Ian Perkins (Page 71)

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As Yeovil fell out of the FA Trophy at the first hurdle on Saturday, a total of 962 were in attendance at Huish Park to see the penalty shoot-out defeat by Dorking Wanderers. Given the circumstances around the club, that number was not totally surprising, but it has to be considered a disappointment.

Before recording Monday’s podcast, Ciderspace legend Huish Hugh asked the question when our last attendance for a first team fixture dropped below 1,000 and it’s actually pretty surprisingly rare to have less than 1,000 people at Huish Park for a first-team match.

Now, to clarify, this doesn’t include the Somerset (Men’s) Premier Cup, because the reality is that over the years we’ve used a mix of academy and first team players in the competition. Looking back over the years, including National League, FA Trophy, EFL, The League Cup, FA Cup, Johnstone’s Paint Pot Trophy (and it’s various guises) we’ve genuinely been well-supported.

Attendances below 1000

06.11.18 – West Ham United U21s – Check-A-Trade Trophy – 720
30.04.01 – Kingstonian – Nationwide Variety Club Trophy – 295
09.01.01 – Kettering Town – Nationwide Variety Club Trophy – 709
19.08.97 – Boreham Wood – ICIS Charity Shield – 873
26.11.96 – Yeading – Guardian Insurance Cup – 922
01.11.94 – Dagenham & Redbridge – Bob Lord Trophy – 719

Now, I think Saturday’s match with Dorking Wanderers was probably an anomaly. Given the cold weather, late notice of a pitch inspection, the festive period and the cost of living crisis, supporters will have certainly had a (not-so-difficult?) decision to make. However, aside from a cost-of-living crisis, these must have been factors the club have faced before. 

Malachi Linton fires in an effort. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

However, with supporters on Facebook deciding to boycott the FA Trophy fixture, and the growing unrest amongst sections of the supporters, there is a need to find a way to buck the trend of dwindling attendances. We’re currently on course to have our average attendance at the levels is was in the mid to late 1990s.

Average League Attendances

SEASONCOMPETITIONAVERAGEHIGHLOWPERCENTAGE CHANGE
2013-14Football League Championship661691084463+56
2014-15Skybet League One434668373509-34.3
2015-16Skybet League Two393660512954-9.4
2016-17EFL League Two356763062749-9.4
2017-18EFL League Two272137542205-23.7
2018-19EFL League Two295342232174+8.2
2019-20*National League295150562179-0.06
2020-21**National League149815001497-65.3
2021-22National League273839361260-7.4
2022-23***National League236028801906-14.8

*19/20 – season curtailed by covid
**20/21 – Covid season with two fixtures at limited capacity
***22/23 – Season so far (obviously)

Just how the club does it, who knows? Aside from the aforementioned SMPC, there’s no silverware left for the club to compete for this season. The tragic reality is that 2022/23 is now a battle for survival in the National League under Mark Cooper. The challenge for the club is how they can turn that into a compelling reason to get those undecided fans to part with their hard-earned cash to watch some gritty football for the rest of this season. We know there will always be a hardcore of supporters who will turn out regardless – but how do we attract others?

With the first annual rent charge due to SSDC in May (no-one is telling us how much that bill is – we’ve asked!), the club now need to find an extra wad of cash that they didn’t need to when they owned their home. The clock is ticking and for all we know (we’ve been told the square route of nothing), a few extra bums on seats – or feet on terraces – isn’t going to cover it. A sale of a contracted player might, mind.

There’s a difficult pattern re-emerging that were familiar with as supporters of Yeovil Town. After relegation from the Championship, attendances dropped, as we fell from League One they dropped, and as we circled the drain in League Two with uninspiring management and ownership the attendances dropped again. The result of this was less matchday revenue, less money to spend on players, lower-standard players, worse performances and relegation. 

the silent majority have been voting with their feet

After a season behind closed doors, you’d imagine a spike of people looking to return to a past time they loved pre-pandemic – things we’re pretty good before the season was curtailed in 2019/20. Alas, a fractured relationship due to broken communication and promises is resulting fewer people attending Huish Park. While there’s been little in the way of formal protest or action, the silent majority have been voting with their feet for many seasons now. 

Some will say there needs to be a change of owner. Some will say there’s not enough people in the town. Some will say people don’t have enough money to justify it. Some will say the matchday experience isn’t value for money. Some will say the football isn’t entertaining enough.

Perhaps is just a grim mash of all of the above. However you slice it, in 2023, something has to give.

Now, this has probably all felt a bit negative, such is the mood so let me try and offer a couple solutions which might go some way to helping mend fences.

  • I think a starting point would to give supporters the promised meeting and let them know what the future holds. Open the official, formal dialogue with the wider fanbase in an open setting. Broadcast it live on zoom, record it and make it 100% transparent for supporters who can’t attend as well. Only through this level of engagement will supporters feel they are listened to as a stakeholder of the football club.
  • Explain the nuts and bolts of the deal with SSDC. Who has the buyback? How much is the rent? If there’s nothing to hide, bring it out into the open. Bring the Chief Executive of SSDC or the Unitary Council along too.
  • Or for some, just sign a striker…

Note: After writing this, it was confirmed that the club had approval to move the marquee. A good step in the right direction for match day improvements for those who like a drink beforehand.

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Yeovil Town’s FA Trophy campaign came to an end in familiar fashion with an exit after penalty shoot-out for the second successive season.

Last season it was lower division Needham Market, this time around it was Dorking Wanderers – who are at least in the same division – but the result was the same, it’s concentrate on National League survival and the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup for Yeovil Town.

Here’s how Ian saw it…….

 

It wasn’t a game of quality in the final thirds. Yeovil were defensively strong (as per usual) and were barely troubled by Dorking going forward, whilst at the other end, Will Buse had a quiet afternoon stepping in for Grant Smith. Josh Staunton had Yeovil’s first attempt on target in the 70th minute with a header that was straight at the keeper. The Glovers rallied for a spell in the final stages, and thought they’d got it through Staunton but for an offside flag. We probably deserved the win on the balance of the second half, but without finding a goal we are always at risk of defeat.

We don’t like a penalty shootout. It feels like it’s becoming a bit of a thing now. We scraped through in the lowest quality shoot-out ever last season again W*ymouth in last season’s FA Cup, lost horrendously to Needham Market and yesterday we struggled again from the spot. The early work Mark Cooper did with building confidence will have taken a bit of a hit yesterday off the back of this, but what surprised me was who stepped up. Our usual takers Alex Fisher and Matt Worthington were off the pitch, but we had attacking players Malachi Linton, Charlie Wakefield, Andrew Oluwabori on for the shootout – but Jordan Drew Maguire, Max Hunt and Jamie Andrews took them. 

I’m not sure where the goals are coming from. We tried another combination in the attacking areas yesterday, with Chiori Johson in at left wing and Maguire-Drew on the right. Maguire-Drew looked like a player who hasn’t played a lot of football and although he added quality with his set pieces, he needs match fitness. Is a one-month loan enough to get it in? Alex Fisher, a mainstay in Cooper’s side so far, didn’t have his greatest afternoon and I wonder at what point we start Louis Britton. He’s been billed as a goal scorer who gets in the six-yard box which was what we were crying out for as the game wore on.

Alex Fisher battles for the ball. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The attendance yesterday has to be of concern. It was our first sub-1000 attendance for a first-team fixture for years. If we disregard SMPC and friendlies, the last time we played a first team fixture with less than 1000 supporters was in November 2018 against West Ham United Under-21s in the Check-a-Trade Trophy which was in the thick of a boycott of that competition across the country. Before that, we played Kingstonian in the Nationwide Variety Cup in April 2001 in front of 295. In the same season and competition we played Kettering in front of 709 supporters. In 1997, we played Boreham Wood in the ICIS Charity Shield with 873. Last season when we played Woking in the same round of the competition there were 1493 at Huish Park. Obviously, there were circumstances which would have led to that, the freezing cold, the late notice of pitch inspection, the last weekend before Christmas, but the level of drop off is a damning indictment of the progress (or lack of it) at the club.

Survival is all that’s left to play for. With defeat yesterday and no FA Trophy run on the cards now, all that’s left to play for next season is survival. On Friday’s podcast we spoke about how a cup run would give us a lift and something to get excited about in a season which has provided very little in the way of excitement. Alas, the “drama” of the penalty shootout put an end to it in the first hurdle and all we have now is to hope we have enough quality to remain a National League club.

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Back in August the Glovers confirmed the signing of Bournemouth striker Jake Scrimshaw. The 21-year-old signed for Yeovil from the Cherries on a two-year-deal and there was a fair amount of excitement around the signing.

He scored four goals in 19 appearances for Scunthorpe last season and had fleeting spells at Newport County and Walsall in the previous season. He had a prolific record for Bournemouth’s academy sides and came with a promising pedigree.

At the announcement of his signing, Chris Hargreaves said: “I’m really pleased to welcome Jake to the club. He’s a versatile forward who can offer us flexibility in the way we play and utilise him.

“Jake is the sort of player who will work his socks off for the team. He’s desperate to be a success here at Yeovil Town.

Scrimshaw in action for Bournemouth U21s ?AFCB U21 Twitter

Since his signing, Scrimshaw has made five appearances in the National League for Yeovil from the bench spending just over 13 minutes on the pitch on average. His last appearance was 8 minutes against Oldham Athletic in Chris Hargreaves’ penultimate match in charge.

Towards the end of September, Hargreaves did give an insight into ‘Scrimmy’s’ first months at the club: “It has been a tough position for him coming from Bournemouth to us, the National League has different elements to under-21s at Bournemouth. He’s fighting for his spot and there’s competition for places with Gime Toure who has scored and Malachi Linton, but Scrimmy certainly working hard to get that start.”

That start never came and since Mark Cooper took over from Hargreaves at the end of October Scrimshaw hasn’t been in a match day squad, although he was seen with the players at Woking.

It seems a safe assumption that all is not well there. Scrimshaw has largely been overlooked by two managers since his signing and in a side that has struggled to stick the ball in the net, he’s never been seen as the answer to the Glovers’ goal scoring woes. In truth, we don’t really have any idea what sort of player he is. When he joined Scunthorpe last season, then manager Neil Cox said: “He’s a centre forward who wants to play on the shoulder and run in behind, and wants to be in the penalty box to score goals. We’ll be patient with him and encourage him but I’m sure he’ll be an excellent signing for us.”

Cooper quickly recruited Anthony Georgiou, Andrew ‘the right winger’ Oluwabori and Louis Britton and gave Alex Fisher a clearly defined role in order to make Yeovil more productive in the final third. He has since let Hargreaves’ signings Ollie Hulbert and Will Dawes go out on loan.

The departure of Georgiou back to Leyton Orient to ‘balance the books’ raised eyebrows in the aftermath of Saturday’s 0-0 with Scunthorpe and if the scales still aren’t right, surely Scrimshaw will be high on the list of potential outgoings. The question is, with a two-year deal and just 67 minutes on the pitch this season, how on earth are Yeovil going to move Scrimshaw along if that’s the desire?

This isn’t the first (and won’t be the last) curious case at Yeovil Town, earlier this year we wrote about Alex Bradley…

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The stars aligned this weekend, a stomach bug combined with the launch of a National League streaming service meant Ian was able to stay warm and watch Yeovil’s 0-0 draw with Scunthorpe from the comfort of home. Here are his Five Conclusions…

That was a drab affair. This game won’t go down in history as the Notts County 0-0 will. With a heavily depleted squad, players on the pitch on antibiotics, two of the League’s poorer sides and an increasingly difficult surface, the quality was at a premium at Huish Park. In hindsight, a postponement of the match probably would have benefitted the Glovers. Mark Cooper said given the circumstances with the squad, it’s one of our best points of the season. But his comments after the match made it abundantly clear that…

The playing budget is tight, and that is an understatement. We knew it already right? Chris Hargreaves leant on the local loan network to bring in players and was definitely not shopping in Waitrose. Yesterday we named three subs, with only two outfield players, in a week where we let Gime Toure leave and had to let Anthony Georgiou return to his parent club to ‘balance the books’. The manager cited Jamie Reckord, Morgan Williams, Matt Worthington and Ben Richards-Everton as players missing, but Jake Scrimshaw has vanished, Will Dawes (our five-figure fee signing no less) has got back from whence he came on loan and Hulbert has gone out too. Parts of the summer recruitment has left a lot to be desired and a combination of factors left us really short yesterday. We’ve had two managers this season, who’ve both talked about the lack of budget, what exactly has the injection of taxpayers money done to the playing budget?

I think there should have been a red card for Scunthorpe. There was a heated 20 seconds in the second half where a great tackle gets penalised for a free kick to Yeovil and what followed was a blatant punch to the side of Ewan Clarke’s head. The referee’s intention was solely on sorting out the tackle (which ironically didn’t need sorting) so he misses the hit, if he keeps his eye on Clarke for a split second longer there’s no way he doesn’t give a red. National League refs, eh? What do you think?

Scunthorpe looked like they were there for the taking. There were moments in the first half where we seemed to have acres of space inside the 18 yard box, but rather than shoot we tried to over work it and the chance went away. Friend of the Gloverscast Chris Weale said on commentary that he thought the Iron’s defence was big, slow and narrow and that that Yeovil could get round them. Unfortunately we didn’t seem to do that enough and gave Scunthorpe their first clean sheet of the season.

And they probably should have won it. Scunthorpe grew into the second half as we tired and they looked much more of a threat. In a game that looked like it was going to be settled by one goal, they had the chance of the afternoon through a combination of Tom Pugh and Rob Apter, who somehow conspired to miss. It was the biggest chance of the afternoon and fortunately for the Glovers, Scunthorpe didn’t capitalise.

It was the kind of game where you’re grateful for the request to build a bug hotel during it.

On to Barnet…

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Yeovil Town manager Mark Cooper is looking for all three points ahead of this weekend’s visit of Scunthorpe United and said his side will have to get on the right side of ‘moments‘ against the National League’s bottom club.

Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins on Thursday, the manager said: “We just have to perform on the day. Physically, mentally, tactically, we have to be right on the day. We can talk about how poor a run Scunthorpe are on, but they have players that can hurt you. If you take the top two or three out of the league, there’s not a lot between any of the teams and its about moments in matches that decide which way the afternoon or evening’s gonna go and we’ve got to make sure were on the right side of those moments.

“We need to win, simple. We need to win the game. However we do it, we need to win because we a tough game on Tuesday away at Barnet and more tough games after that so we need to win the game to put ourselves in a strong position.”

With two sides who were relegated from the EFL last season taking up the bottom two places in the League, Cooper expressed his sympathy for the situation the Iron find themselves in and said how no team has a divine right to walk the league.

“It’s a graveyard for big former football league clubs. You look at the teams that are around the bottom, Scunthorpe, Oldham, Yeovil (ouch!) those kinds of teams. There’s no divine right to be at the top of this league, you have to earn it. Scunthorpe is a great football club and you just feel sorry for their fans as to where they are now and what they’re having to put up with. I’m sure they’ll sort it out in the long run but we’ve got to make sure that’s not on Saturday.”

When asked by Adi Hopper of Three Valleys Radio about his time at the club so far, the manager said: “I’m happy, you always want more. I’ve said before, I was left a good base by the previous manager. The players were in good nick a good defensive unit, and we’ve just added a little bit of something to the group. We’ve brought a couple of players in which has given us a spark. But as a coach, as a manager you always want a bit more.”