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The appointment of manager Billy Rowley as Yeovil Town manager on Tuesday morning probably took a lot of fans not plugged in to the Huish Park rumour mill by surprise. Dave gives his thoughts on what at least appears to be a man with a plan.

What a difference 24 hours makes. On Monday morning we were all feeling down in the dumps after a drab goalless draw at Morecambe last weekend stretched our winless run to eight matches in all competitions.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning and the appointment of Billy Rowley as manager has lifted the mood at Huish Park. In a way he didn’t have to do anything except be himself – energetic, excited about the challenge he’s taken on, and with a clear vision for what he wants to do.

The echoes of Danny Webb’s first interviews as manager are unmistakable. The face may be different, but the vibes are undeniable and you only have to look through fans’ comments on social media or even this website to see it’s changed perceptions in a stroke.

Let’s give it 11 days though just because……well, you know? But seriously, if vibes are the only difference between Tuesday morning (before 10.25am) and now, that feels a darn sight better!

What do we know about the new man? Honestly, unless you have been paying close attention to the Southern League, not much. But, from what I can see, Rowley has built a reputation of practicing what he preaches – he’s built a good, young squad there and they are playing good, attacking, winning football. He leaves them two points clear at the top of the Southern League South with 40 goals in their opening 16 matches of the season.

The Rowley revolution begins this Saturday.

Yes, it is two steps below the National League Premier Division and, as he says himself in his first interview, he is “going to have to learn this league” and there’s no doubt he will make mistakes. But, this feels like a direction of travel which simply has not been there – except for maybe 11 days in September – for a long time. 

I hope he is given time – by supporters (yes, the Gloverscast included), by the ownership and by his players – because if it comes off, it could be exceptional. A gamble, undoubtedly, but it feels a lot better than it did 24 hours ago – and vibes will have to do for now.

The video update from the owner Prabhu Srinivasan posted just half-an-hour before the announcement of Rowley’s arrival was made was interesting as well. He spoke about how his family had been reactive rather than proactive since taking over in May, something he says they are not used to being. This does feel like a proactive move rather than a reactive one. 

One of Walton & Hersham’s co-owners posted about Rowley’s departure on social media

In their short time in charge, the owners have made mistakes as much as they have been hit by bad luck, but credit where it is due for a thoroughly ballsy move. The future of Richard Dryden, who I still believe to be a thoroughly decent bloke put in an unenviable situation, and Jerry Gill remains to be ironed out following the arrival of Darren Simpson, Rowley’s assistant as Walton & Hersham.

For us as supporters, we need to carry the optimism we are feeling in to this weekend’s home game with Boston United, a team who are level on points with us in the table. Every minute, hour and day between now and then will be learning curve for the new manager as he meets his players, and this Saturday will tell him even more about the group he’s taken charge of and the club he’s at – let’s do our part to make it as positive an experience as we can.

Welcome to Huish Park, Billy, give us a reason to dream and we’ll be with you every step of the way. Up the Glovers!

Former Yeovil captain Josh Staunton posted about the arrival of Billy Rowley on social media on Tuesday.

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Yeovil Town either ended their run of three straight defeats or extended their run without a win to eight matches with a goalless draw at fellow strugglers Morecambe on Saturday. Regardless of your perspective, the Glovers created enough chances to have come away from the gloomy Lancashire coast with three points and instead had to settle for just one. Dave was among the 110 supporters in the away end and here are his conclusions.

What’s the definition of insanity again? Turns out it wasn’t Albert Einstein who said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result“, but Yeovil Town fans were left wondering if it was an accurate description having seen the starting line-up. The same eleven which failed to get a single shot on target against Southend United seven days earlier were starting again with strikers Tahvon Campbell, Harvey Greenslade and the forward-thinking Andrew Oluwabori left on the bench. Now, I may not have the coaching badges of Richard Dryden or Jerry Gill, but I have seen enough football to know James Daly is not a number nine. Yet he was expected to play it and, guess what? It was not until a change of shape and the introduction of Greenslade and Campbell that we really started to press Morecambe.

The first half was utterly forgettable. Those supporters in the away end who paid for the privilege climbed aboard a coach at 6.45am on Saturday morning must have been questioning their own sanity when the half-time whistle sounded. That said, I ‘only’ travelled 45 minutes each way and I began to question my own. It was the answer to the question we raised on Friday’s podcast of what would happen when a team which can’t score meets a team that concedes a lot. The result? Not very much.

110 fans were in the away end at Morecambe.

The second half was better – just. I have to add some kind of a positive (yes, this is the positive one), we did create more in the second half. The introduction of Greenslade in particular and Campbell to an extent had an impact and we created opportunities, but could not take them. That said, I could not believe I was seeing us pick up two yellow cards for wasting time over throw-ins when we were going for three points against a team below us in the table which had only kept two clean sheets all season before this match. Ah, I ended the positive one with a negative. Sorry.

Relying on a lottery. Tahvon Campbell will make the headlines for his second half penalty miss, but it is unfair to put the blame solely on this moment. Junior Morias, Luke McCormick and Josh Sims all had great opportunities to test Morecambe keeper Jamal Blackman with efforts and were off target with every one. It was difficult to judge whether it was a poor penalty or a good save from the angle the away fans were in at the Mazuma Arena on Saturday but, having seen it back on a replay, I’m going to give the credit to the keeper. 

If not now, then when?: This feels like we are sleep walking in to a real problem. Listening to Richard Dryden speak after the game and saying that “it’s not the end of the world” if we don’t get three points at home to Boston United next weekend, I feel very nervous. Is he doing what he can to take the pressure off his players or is he really naive enough to not realise the seriousness of our situation. Yes, it is only November, but if we don’t wake up to the problems we are seeing, we could do it in March and wonder why we didn’t act sooner. I have said on the podcast before that I am sure Dryden is a great coach but for me he is not a manager. Owner Prabhu Srinivasan was at Morecambe and at the home game against Southend United and if he is not starting to wonder if something needs to be done, I have to ask, when is he going to think that? If this is “all part of the blueprint“, I think we need a new plan!

The pie was decent – there, there’s a positive!

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There was yet more disappointment at Huish Park yesterday with a late goal consigning a much-improved Yeovil to defeat. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions.

Luke McCormick goes down in the penalty box | Photo by Gary Brown

We improved – again. After the Carlisle draw I wrote: That was just the tonic the supporters needed after the poor run. Many – me included – feared a bit of drubbing at the hands of a team that is unbeaten in October but we really showed that there’s more to this team than what we’ve seen of late. The same applies this time, but it’s an unsustainable way. The longer this run goes on, the more those three wins in September look to be a postive reaction to the chaos of Danny Webb’s departure. Things have ‘calmed’ down since then and while Yeovil keep turning a corner to improve the performance, Dryden’s men just can’t get a win. 

It was an entertaining game. I thought both sides competed well in a fairly even affair. There was spirit in both teams and it didn’t feel like 18th vs 7th for a lot of the match. Mistakes at the back allowed Southend to spurn some glorious chances but we stuck with playing out (which I’m okay with) and when got through the lines we did create moments. Once again though, we tired towards the closing stages where other teams seem to find another gear, or their substitutes make an impact. Their late winner was a real kick in the knackers but I don’t think many will argue that Southend didn’t do enough to get all three points.

Jed Ward
Pic Gary Brown

Where would be without Jed Ward? The glove man was imperious – again – in the Yeovil goal, keeping out a handful of efforts and saving his teammates bacon on more than one occasion. It’s not the first game (but it would be nice if it’s the last) where if were not for the Rovers loanee, Yeovil would have been on the end of a cricket score. As it was, he pulled off some blinding saves to keep the Southend attackers stumped.

Chances are hard to come by. If you don’t make the goalkeeper make a save, you can’t expect to get anything and that was the story yesterday. Southend’s keeper didn’t have a shot to save. Yeovil worked openings and got shots away that were charged down by defenders, but we’re back to “bits and pieces” around the box being called chances. We tried something different with the front three I thought it looked okay in the first half. Morias, Sims and Daly had energy, pace and fluidity that caused some problems when the wingbacks got involved too. Despite the attacking options on the bench, I don’t think Oluwabori or Jarvis improved us when they came on for the tired legs. We’re dangerously closed to lauding final third entries as our ‘Special One’ once did, but if we dont start testing keepers we’re not going to get points.

The echoes of 2022/23 are ringing. Sadly, I think we’re in a dog fight and I’m worried. That miserable relegation year is not a distant memory and there are parallels from that season. Changing manager early in the season, struggling to hit the back of the net, patching up a team until January. This time, however, we have committed owners who, I believe, genuinely have the best interests of the club at heart. Prior to kick off yesterday, Prabhu Srinivasan talked to BBC Somerset about the ambition to reach the EFL by the end of next season. I have no doubts that the new owners have invested in the club. Before selling the club, Martin Hellier said how the club was costing £200,000 a month to run and that number will not have changed – it will probably have increased. The problem is that on the face of it – and on the pitch – that investment is just enabling the club to stand still/regress. We really need to hope this ‘blueprint’ starts bringing results or we’ll be back to regional football.

Not pretty reading | Photo by Gary Brown

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Yeovil Town went down to a 1-0 defeat at Scunthorpe United yesterday, a result which stretches their run without a win to six matches and pushes them in to 18th place in the National League Premier Division table. Dave was among the Glovers’ fans who made the trip to Lincolnshire and here are his conclusions on the match.

It was an improvement on four days earlier…..: Admittedly it is a very low bar after the team were booed off the pitch following the 2-0 home defeat to Wealdstone, but there was some improvement. Four days earlier, there was very little effort and even less quality from Yeovil and in this match you could not fault the effort the players put in. It was a stupid mistake which led to goal and we simply did not have the quality to get the breakthrough at the other end. In the second half, I was torn between thinking we were taking the game to Scunthorpe and that the hosts were just keeping us at arms length. We have seen a lot of the top sides in this division by this stage of the season and there was not much difference between us and Scunthorpe – but they are fourth in the table and we are 18th.

We huffed and we puffed, but (again) we could not blow the house down.

….but we still came away with nothing: I realise I just said it, but saying we put in the effort does not change the fact that we still came away with nothing. In his post-match interview, Harvey Greenslade said that the players and the management would “not paper over the cracks” with this thought and we absolutely cannot. The truth is that our league position is unacceptable for a club which should be pushing towards the top end of the table. That is not ex-EFL arrogance, when you look at the size of our crowds, the stature of the club and the quality we undoubtedly have in the squad, we should be doing much better than we are. Stating the obvious I know, but focusing too much on being a bit better than absolutely useless is not the way to change things.

Can’t fault the desire to change it: Having left it too late to make changes to tackle the poor conditions against Wealdstone, you cannot fault Richard Dryden’s desire to change personnel at Scunthorpe. Kyle Ferguson, who I had spoken about deserving an opportunity on the podcast the previous day, and Josh Sims, presumably still working his way back from injury, got hooked for Alex Whittle and Aaron Jarvis at half-time and then Junior Morias, Tahvon Campbell, James Daly and Dan Ellison all appeared in the second half. But, see next conclusion….

There were a few words exchanged between manager Richard Dryden and a couple of supporters after the match at Scunthorpe.

We have to admit that there’s some players who are just not good enough: The simple truth is that there are some players in our squad who are simply not good enough. Not every player, but when you come away from as many matches as we have over the past season-and-a-half empty handed, the facts do not lie. We have a squad which can probably muddle through until the end of the season and retain our league status, but is that really the ambition of the now not-so-new ownership? We were promised competitiveness – not a revolution, but a competitive squad – and yet today we lie exactly in the position where we finished last season. And we can all agree that was not good enough.

The supporters deserve better: Again, Harvey Greenslade said it in his post-match interview, the 93 supporters who travelled all the way to Lincolnshire deserve better. Actually, make it 92, I only travelled two-and-a-half hours across the country to get there and when I arrived home, the supporters’ coach was only halfway home. There were a few who voiced their opinions towards Richard Dryden at the end of the game and got a few verbals back from him. I understand that it comes at a very raw moment literally minutes after a defeat and I am sure the way their arguments were constructed were not the most nuanced, but that is not a good look. These people deserve better, listen to them, nod and say ‘I know, thankyou for coming’. The credit is not in the bank to be getting in to arguments.

93 Yeovil Town fans made the trip to Scunthorpe – they are not all in this picture!

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After 10 days off, it was not a happy return to Huish Park for Yeovil Town. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from a miserable night under the lights.

Where was the intent? From the kick off Wealdstone seemed to show all the intent, energy and desire. They controlled the ball – albeit it was Cooperball-esque – but we were never able to keep it and build our own pressure. Every scrap of something we had was a ball out to Oluwabori or Plant and hoping they could make something happen. All over the pitch we were sloppy with our passing and I thought, tactically, we had no answer to the visitors. Even if you take the conditions into account, Wealdstone had no problems and we cannot use it as an excuse. Wealdstone looked the like the home team last night [insert jab about training in Bristol] and that’s pretty damning.

Aaron Jarvis’ effort goes inches wide. Picture courtesy of Debs Curtis.

One step forward, two steps backwards. The improved performance against Carlisle United gave supporters a nugget of hope. We appeared to have turned a corner and the hope was to build some momentum. Maybe get some players back in and fit. Sadly, Sims and McGavin weren’t ready and yet again we still looked leggy. Oluwabori had little impact, Morais made no difference from the bench and Jarvis and Campbell were feeding off scraps. Even the Efete and Nurse, who I though looked good in the last outing, barely completed a pass to a teammate. Maybe the Carlisle draw (only our second all season) papered over the cracks, but our next two are even more difficult against Scunthorpe and Southend.

Goals goal goals. Nine matches at home this season, nine goals, three of which came against Gateshead. 25 goals at home last season, 18 at home in 22/23, 20 in 21/22.  Bar the National League South season (46), we’ve not had many chances to cheer during League matches. It feels like a tale as old as time in the National League, we struggle to created chances for our strikers. Last night was no different, Jarvis nearly got on the end of a cross in the 2nd half, but he and Campbell spent so much time coming deep to get the ball and bring others into the game but they get zero service. Oh for a Sonny Blu…

Mussa ran the midfield. Wealdstone’s number four seems to love Huish Park. Back in October 2021 he pulled the strings for W*ymouth in Yeovil’s 1-1 FA Cup draw and he did it again last night. Cool on the ball, fancy feet get out of tight spots – which set them on their way to a second goal – and read the game expertly. With McGavin and Maddox to return from injury to add to Joliffe and McCormick in the midfield, I really hope we can see some of that in our midfield. Or maybe, we can sign him in January? It’s not always raining sideways Omar.

What’s left this season? We’ve not even reached firework night and I feel like the reasons to believe this season are ebbing away. The minor momentum and good-will from Carlisle vanished last night with boos ringing around Huish Park on full time. Hopefully the FA Trophy draw is kind to us and we get can get a decent run in that. But, I’ve not seen enough consistency to think we can achieve anything more than mid-table this season. I hope I’m wrong on that and hope that preparation for 2026/27 is going on in parallel because, if the attendance is going to stay over 2,000, we need something to believe in.

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Yeovil turned their dreadful October form around to earn a point against high-flying Carlisle United but probably deserved more. Here are Ian’s Conclusions from Huish Park.

For the love of god, please can we stick with the back four? There’s irony in the fact that we are healthily stocked at centre back but, once again, look so much more comfortable with two rather than three. The Wannell and Williams combination returned and we looked immediately more calm, composed and controlled. I thought that was Wannell’s best performance of the season and he was every bit the Rolls Royce centre back we’ve enjoyed over the last two campaigns. George Nurse looks the part at left back – although he understandably tired towards full time and Michee Efete had a good game on the other side up against one of the league’s best players in Regan Linney. 

Jake Wannell. Pic: Gary Brown

Max Jolliffe had a great debut. We debated throwing him in Friday’s podcast, but based on that small sample size, he’s more than ready. We’ve been crying out for mobility in midfield and Jolliffe gave the Glovers that in abundance. He’s keen in the challenge and showed some real quality on the ball. He deserved the standing ovation he received after his substitution and credit goes to the club for spotting a real gem.

The front two were a handful. I think that was probably the best we’ve seen of Aaron Jarvis this season and he and Tahvon Campbell were a real nuisance for Carlisle’s back four. So often this season we’ve seen Jarvis get embroiled in wrestling with defenders to no avail, but I think he got the better of Carlisle’s’ centre backs and we got to see some more of him with the ball and bringing players into the game. I thought Campbell put in a good all-rounders performance too. He had to do the work in between midfield and attack and did the hold up play too, whilst making life awkward for his opposing defenders.

They all count, Tahvon. Pic: Gary Brown

That was a reassuring performance. That was just the tonic the supporters needed after the poor run. Many – me included – feared a bit of drubbing at the hands of a team that is unbeaten in October but we really showed that there’s more to this team than what we’ve seen of late. There were good performances across the pitch and that should be reassuring for supporters who, understandably, have felt miserable following 3-0 defeats to Boreham Wood, Rochdale either side of the dire FA Cup loss at Hemel Hempstead. 

Let’s get some bodies fit! With no match now until the 4th of November we’ve now got a good chunk of time to get some players back fit and firing. Five out of the six outfield substitutes were defenders with the sixth being the returning James Daly who’s been out since August through injury. When Wealdstone come to town on November 4th, there’s a possibility that we have Brett McGavin, Junior Morias, Josh Sims and even Jacob Maddox back available in some form which would turn that ‘small squad of quality’ to a medium-sized squad of quality.

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Yeovil Town owner Prabhu Srinivasan interviewed during a visit to Huish Park.

On Friday 15th October, we broadcast a long interview with Nicholas Brayne, Chief Strategy Advisor at Yeovil Town FC, which went on for almost two hours and covered a huge range of topics which we at the Gloverscast felt fans wanted answers on. Since the interview was broadcast, there have been a wide range of opinions (both positive and negative) about some of the things which Nicholas said and  a request for a transcript of the interview to be made available.

You can still (and forever) listen to the interview in here – click HERE is you want to do that – and here the unedited, unfiltered words which Nicholas spoke. However, to try and make it easier to understand and digestible, we have broken this down in to sections which cover the wide range of topics which were discussed.

In this second posting, we bring you Nicholas’ comments on off-the-field matters including the investment under owner Prabhu Srinivasan, the latest on the ownership of land at Huish Park and his thoughts on the club’s community outreach since the takeover.

Investment by the ownership group

“I have heard people say a few times ‘why doesn’t Prabhu put money in to the club?’ That one irks me a little bit because we are losing a significant amount of money every year, I know how much money he is pumping in to this club. If anyone does not think it is significant, please turn up at Huish Park and we will talk about investment. The elevation on the budget is sizeable in terms of what he has put forward. That went forward under Danny (Webb), but he obviously did not have time to spend it so we are investing it now, so there is a lot of money going in to this club. The question is are we spending it properly. I know what Halifax’s budget is, I know what Barnet’s budget was last year, I know what people are spending.

  • Energy: I have become an energy expert because of these price rises. We had a five-year locked in contract and we are facing a cliff edge in November, so I have been working to get us a better deal in terms of energy and a better mix. We are looking at a situation where our energy prices are going to double. 
  • Sport England Loan: Under <NAME OF FORMER CHAIRMAN REDACTED>, a loan was taken out with Sport England, but to the best of my knowledge not a single penny has been paid off that loan until last month when we put down £117,000. To try and eat in to that capital, we paid £117,000 off the loan. There are twice a year payments which we pay. There is a payment plan in place for a period of time to take that away. I have to be fair to Sport England and where we are at the moment, we will be paying that off for a considerable amount of time. There are things we would like to do to make that more manageable, but we are facing two very sizeable payments every year that are just shy of £100,000 each, then they peter off.

Now we are dealing with a cocktail of crap, but we knew we were going to have that. We went in to it with our eyes open.

Yeovil Town owner Prabhu Srinivasan interviewed during a visit to Huish Park.
Yeovil Town owner Prabhu Srinivasan.

Q. We know of Prabhu, his wife Bhavna and son Sahil, executive chairman Stuart Robins and yourself, is anyone else involved in ‘the ownership group’?
A. “No, that is everyone. There are no other investors other than Inflection Holdings (the company which Prabhu Srinivasan used to take over the club in May), we are pumping the money in. This is all coming from Prabhu, Bhavna and the family. Most owners value a football club at how much money they have put in over the years and how they want to get that back which is the easiest way of it. Most people know they are pumping money in knowing they are not going to get that money back. You would potentially make money out of promotion to the EFL and perhaps Yeovil returning as a League One club. You can look at cultural factors of football becoming more sustainable, the academic perspective is the appetite for debt is lessening because there are fewer investors coming forward. Whether that is true or not is an interesting debate. So, to answer the question, this is money going in to keep the club going rather than an investment where you are seeking a return.

“There is no-one else, there is no-one in the wings. We have not had this conversation, but that is not to say if someone rocked up and said ‘I have got transformative money that could do something amazing for the club’ I am sure we would want to have that conversation. I talk to people all the time who have an interest in football. 99% are there to waste our time, 1% may come and have a meaningful conversation and 0.5% might transact, so it’s a low conversion rate. But we have not had any of those conversations at Huish Park and nor have we introduced anyone like that in to the conversation or sought to have those conversations. I am leaving the opportunity open for future years, but it is not something we have done up until this point.”

Q. We have not seen or heard much from Prabhu since he was last in the UK, why have they not been back?
A. “It is difficult for the family when they want to be there to provide support. Bhavna and Prabhu are mainly in the United Arab Emirates (specifically Dubai) and you have Sahil who is in New York, so it is challenging for them to do this from afar. What prohibits them from being here more is that their visa allows them to do 90 days in the UK and they are now around 55 days each and we have only had the club three or four months. They want to be in the country as much as possible, for example, they are coming over for the Mayor’s Ball (held on Saturday 15th November). They have to look at when something significant is going to happen and leave something in the bank for unforeseen circumstances.”

 

Companies House filing

A little extra context on this point because those supporters not on social media may have missed it, but on October 9th the Companies House listing of Yeovil Town Holdings showing the allotment of £500,000 worth of shares in the business. We asked Nicholas about what it means.

“We have a holding company that owns the football club and we are pumping money in through Yeovil Town Holdings Ltd to flow down and meet the challenge of running the football club. The difference in the costs are variable, for example, if we have more home games in a certain month the difference will be less, so what you are retrospectively seeing is the mechanics of the money coming in and how it has been allotted in terms of shareholding in the company as it filters down.

“This is an injection of capital coming in. Nick Crittenden (the club accountant) will do a forecast of what we need every month and we will pump the money in and it falls like rain in to the football club. That is how we keep it funded. Football clubs make a significant loss, a fantastic month for us would be writing a cheque for under £200,000 to keep it going, we have been writing cheques north of that for quite some time.”

The filing posted to Companies House on 9th October.

Ownership of the land at Huish Park

“If you knew what the council had done in terms of the transaction to keep the football club going, their adaptability with the current group, they have been fantastic. It has always been our extend the terms of the buy-back option, we wanted to push that back to give ourselves a bit of breathing space. The question is ‘why don’t you just buy back the site?’ The truth is when you are looking at a site like that and the amount of money it would cost to buy it back, it is right to put in place an assessment of what you can do with it. It is also important when you consider other partners who may come in and, for example, build a hotel, paddle courts or a wonderful trampoline park! We are working with and have had detailed work done with one particular party about what could be done on the site, and that helps us with where we go with the council and how we then bring Huish Park in to the ownership of the club. If we rushed out and did it overnight, it is no advantage to the club or the ownership group.

Q. Would supporters be consulted on any future development of the site?

A. “There has to be an element of consultation with reality underpinning it. We are open to creative thoughts, but there has to be reality in how we actually operate it. When there is a plan in place we have to have engagement because why would we want something in place where people turn up and say ‘that is just ghastly!’? As a slight caveat, there will have to be a statutory consultation and I don’t people to think their criticisms or support have not been heard because we have run a pseudo consultation, not the official one. So within the parameters of doing things properly within the parameters of planning law, I cannot see why we would not be talking to supporters. You would have extensive consultation, that would be communicated widely, and it is in our interest to run a public event where people can come and see the plans.

“On the site, there will need to be an element of residential development. The reality is to develop that site there are things you are able to do and things you are not able to do. Let us say we want to build a destination there, there would be objections there on a major scale because you are sucking business out of Yeovil town centre. What is needed at the moment is housing, but it doesn’t need to be the whole site. We could put forward a mixed development where you have some residential, maybe a hotel, some kind of leisure development which would make Huish Park a community focus point. There are certain boxes which have to be ticked and at the moment that work is being done and scoped by quite sizeable people who work in that area. We would then have to work with partners because as an ownership we do not know the first thing about building houses, for example.

“Will we see change at the football club? Absolutely. How will that change benefit the club? It will draw capital in to the football club, but the bigger challenge is how does that capital keep benefiting the club by having a residual tail on it? Because it could just come in to the club and it just gets burned because in football we burn money for fun. So we have to think how we do it cleverly, that is the conversation and that is why we extended the buy-back option. Those are the conversations we are having now. Long term sustainability is what we are talking about. For example, if you developed a hotel, there are lots of ways to do it. You could bring in a firm and buy in to that brand and the club runs the hotel as a number of clubs do or you could sell to an investor. This is not as simple as just throwing up a hotel, but there has to be a mixture of things that brings money in to the football club and things that may give us a one-off hit and gives us the money to invest in other things. At the end of this, I need to be able to point at things which have made us more sustainable than when we had this conversation on 15th October 2025.

“What looks like successful ownership? Reuniting the club with the stadium is massive and if we came out of this and we are still in the National League but the club now owns the stadium, that would be frustrating but it does add a pillar of sustainability. These are the real things we feel we can do which is away from sporting jeopardy.”

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On Friday 15th October, we broadcast a long interview with Nicholas Brayne, Chief Strategy Advisor at Yeovil Town FC, which went on for almost two hours and covered a huge range of topics which we at the Gloverscast felt fans wanted answers on. Since the interview was broadcast, there have been a wide range of opinions (both positive and negative) about some of the things which Nicholas said and  a request for a transcript of the interview to be made available.

You can still (and forever) listen to the interview in here – click HERE is you want to do that – and here the unedited, unfiltered words which Nicholas spoke. However, to try and make it easier to understand and digestible, we have broken this down in to sections which cover the wide range of topics which were discussed.

This first posting will cover on the field matters including the sacking of Mark Cooper as manager, the arrival and sudden departure of Danny Webb, the decision to appoint Richard Dryden as manager until the end of the season, and the challenges of player recruitment.

The appointment and departure of Danny Webb

Richard (Dryden, manager) is a coach which I know three other clubs were in for in the summer when we took him, he has a reputation for improving players and a lot of managers that have worked with Richard who will tell you that how he works is impressive. When we decided we were going to call time on Mark (Cooper), it was a short week and we felt Richard was the best option (as interim manager) with Chris Todd as number two. Richard showed ambition from the start, he wanted the job and he had a very clear plan about how he was going to go about it. We saw an improved performance in those matches he took charge of as interim manager and I thought he did well.

“In the background we were speaking to a number of people and I travelled with Stuart (Robins, executive chairman) and Sahil (Srinivasan, the son of owner, Prabhu) and we spoke to a number of managers, two in particular and there were a huge number of other calls. There were a number of managers that I would have loved to have got to Huish Park, but they had aspirations in other directions and a couple of others were in the mix and there was a shortlist.

Danny Webb’s time as Yeovil Town manager lasted just 11 days.

“But, Danny was a charismatic character with a good track record and he hit the ground at Huish Park and people liked his open approach, he was very different to Mark Cooper, there was a lot to like. We backed him financially and in terms of his plans prior to him coming through the door. Then what happened, happened and he had that moment of realisation and he decided to stand down for family and personal reasons which was quite extraordinary to deal with. That whole period felt like a whirlwind and that is why we wanted to go back to a period of stability and calm by appointing Richard as manager until the end of the season.”

Q. Have you reflected on the process you undertook to appoint Danny Webb and do you think there is anything you would have done differently?

A. “We have reflected and learnt from that process. But how do you do due diligence about someone’s state of mind. There is a remit about how far I can go because I have to be respectful of someone’s actions about their decisions. But, I know we did a very thorough assessment and spoke to a number of people and there were not a single red flag. Stuart went back over everything we had done to see how we got to this point and the assessment was that it was difficult to say ‘we should have seen this coming.’ I cannot honestly pinpoint a moment.

“For someone who was inside the process it still feels bizarre. Let me be clear, I am not insinuating Danny Webb has mental health issues, but you do not always know what someone is thinking and feeling, the personal challenges they face. When we knew Danny came to a decision, we wanted to make sure he was okay on a human level. I thought we had made the right decision, we obviously did not because what happened, happened. I would love to be able to pinpoint the things that went wrong, but I genuinely can’t.”

Q. Danny Webb has subsequently spoken to an interview with the Derbyshire Times – read more HERE – and said that the decision was down to ‘football and non-football reasons’ – what are the football reasons he is talking about?

A. “I have not got a clue. I am acutely aware it has been suggested he was not allowed to bring he was not allowed to bring players or staff in and I understand people have a desire to know more, you can’t turn that curiosity off, it’s what brings people to this club. But, he could have brought in the players he wanted, that is why Andrew (Oluwabori) joined, I worked with Danny to bring Andrew down working with Marcus (Stewart) and Exeter. There was money, quite a bit more, and in terms of changes to the backroom staff, those changes had started. I can put my hand on my heart and say we gave Danny everything he asked for. If anyone feels differently, come out and say it.”

Richard Dryden’s appointment

“One of the reasons we did not give Richard the job when we appointed Danny was because the feeling from everyone was that we wanted to go in a different direction, we were looking at a more youthful approach and Richard was not that. Let’s be honest, Richard was Mark Cooper’s man, so from a PR perspective that did not feel the right fit. It was not personal, some of it was based on that he was not the right man.

“He had a 50% win record in the games he took charge of as interim manager, we wanted stability and we recognised that we had to bring players in. If we were looking for a new manager in a month’s time, it is difficult to bring players in. We wanted to support the players who were in a state of flux, we had the situation with Chris Todd who had said he wanted to go to Eastleigh. So there was a number of things we were dealing with and it felt like we should back Richard until the end of the season.

“I walk around Huish Park and I meet hundreds of Mystic Megs who all have this wonderful ability to fortell what would have happened if it had not been Richard. Come forth Mystic Megs and tell me what would have happened, what would you have done in my position?

“When we have the ability to brings someone until the end of the season, look at Jerry (Gill, assistant manager) and look at a different way of doing things. Richard does have a contract until the end of next season, so if you say we are going to do this until the end of next season and it does not work out, the pay out is going to be sizable. We had a pay out when we got rid of Mark Cooper. So to protect the club, we said we would hedge our bets and see if we could make it work.

“Richard is a very good coach and he had a two-year deal with us as a coach and we have stepped him up as a manager. He will be here and is part of our long-term thinking, but there is a balancing act to do here in terms of supporting him and making sure he has a place to go back to if things do not work out. At the moment we are trying to find the right pathway forward and be analytical in how we do that but also to protect the club’s position rather than saying ‘we have a crisis on their hands, let’s go and get the next person.’

“The reason the plan changed from wanting a more youthful approach was down to circumstances and knowing what managers were out there. We went through the process and exhausted down to Danny, Richard and a couple of others that we liked and those couple of others we did not think were better than Richard.”

Director of Football

“People often think money is always the solution, but if money is the solution please explain Barnet or Halifax to me. To talk about a Director of Football or a Head of Recruitment, someone who is looking at things in a more analytical way, that is something I find very interesting and conversations have been had in that direction. That is not something that happens overnight, that is a structure.

“That is a project where you are buying players in to the football club for the club, not the manager which is something I favour and there are several examples of where that has brought great results. Gateshead is one example over that period of time where they were doing very well, they took a bigger picture view as to how they were recruiting. That is another reason why we did not want to jump in again and that is what we were looking at under Danny Webb. But it takes time to get that structure in place.

“I understand everyone wants things yesterday and they have seen an ownership group based in Dubai and think they must have loads of money. We took the club over in the middle of the summer and did not have the benefit of planning in the Spring regarding player recruitment. We had a manager in place in Mark (Cooper) who has a much more traditional view in terms of how the club should be managed, but going forward we are at a point where we feel we can do things in a more dynamic, modern way. I am not going to say you are going to see great results and changes overnight.

“Jerry and Richard have both been in this situation before and are well versed in bringing players in. The rest of us, our role is transitory in terms of the help we are offering. Every single person who is helping would benefit from someone who could help with recruitment, we have a couple of scouts we have taken on board to look at players. So if we like the look of someone, we have to watch them a few times, that kind of stuff is happening. But some of those may not come good until the end of the season, some of them may come good a bit sooner, but I think most will come good towards the end of the season. Why would you pay quite a chunky fee now when you can wait until the end of the season when you can get them free. Those conversations are being had all the time.”

Player recruitment

“We are trying to add pieces of quality to the squad, I felt the squad was too small. I still buy the idea of a manageable squad size, but the squad size going in to the season was too small. We needed coverage and that is what we were going to ask. The biggest hurdle in signing players is geography and managers. Geographically it is a challenge because you are often talking to young men with families and for them to move their kids down is challenging when they are looking at a one or maximum two-year contract.

“(The decision to move first-team training to) Bristol has made that challenge easier, I can pick out one or two players who would not have come if we were not training in Bristol. When you have players who are free agents now, you have to look at are they fit, why are they free agents now, what is the truth about why they have not been picked up? So we are doing a lot of work to look for people and then getting them to come and spend time with the squad, train with us and then we will make a decision.

“We have improved what we are doing with strength and conditioning and bringing in a new, very talented individual who has been helping us there, so there are things happening behind-the-scenes.”

Left back George Nurse, who has been signed on a one-month loan from Shrewsbury Town, speaks to the media after the 3-0 defeat at Rochdale.

Q. Who has been helping support the management team in player recruitment?
A. Stuart has been helping, I have been helping, Sahil has been helping. (On Wednesday) night we were trying to sort Michee Efete out and talking to one other who we would like to progress, so we has been a real team effort by the ownership group to try and help. Richard (Dryden, manager) and Jerry (Gill, assistant manager) have been phenomenal in terms of how they have gone about this and we are working all hands to the pump. People have been magnificent in terms of what has been happening.

 

The dismissal of Mark Cooper

“I knew there was a sense of apathy towards Mark when we got to the club. There were issues around the scenes which meant it made sense to look after Mark in the summer and go in to the new season, some issues we inherited which would have put us in a compromising position if we had not taken that action.

“He had a marginally increased budget so he was going in to the season with a strong hand and he had the strategy with moving the training to Bristol which was inherited, so it felt at that time that was the right course of action.

“It felt inevitable after the fragility we saw at the beginning of the season. If you cast your mind back to the game at Braintree, we peppered the goal but we lost 1-0. It just felt inevitable that we were going to play like that and come away with a 1-0 loss. I didn’t come away when we were 3-0 up at half-time at home to Gateshead thinking we were going to lose 4-3, but when the first and second goal went in you were just like ‘I know what is coming here.’”

Mark Cooper was sacked by Yeovil Town on August 26th. Picture courtesy of Gary Brown.

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Have we all taken a breath and calmed down a little bit? Nope, Gloverscast Ben hasn’t either. It wasn’t Yeovil’s finest hour and a half of the season up at Spotland, Ben was on BBC duty, here are his Five Conclusions.

It was just too easy.

Not sure I need to say any more do I? It’s just not acceptable to allow the best team in the league to have the time and space we did on Saturday afternoon.

In too many key areas, too many of their key players had the freedom of Lancashire to pick their pass and dominate from start to finish. 

A couple of crunching tackles from the likes of Ferguson and FCD and a little hustle and bustle from Aaron Jarvis up front pretty much all the Glovers had going for them. You can’t stand off the best in the league, and expect anything other than a rout. 

I’m not entirely sure how much of a gulf in quality there is between the two sides – and I mean that – but the gulf in confidence, direction and plenty more intangible qualities was there for all to see. It could have been a cricket score. 

In a midfield muddle.

So, what are we doing in the middle of midfield then? FC-D, a central defender with all the effort and desire in the world. But he’s not a midfielder. I like FC-D, I think he’s way better than the universal square peg role. 

But he got pulled out of position by his far more dynamic opposite numbers, and that gave the likes of Devante Rodney so much space and time. It shouldn’t be on him to play that role, it’s not fair anymore.

Luke McCormick has probably got the most class and quality on the ball in the side, but his head looked to drop. He didn’t chase the play for the second goal, and was desperately looking for help around him. A free-to-roam McCormick is one of the best we have, we just cannot give him that security.

So, will Jacob Maddox fill that void? Probably not. It’s not worth rushing Brett McGavin back from a back problem that’s clearly causing more problems than first thought? Definitely not. Then there’s the Charlie Cooper shaped elephant in the room doesn’t seem to have an end point either.

We need a Matt Worthington/Charlie Lee/Dale Gorman/Paul Wotton [delete as appropriate]. A proper breaker upper that will allow those around him to be at their best. 

Confusing calls.

Anyone else surprised to see the new left back, George Nurse given the nod over Alex “79 YTFC Appearances and very, very few poor ones” Whittle? I was. 

“Welcome to Yeovil, mate, here are some of the finest attacking wing backs the league has to offer.” – For what it’s worth I thought he grew into the game and will be an asset for the next month or so, but give the guy a chance to get his feet in the door. 

I think Josh Sims has, overall, had a positive season, but on body language and early misplaced passes alone, I was surprised at the fact that he wasn’t sacrificed at the break as opposed to Oluwabori. 

I don’t know why Kyle Ferguson was the central defender sacrificed with 20 to go, I think he possibly thought similar as he begrudgingly sat down. He at least stuck his head in where it hurt a few times and clearly had his heart on his sleeve throughout.

New signing George Nurse talks to Josh from BBC Somerset.

Unused and unrequited?

We only used three subs again and I think we should note that in Junior Morias and Tahvon Campbell, two of the summer’s more ‘high profile’ signings didn’t get a look in. 

Would their relative experience have offered something a bit different in the front line? The ability to get within the same post code as Aaron Jarvis? Maybe, we don’t know – but like the Whittle thing, (who himself only got 12 minutes) – that’s a lot of ‘been there and done it’ not getting game time whilst new lads, young lads and out of position lads look a bit lost.

Surely time is up on Ben Wodskou too, nothing against him but since scoring against Brackley he’s played just about as many minutes for Birmingham Under 21s (170ish) than Yeovil (200ish). He’s taking up a loan spot and that’s something we need to use effectively with a thin squad. 

Which direction are we going?

I think the one thing that came out of it was I just didn’t understand what the idea is right now on the pitch. We look rudderless. I wasn’t sure of the game plan or even how we were looking to make an impact on the game after the goals. 

There were times that players even looked like the message wasn’t getting out there. When Whittle came on he passed on a word or two and both Luke McCormick and George Nurse looked a bit… “Who, me? Where? In there? Errr….okay“.

Byron Pendleton was our furthest man forward at points, and I couldn’t help but feel like it was all getting a bit too complicated.

I hate the fact that I’ve named names in these conclusions, because I actually don’t think we have a bad squad – in fact, I know we don’t – but something has to change to restore some confidence, belief and direction.

I think a return to some simple football, some simple tactics, (4-4-2, anyone?) is a way to resolve the current chaos.

We could be competitive with top six sides, but right now, simplicity is key. It might take some tough calls – three central defenders into two doesn’t go, for example – but we’re 6-0 down across the last two league games without really landing a punch and we’ve been dumped out the FA Cup by 10 part timers.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Plenty of the 107 fans at Spotland would be forgiven for thinking they’d gone insane on Saturday.

Jed Ward about to save another Rochdale attack.

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Yeovil Town’s FA Cup dream came to a premature end at the first hurdle for the second successive season yesterday. The Glovers were beaten by a Hemel Hempstead Town side which played for more than an hour with ten men. Dave was among the travelling contingent and here are his conclusions.

 

Out fought. Out thought. Out. We were simply second best in every department and I have to say right off the bat that Hemel deserved their win. From the opening whistle, they simply wanted it more and we never seemed to have a plan to counter them. You can put a misplaced pass or a scuffed shot down to the surface, but time and again we were pulled apart and gave them time and space to run. At the risk of sounding like the old man (I know, I am), but I miss us the Cup giving our players the hunger and desire I saw from Hemel. 

How it was not 2-0 at half-time I will never know!

Are we sure they had ten men? An extension on Conclusion #1, but two occasions in the second half I had to count Hemel’s players to be sure. Aside from a few moments around the time we scored, they never looked like they were a man down. You can see why they are in the form they are in the National League South. Defensively they were outstanding and we simply could not find a way through. 

Where did our desire to attack go? If I had not seen highlights of the games at Aldershot and Sutton, I would have believed they were AI inventions. In the first half, it was only when Andrew Oluwabori got on the ball that we ever had any purpose going forward and in the second only when Byron Pendleton came on did we look to get balls in from wide positions. There is quality going forward in this team, but we simply did not show it.

What are we doing here? Hearing Richard Dryden say we had tried and failed to attract players to strengthen the squad is a major red flag. But should we be surprised? We’ve heard about ‘The 3 Cs’ from our owners -calmness, competitiveness, community, in case you forgot. But it’s not easy to stay calm with no obvious plan about how we’re going to be competitive. A manager who feels stop gap no matter how much we’re told he’s not, players signing on 12-month deals, what are we selling people here? It feels like we’re living hand to mouth waiting for……what? 

Rochdale next. Gulp. Next up, top of the league Rochdale away from home. That one speaks for itself. Another clear week, another chance to take a breath and I hope the pain we all feel – and yes I include the team, they must feel it – gets a reaction.