It’s a big old match day at Huish Park today. 22nd place Morecambe are in town for six-pointer. Dave caught up with Dave Salmon about The Shrimps – who’ve been on a bit of a journey since we last met in the 0-0 draw in November.
Ollie Marsh and Former Gloverscast Quiz Champion Rob Manley join Ian to talk about off the pitch, on the pitch and take your GCQs.
Thanks for Chief Scout Luca Manley for the voice note!
The latest development – or lack thereof – in the saga of Huish Park hasn’t provided any explicit clarity but if we read between the lines I think we can make some strong assumptions.
The club told me that they are continuing to “work constructively with the Council to identify a mutually agreeable position regarding the potential purchase of Huish Park. Discussions intensified earlier this year and an offer has been submitted, on which the Council has provided feedback. We are now working from that position to see where a point of agreement can be reached.” Somerset Council deny that a formal offer has been placed.
Clearly, one side thinks this is a negotiation and the other doesn’t. Somerset Council will see the terms of the buy back – closer to £3.5m and increasing, than the original £2.8m – as locked. That’s the price the owners will have to pay to reunite the land and stadium with the football club operations, a pledge made early on following their takeover.
The owners will have known that through the due diligence, but are they right to try and budge the council? At the time when the deal was announced SSDC (the council prior to the merger of all councils) said the deal would “help with the club’s survival, generate a new rental income, while protecting our ratepayers from loss or excessive risk.”
Four years on, the deal is certainly weighted in one direction, as many predicted at the time. Despite the initial claims that the deal ‘saved the club’, we’ve seen no hard evidence of what that money contributed to the club. It cleared CV Leisure’s debt with MSP capital, and I’ve been told the club saw very little of what was left after, if anything. Due diligence wasn’t done on the individual stripping the club of its assets and Somerset Council has an even higher rental income from the original deal.
“The damage done by this deal was entirely foreseeable”
We all know councils are cash-strapped, it’s a fact across the country and this month our Council tax bills are landing on the doormat with the maximum 4.99% increase. In my opinion, it’s disingenuous – still – to have ever positioned this as a deal integral to the ‘survival’ of the club. It’s not unheard of for councils to charge nominal rents to football clubs. Luton Borough Council have owned Kenilworth Road since 1989, having bought it from the club for £3.25m for a seven-year lease on a ‘peppercorn rent’ which has been extended multiple times and runs until 2028. Other examples you see are of smaller rents where the council covers the costs of running the venue. What we have is the worst of both worlds, high rent and the responsibility to maintain and operate Huish Park.
If the club was truly at the heart of this deal, the rent should not have increased, the buy back price should not increase. As it is, we’re up to nearly £230,000 a year (imagine what that would do to the playing budget) and facing an ever-increasing buyback price that any investor would want to ensure has a worthwhile return.
The damage done by this deal was entirely foreseeable. We’re on our second owner since it was completed and you need deep, deep pockets to buy it back to then develop it in the first place. Alongside operating a loss-making National League club with his expectations and high expenditure.
Of course, at the root of this there is still the fact that the deal is the deal, but I genuinely feel we have owners with good intentions and aspirations for Huish Park as a community facility, a bi-product of which would benefit the ratepayers and the people in Yeovil. The contradictory statements suggest to me that the relationship with Somerset Council isn’t quite as rosy as it could be, but in the history of Yeovil Town FC, has it ever been?
Somerset Council says no formal offer has been made to buy back Huish Park and the land surrounding it, despite the club providing confirmation to Gloverscast that an offer was submitted to Council Leader Bill Revans, CEO Duncan Sharkey and the relevant officers on December 31st 2025.
We understand the owners have engaged Headland Hospitality – a company which provides strategic hotel consulting for owners, investors and developers – to draw up plans for the Huish Park site.
We emailed club owner Prabhu Srinivasan and Chief Operating Officer, Nicholas Brayne these questions:
In a statement, they said: “We continue to work constructively with the Council to identify a mutually agreeable position regarding the potential purchase of Huish Park. Discussions intensified earlier this year and an offer has been submitted, on which the Council has provided feedback. We are now working from that position to see where a point of agreement can be reached.
“We absolutely respect the Council’s role in the process and appreciate the way in which they have engaged in dialogue with us. As you would expect with any matter involving a local authority and a significant asset such as Huish Park, these discussions can take time, particularly given the pressures councils are currently operating under.”
Contradicting the statement from the club, a spokesperson for Somerset Council said: “Whilst we continue to meet with the club and know that they have stated their intention is to buy the land back, no formal offer has been received to date.”
In November, Prabhu Srinivasan told the BBC the club hoped to purchase Huish Park and the surrounding land back from Somerset Council by the end of the season. Two months before that the club announced a two-year extension to the exclusive buy-back clause, with the Council revealing the yearly rent on the club’s home sitting at £229,130, up from the £195,000 per year former chairman ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ saddled the club with. The buy back price is index linked and is likely to be significantly higher than £2.8m. Our maths – not a Gloverscast strong point – suggests it’s likely to be closer £3.5m. This figure will increase over time.
“Both parties have been careful to keep discussions appropriately discreet”
The club statement added: “Our focus throughout has been to ensure that any arrangement reached is firmly in the long-term interests of the football club and allows the site to be used in a way that supports the club’s sustainability and its role as a community hub.
“At this stage it is difficult to go into much more detail. Both parties have been careful to keep discussions appropriately discreet while conversations are ongoing, and we feel it is important to respect that process.
“What we can say is that an offer has been put forward and we are continuing to work positively behind the scenes to progress matters, with the aim of ultimately reuniting the club and stadium.”
We have spoken to the club following the council’s initial response and they have provided confirmation that an offer was made. We have followed up with Somerset Council to ask if they considered the club’s offer ‘formal’. They have responded to say ‘there’s nothing we can add to our statement’.
That clears that up then.
It felt a bit like groundhog day this weekend. A decent first half performance was undone by a poor second half and tiring legs. Ian and Ben ask Dave about his afternoon, discuss the malaise and take GCQs.
It’s match day and the Glovers have a new striker! Dave spoke to Boston United supporter Christian James (before the signing was announced) about the host’s season so far.
The Plebs return as Ian, Ben and Dave chat about the week that’s gone, with Tahvon Campbell leaving, Declan Skura returning and more. We preview Boston and take your GCQs.
Chris Fox and Former Gloverscast Quiz Champion Rob Manley join Ben to chat through Saturday 3-0 defeat against Scunthorpe.
Thanks to Stoney, Andrew Foot and Tim Hubble for their voice notes.
Billy Rowley cut a frustrated figure following his side’s 3-0 defeat against Scunthorpe United at Huish Park.
The Yeovil boss told BBC Somerset once he took the emotion out of the game by Monday, he will probably notice some good spells of play (which there was!)
Rowley said: “I guess there’s two sides to this really. Like you look at the score, you’re fuming and really frustrated and annoyed, but when I probably watch the game back on Monday morning [and] take emotion out of it, there’s probably a lot of good bits to our play. So the performance wasn’t dreadful, but I just think when you concede three goals at home, it’s just not good. It’s just not good.”
Yeovil’s domination of the first half never turned into anything and Rowley bemoaned his sides wastefulness in attack.
He said: “So, I feel like our build-up was good. We spoke a little bit at halftime about just slowing your heart rate down a little bit in the final third. I just thought we were so wasteful in the final third. We got there, we built the game well, we’d have a chance to cross it, it would end up in the goalie’s hands, or we’d try and slip someone down the side and then we’d over-hit it, or we’d hit the first defender.
“And I’m there on the bench sort of fuming at the lads and they’re probably looking over thinking, “Cor, why’s he going so mad?” because when you play against good teams, then they’ll come out swinging second half and you’re going to rue those chances, which is just exactly what’s happened.”
Yeovil fell behind to a penalty, which the manager said was offside, and were never able to regain momentum. He said: “I never really felt like Scunthorpe were dominating the game, but they’ve scored a penalty. [I’ve] just looked in the office and it was maybe half a yard offside, but it is what it is. So you go 1-0 down and then because of our lack of teeth in the final third, probably the lads are thinking, “Well, how are we going to score?” And then they’re [Scunthorpe] a good team, they’ve got some top players, and then they score a second and it’s arguably game over. So look, some decent bits of the performance, some nice bits of control, but that means just absolutely nothing when you lose 3-0.”
The struggle in front of goal continued and Rowley said they only solution was hard work: “Work hard, review, and keep trying. That’s all you can do. Anything we say about that now is just not going to be helpful. So it’s about letting the lads rest for 24 hours, 48 hours, make sure we’ve got a lot of detail and clarity of what we need to see more of, and then it’s down to them to show us they can do it. And that’s it.”
Yeovil have a rare week with no midweek match and the manager was happy to get more time on the training pitch, but said not to expect any drastic change: “I think with 12, 10 games to go, I’m not sure we’re going to see drastic change. And look, I’m not going to say that this was a terrible performance because it wasn’t, there was loads of good spells in the game. If JD’s [James Daly] chance goes in that just skims the bar, you’re 1-0 up at halftime and it’s like a flawless performance really. But I think when you don’t score when you’re on top and then you get sucker-punched, it’s deflating for everyone: supporters, me, everybody connected with the club.”
Brett McGavin told BBC Somerset he was ‘very disappointed’ to not get anything in the Glovers clash with Scunthorpe this afternoon.
Yeovil dominated the first half and should have gone in ahead at half time, but a Danny Whitehall penalty changed the game and the Glovers never recovered.
The midfielder told Jack Killah: “[I’m] Very disappointed. At halftime we obviously felt comfortable. I thought we played really well, but yeah, to come away with nothing is really poor. It’s a really sloppy penalty to give away, that probably killed our momentum, even though it shouldn’t have.
McGavin added: “I feel like we looked tired, everyone’s had a busy schedule, so no excuses, but I think that’s probably where the game changed today in that second half. Look, everyone’s tired, but it’s not an excuse. It’s a classic case of not taking our chances and getting punished for it, that’s probably why they’re in the playoffs and we are where we are. I hate the fact that we’re that team that plays well but doesn’t come away with any points. But look, [we have a] week off now in terms of no midweek game, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re ready for Saturday.”
It was a familiar tale for Yeovil as Billy Rowley’s side created openings and should have scored and McGavin didn’t want to point the finger.
“It’s probably been a problem all season for us. That’s not a dig at the front players. We probably have the least touches in the final third out of a lot of teams, so it’s all of us. It’s not anyone’s fault, we’ll just have to work as a group to see if we can score goals at Boston and the remaining games.
“We know that it’s tight everywhere, so we’ve got one eye behind us. Hopefully, most of our focus is in front and see how high we can climb. But look, it’s important we get as many points as we can and where we end up is where we end up.”
Despite the result, the Glovers play well in the first half and McGavin, who enjoyed a brilliant evening against Tamworth heaped praise on his midfield partner Dakarai Mafico.
“I’ll give a lot of credit to Dax, because I think he’s brilliant. I love playing with him in there. I think our job is to give us a lot of control and I feel as if we can do that for the team. I know what the gaffer wants from me, he’s made that clear since he came in [and] when I play with Dax in there, I feel as if we can do that.”
