
When we surveyed in 2023, the Glovers Trust had just hosted the meeting at Johnson Park about the creation of a supporters group that represented all supporters. In the survey last year, the support for a group that represents all supporters scored 5.76 out of 7 and that support has held up this year with a score of 5.38.
78% of supporters surveyed aren’t part of any group and those who aren’t also support the idea of one group with a score of 5.32.
In Conclusion
We are a much happier bunch than we were in the last two seasons and with good reason. On the pitch we’ve won the National South at the first time of asking and off the pitch, the match day experience is night and day compared to previous seasons. Huish Park has had investment which has seen the creation of The Ciderspace, the upgrading of the Alec Stock Lounge and corporate facilities and those changes are clearly impacting how people feel about the club.’
I am most surprised that the support for a single supporters group has held up, showing that even in these good times the supporters of the club would welcome an organisation that represents them and they can be a part of.
As Yeovil head back into National League after one season, the strides the club has taken has made it nearly unrecognisable from the club 12 months before and that is clear in the numbers.