Gloversblog (Page 24)

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News, Five Conclusions, Gloversblog
FA Cup giant killing and Yeovil Town have a long history. But, a season after setting the record for the non-League club with the most League scalps in the FA Cup, the Glovers’ campaign has been ended early by lower league Taunton Town.
As he was for the first match, Rich Willcox-Smith was watching on from the stands at Wordsworth Drive – we’ll not ask in which end – and here he gives his conclusions on another difficult night to be a Yeovil Town fan.
It started okay. In my conclusions after Saturday and on the podcast on Monday, I said that I was surprised how sluggish Yeovil were from the off in the first game. But from the off, they looked faster and fitter and the ball spent a lot of time in the Taunton half. If the personnel were the problem at the weekend, the arrival of experienced heads like Jamie Reckord, Alex Fisher and Gime Toure seemed to be the tonic – for the first 15 minutes at least.
We struggled with balls in to the box. We know we are struggling to score goals and, if that is an issue, a sound defence is absolutely crucial but we really struggled with Taunton’s balls in from wide and set pieces. It was one of these that got Taunton a penalty. It was a dangerous ball in that was on its way out if it was left, but a silly, more stupid, raise of a hand gave the ref no option to point to the spot. Couldn’t really be argued with. Even know Grant Smith did get booked for not agreeing with the decision.
The scoreline could have been a lot worse. As was the case of Saturday – I seem to be saying that a lot – Taunton could have been more than one goal ahead at half-time. In the second half, if they had got another two I don’t think anyone could have complained. They were more than deserving of their victory and an away tie at MK Dons in the first round.
If you don’t take shots, you don’t score goals. Forgive me the obvious comment, but the way we struggled to make Jack Bycroft in the Taunton goal work was painful. Over 180 minutes of football, there was nothing which made the keeper have to pull off a worldie for his cleano – sorry, Ben! This is the same team by and large that has managed to get results against the likes of Wrexham, Chesterfield and Solihull Moors in the league.

Is this rock bottom? Two abject performances in space of three days, Ben Richards-Everton and Matt Worthington coming together after the match and supporters protesting against the manager the owner, it’s not a great look. In his post-match interview, Josh Staunton said that this has to be our rock bottom. [Think we said that was the defeat against York City, Rich, or was it the draw at Altrincham? – Ed] It is heart-breaking to see so many supporters say they have had enough and will not return until Hargreaves, Scott Priestnall or both are gone. As Dave keeps on saying, nothing changes until everything changes – but the big question is, who is going to bring about that change? Whoever it is and whatever it is, it needs one happen fast.

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News, Five Conclusions, Gloversblog

The FA Cup has always been an important competition to Yeovil Town – who still hold the record for the most League club scalps as a non-League club – and this season’s campaign got underway with a 0-0 draw at home to Taunton Town yesterday.

The final whistle was met with boos from the stands at Huish Park and a recognition that it will take a journey up the A358 to the county town for a replay on Tuesday night if Chris Hargreaves’ men are to make it to the competition’s first round.

It was a hard watch for any Yeovil fan and here Rich Willcox-Smith, who some of you will have heard on last Friday’s podcast was in the away end this weekend, gives his  conclusions…..

Grant Smith. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Yeovil were slow to start: After last weekend’s impressive 1-0 home win over a decent Solihull Moors side, I was expecting Yeovil to come out with an extra spring in there step but actually they were very slow to start. For large parts of the first half, they were second best to a side sat a division below them. The crossbar was the Glovers’ friend to save them going into the half-time interval a goal down. Taunton midfielder Ross Stearns effort hitting the woodwork gave the Yeovil back line a sigh of relief. The big frame of Ben Richards-Everton is usually enough to scare most forwards. But today he looked like he had met his match in visiting striker Nick McCootie.

Players looked uninterested and frustrated: The first shot on target for the home side did not come until a minute in to the second half, by which time Taunton had called Grant Smith in the Yeovil goal in to action on a number of occasions. There was at least a fr*st*a*t*ion [the F-word is still banned here, Rich – Ed] from the Glovers players which could easily have been described as many of them looking uninterested. Presumably something was said in the dressing room at half-time – possibly ‘have a shot’ – but it was still limited to efforts from outside the box and not enough to test Jack Bycroft in the Taunton goal.

Malachi Linton. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The lack of goals is concerning: Building upon my previous two points, we saw Malachi Linton, Alex Fisher and Jake Scrimshaw – the three out-and-out strikers in the Yeovil Town squad – and there was very little to threaten. No Charlie Wakefield isn’t a striker. It is now 14 games in to the season and 13 goals have been scored with our top scorer is still left wing-back Jamie Reckord. For context, that’s exactly the same number we scored in the first 14 games of last season when our strike force was widely considered as powder puff. Yeovil could still have been playing come Sunday morning and no goals would have come, the only saving grace from that is that Taunton didn’t really give Grant Smith much to do.

There’s no Plan B: The plan yesterday seemed to be to play the ball sideways and back, there was very little going forwards and even when Fisher and Scrimshaw came on, it seemed to be the same tactics and nothing to try and take on a fired up Taunton side. We can only hope that seeing the Peacocks in the flesh will give Chris Hargreaves something to work on in the 72 hours before the replay – otherwise, it’s difficult to have too much confidence going in to the replay.

The final whistle was toxic: The final whistle was met by boos from the home supporters in the biggest crowd of the season at Huish Park. I could hear it over the cheers coming from the away supporters, so it must have been loud! I’ve not heard anything like that since the dark days of Darren Way’s time as manager and our slump out of the Football League. I thought those days were gone, but it looked – or more to the point sounded – like they were back with a vengeance yesterday. To be fair, it’s hard to argue with the response of the paying public – that was one of the poorest displays I have seen from a team playing in green-and-white.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Five Conclusions, Latest Yeovil Town News

Chris Hargreaves’ Glovers picked up a much-needed win against Solihull Moors yesterday at Huish Park, here are Ian’s Five Conclusions…

The win was well-deserved. We’ve seen so many draws this season where we’ve deserved more and yesterday we finally got the result our play merited. Grant Smith was called into action a couple of times in the first half but we had the better of the chances, showed more determination to get forward and kept Solihull’s key players quiet. We looked comfortable, confident and even after taking the lead we didn’t sit back or let Solihull gain a foothold.

Charlie Wakefield looked more like himself. It was the performance we’ve been yearning for from our Starman. Without having to think about his defensive duties so much, Charlie was playing instincitvly, he was confident with the ball and getting himself in the right areas too. He got through plenty of socks, with his running and was given the full 90 minutes. He’s made a case to play further forward, let’s hope he stays further forward.

Chiori Johnson put in another impressive performance. He should have opened the scoring early when he spurned a chance in the opening five minutes, but he didn’t let that miss bring him down. He was in the right place at the right time to score the opener, albeit with sloppy defending from Moors. There’s something about playing on the left side isn’t there? Against Chesterfield he was a standout at right wing back, and yesterday he was strong in left midfield. He’s pacey, versatile and a well-disciplined player and he’s setting himself up to become an important figure in the team.

I thought Solihull looked lethargic. I thought we looked comfortable after going in front. Solihull really didn’t seem to have the urgency I thought they’d show after conceding. This wasn’t the same game as the Dagenham win where it was backs to the wall. They had one chance through Josh Kelly, but other than a couple of corners, we weren’t overly stretched defensively. Andrew Dallas was kept quiet, Joe Sbarra didn’t do a lot and Neal Ardley’s changes didn’t bear fruit. In his post-match Ardley was livid with his teams performance and understandably, it felt like they settled for defeat.

This needs to be the springboard. We’ve got what could be a tricky FA Cup tie with Taunton next weekend, followed up with Oldham away and Aldershot at home. If we’re going to climb the table, we need to put our foot on the gas and follow this up with wins. The celebrations of supporters, players (particularly Alex Fisher) and the manager were one of immense relief, let’s bottle it and drink it with thy cider.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Latest Yeovil Town News

As Yeovil Town slipped in to the National League relegation zone following Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at Dorking Wanderers, manager Chris Hargreaves admitted he understood supporters’ frustration and indeed shared them.

Some fans took to social media to call for the manager to be given his marching orders after just 12 matches, but here supporter Jake Gallagher sets out why he believes the boss should be given more time by the Glovers fans…..

 

Well this piece got tougher and tougher to write as I drilled down into the analysis but the title remains and so does the sentiment, it’s my belief that Chris Hargreaves should be given time at Huish Park, to at least the end of October.

The Caveat

Look I get it, ten points from 12 games is not good enough. Nor is 13 points from 12 games which is where the algorithms and statistics – I’m talking about the dreaded xG [expected goals – how many goals a team should have scored based on the quality of the chances created]– suggest Yeovil Town should be based on performances. Looking at the squad, I’d suggest something closer to 16 or 17 points would be where we want to be – sat plumb in mid-table. I don’t think anyone would complain about that.

But 10 points and 21st place is a fact that is difficult to hide from.

With a new manager and fresh promise I naively bounced into the season regularly chanting about winning the f****** Conference in 2003 and hating those b******** in claret and blue. The ‘We want Priestnall out’ songs were loud and clear too, as the overarching message from us all that the owner is not welcome at Huish Park was coupled with getting behind the team.

 

Expected Goals

That bounce I mentioned has waned into a mild bob in recent weeks as good performances have resulted in fewer points than we deserve. The xG, expected goals, suggests that Yeovil should have three more points than we currently do – and that would put us 16th.

Expected goals (xG) calculates how many goals a team should have scored based on the quality of the chances created.

Now 16th is clearly not where we want to be either but it’s not in the drop zone. So where did those extra three points wriggle away from us? In two specific games actually, both in August. The first was the loss to Barnet at home which saw them go top of the league. Our 1.78 xG compared to their 0.88 was the epitome of a smash and grab away performance and rubber stamped our lack of ruthlessness which has plagued the season. Against Barnet we should’ve had at least a point.

And the second was away at Wealdstone, who were top when we played them, and we couldn’t turn our man advantage, 15 shots and xG of 1.91(!) into the solitary goal needed for the full three points rather than one.

I’m aware these are all ifs, buts and maybes and xG doesn’t win football matches, but these statistics do have weight when analysing performances.

But it’s not just those games and missed points, it’s the timing of them. If we did manage to back up the home win against Dagenham and Redbridge with a win at a Wealdstone who were top of the league when we kicked off against them on August Bank Holiday Monday that would have been a huge step in the right direction.

Confidence would’ve been high and we’d have kicked into a very winnable home game against York City. Instead we put in our worst performance of the season and these are the fine margins that have big consequences.

Yeovil were given rough fixtures at the start of the season seeing us travel to Scunthorpe, a relegated side wanting to put last season behind them in front of their own fans, followed by hosting the overwhelming favourites for the league title in Wrexham. That tough start has continued and now 12 games into the season you’ll find that Yeovil have faced eight teams currently positioned in the top half and four in the bottom half. To hammer home this point, two of those teams in the bottom half are 13th and 14th. We’ve played a higher standard of team in the league than the average, is what I’m saying. And not only have we played teams in the top half currently, but we played them when they were flying at their highest.

Now, due to sheer fact that all teams have to play each other twice over the course of the season – not exactly breaking news I know – means we’ll be facing some sides in the bottom half and have fixtures versus Oldham (16th), Aldershot (22nd) and Maidstone (15th) in October to look forward to.

Improvements must be made though – I know that. I’m not sat here typing this on my lunch break telling you that it will all be fine once we’ve played the poorer teams in the division. The signs are clear that we’re underperforming. Yeovil Town have dropped ten points from winning positions this season, no team has dropped more in the National League. There’s a clear mental block in the squad when we go a goal up that I cannot put my finger on, and I can’t dig out a statistic to explain it. We seem stuck between pushing for the second and sitting deep into a low block to protect the lead. In reality, we do neither.

The Glovers have had the second fewest amount of penalty box touches (144) in the league and our top goal scorer is our left-wing back. It’s time to make some tactical changes.


Solutions

So how do we get out of this situation? What are some actions we could take? Well, a change in formation must be the most obvious. In pre-season, Chris Hargreaves said repeatedly that we will change formation between games and within games based on the opposition but we’re yet to see that despite a run of bad results.

Changing to a back four is one call from the fans I can get behind. The issue though is Josh Staunton. Not because he’s not a good player, he’s arguably our best, but because I think Hargreaves is terrified to take such a reliable player out of the defence. If you push Staunton into midfield you lose Staunton in defence and the option of playing him in a back four isn’t feasible. Josh is perfect for that Conor Coady-esque role in the centre of a back three but Hargreaves must now push him into midfield, shielding the defence, as opposed to leading it.

So that’s settled, a back four is needed. But what about in front of it?

As we can’t hold on to a lead and seem to fade in games, a central midfield three making us less reliable on the ball playing abilities of Lawson D’Ath would be suggested. This would also mean our ‘five-figure’ signing Will Dawes, a winger, and Charlie Wakefield, a winger, could play in their actual positions. But not just Dawes and Wakefield, Gime Toure is very suited to the wide-forward role running at defenders with the ball at his feet.

The persistence in playing the 3-4-3 or 3-4-1-2 has meant we’re not putting our best attacking players in their best positions. Playing Wakefield at wing back, as you’ve mentioned on the podcast many times, is the squarest of pegs in the roundest of holes. Just play him in a wide-forward role, preferably on the right, give him the ball and tell him to run with it. Job done. Don’t overcomplicate things.

Conclusion

Confidence is everything in sport – one good result changes everything and with some very winnable fixtures coming in October I’d suggest patience with Hargreaves and his team. One thing you have to say is the players are leaving it all out on the pitch for the club – there’s no issues in motivation or playing for the badge or the manager or whatever cliché you want to trot out.

Just changing the formation though won’t be a magic pill that results in three points against Solihull on Saturday – but showing willingness to try something new is what’s needed on the terraces. If I see three at the back on Saturday at 3:00pm, it might be the last straw that makes me join the #HargreavesOut brigade.

 

We welcome everyone’s opinion here in the Gloverscast – goodness knows, you hear enough of ours – so if you fancy putting your point across about an issue relating to Yeovil Town, drop us a line at gloverscast@gmail.com.

By:
On:
In: Latest Yeovil Town News, Gloversblog

Last month, we published a blog, The Priestnall Tapes – Five Months On – which looked back at words spoke by Yeovil Town owner and chairman Scott Priestnall to supporters in April and reviewed where his promises had got to in the months that had passed.

Among the topics we covered were the issue of the almost £1m (£998,538, to be precise) in loans the club took out from Sport England to help the club survive the COVID-19 pandemic – yes, that’s on top of the sale of the club’s stadium, surrounding land, the £50,000 raised by supporters in the Crowdfunder and furlough payments the club took during the period.

For your recollection, here’s what that blog said about the loans from the Sport Survival Package:

 

Sport England loans

Scott said: “We’ve taken not as much as some other clubs and only what we needed and we have been promised as a league by the Sports Minister that over the next four years, he is working towards getting those loans written off.”

What’s happened since? The Sports Minister, Nigel Huddlestone, is the same man who promised Scott and his fellow club owners he would be working towards getting the almost £1m which we have borrowed written off. We’ve got in contact with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to ask how the Minister is getting on – but, to be fair to the department, they’ve been in charge of arrangements for The Queen’s funeral in recent weeks. We’ll let you know if we hear anything…….

Now, we’re people of our word and far be it from us to promise something and not deliver upon it, so here’s the response we’ve had back from the DCMS today:

  • The terms of the loan repayment remain the same as when it was provided in early 2021. We expect every loan recipient to fulfil the terms of their loan.Loans were provided to beneficiaries of the Sport Survival Package at a low interest rate, with a flexible approach to loan terms and repayment holidays.
  • Sport England is in regular contact with every loan recipient and we will continue to work closely with them to understand each individual organisations’ circumstances. If an organisation is concerned about its ability to meet repayments, we would encourage them to contact their relationship manager in the first instance as soon as possible.
  • We do not comment on the specifics of individual Sports Survival Package cases given their commercial sensitivity.

The other thing to correct is that on the day we published The Priestnall Tapes – Five Months On blog, Nigel Huddlestone was replaced as Sports Minister by Stuart Andrew. Either way, there seems no appetite from the DCMS to cancel the loans or turn them in to grants.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Five Conclusions, Latest Yeovil Town News

The hunt for Yeovil Town’s second win of the National League season goes on after a 1-0 defeat away at Southend United in a match which saw the Glovers play 73 minutes with ten men following the first half dismissal of Gime Toure.

The result puts them clear of the National League drop zone by goal difference alone with 11 matches of Chris Hargreaves’ tenure as manager now played.

Dave gives his opinions on what he saw from the away end at Root’s Hall.

 

Southend were not a good team either. I’m not sure if this one ranks as a positive or a negative conclusion, but the fact that our opponents were unable to muster more than a single goal against us with ten men speaks volumes. For the 17 minutes that we had the full complement on the pitch, we caused them problems and looked like causing them more.
I, like the other 80 supporters in the away end, saw nothing of the incident which led to Gime Toure’s red card but if that “moment of madness” had not happened, we threatened to be a slightly above average team against an average one. Is that a positive or a negative dressed up as a positive? You decide.

Gime Toure. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

The sock count will be increasing. I’m going to try and get a couple of positives in at the beginning here, because there was effort from the team – socks well and truly worn out. I’ll defer judgement on Gime Toure’s red, but if he kicked out at Kacper Lopata then he landed his team-mates well and truly in it. There was huge frustration that for the first half minutes which followed the 17th minute dismissal we defended deeper and deeper until the inevitable happened and Jake Hyde popped up with the eventual winner, but there was some effort mostly in the final 20 minutes. To the extent you would not believe we had a one man deficit at some points.

Against any other player, is that a foul? CRASH! Yes, that’s the sound of Rule 1 of the Gloverscast being shattered on the floor, but I have to talk about at least one decision made by referee Sam Mulhall. No, I don’t mean the sending off because he (like me!) completely missed that and was informed by his assistant. On 32 minutes, Josh Staunton beats Southend keeper Collin Andeng-Ndi (who looked shaky all match) to a corner to head home, the keeper goes sprawling on his back waving his hands and the official chalks the goal off for a foul. Against any other player on the pitch, is that a foul? To me, no, it’s simply a player wanting the ball more.

You can’t have ten hard luck stories. As I walked out of Root’s Hall without acknowledging the efforts of the Yeovil side (I had a train to catch!), I could almost hear the post-match interviews – socks worked off, commitments to putting it right on Tuesday night at Dorking and the same hard luck stories we’ve heard so often. The fact is, you can’t have ten hard luck stories, we’ve won one of our 11 matches so far this season afterall. The simple fact is performances have not been good enough and no about of effort and desire alone is going to fix that. These things are the minimum we expect, but they are not enough to earn three points on their own. There’s enough quality there, there’s no obvious deadwood like we had last season (if you tell me Reuben Reid scored a hat-trick for Weston-super-Mare this weekend, you’re only reinforcing my point) but the fact is they’re not performing at the moment and that’s down to more than effort.

Martyn Starnes, far left, with Stuart Robins and Scott Priestnall at the match at Altrincham in August.

What else did we think was going to happen? Don’t get me wrong, I like Chris Hargreaves, he seems a nice guy and obviously someone who has a good pedigree as a coach. But Darren Sarll is showing at Woking what he is capable of when he’s not got a hand tied behind his back (whether he consistently does that remains to be seen) and the answer to our demise seems simple. We’ve got a management team who are trying to assemble a team capable of challenging with a budget completely inadequate for the task with a hand tied behind their back and a chain around one foot. The club is rudderless bordering on delusional with none of the long-term vision or concrete framework we were promised by its leadership. If this is the alternative to a takeover bid from a consortium which it is claimed had no money, I think I would’ve taken my chances with them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nothing changes until everything changes and right now that feels a million miles away.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Five Conclusions, Latest Yeovil Town News

It was a caveat-ridden performance which saw Yeovil draw (again) against Boreham Wood. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions from Huish Park…

I’m not sure how we’ve not that won that. Luke Garrad was gushing about our performance in his post-match interview after his side managed to escape with a point. Nathan Ashmore made some good saves and was by far the busier keeper, but we should have put Wood to the sword. Alex Fisher was quickest to react after Ashmore fumbled a fairly routine save from Toure, but that was the only joy we had. Fisher had chances, Touré had a gilt-edged chance in the first half which he should have put away, instead he tried to round the keeper who made a phenomenal stop. We had the better of the chances but in familiar fashion, we weren’t good enough to take them.

Alex Fisher. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

We can’t hold a lead. That one might be stating the obvious, but in the ten games so far this season we’ve gone ahead seven times (twice against Altrincham and Chesterfield) and we’ve let the lead slip six times. There’s a pattern emerging that needs to be broken. Boreham Wood’s equaliser in stoppage time was so deflating and there was a sense of inevitability about it. As supporters the expectation that we’re going to let a lead slip is getting a little ingrained. Hopefully we can buck the trend at Southend.

After his impressive performance against Chesterfield, we missed Chiori Johnson. I think most people went into yesterday hoping to see Johnson in at wingback, but an injury in the last kick of training this week forced him out. If, and I think we know now, we’re going to stick with the 3-5-2, Johnson has staked his claim to be the 1st choice in that position. No one has looked particularly comfortable/effective in there until him. Charlie Wakefield made an impact in the second half when Boreham Wood decided to play for a point, but I don’t think anything clicked quite so well as last weekend.

Matt Worthington. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

There’s so much frustration at the moment. It was a slow start yesterday and it didn’t take long for the grumbles amongst the supporters seeing the ball go backward for the umpteenth time. When we conceded the equaliser there was a lot of finger pointing and anger amongst the players on the pitch that we’d let another lead slip. At times, Matt Worthington was getting annoyed at his lack of options when he picked up the ball and when Gime Toure turned one too many times rather than look up, Worthy let his feelings be known. We’ve heard about angry conversations in the changing room before this season, and I’m sure there were more of those yesterday. I worry about how sustainable angry conversations are if they don’t start producing results.

Off this pitch, there’s a hangover from last season. After a great performance the weekend before against the top team in the league, you’d have hoped that might have spiked attendance a bit but we’re still hovering around that 2000 mark. I’ve not done a matchday ‘properly’ this season but evidently whatever we’ve added to the day hasn’t brought back folks who might have been thinking about it. There’s only so much over-promising and under-delivering you can take, and boy have we been promised some things.

That’s the conclusions. However, we’re ten games in and we sit in 19th with nine points, the bottom four are all on eight points. I’m not sure how long we can say ‘we’re so close’ or ‘we’re not a million miles away’ until you find yourself cut adrift. I know there’s a long way to go but the start of the season has not been good enough. With inconsistent performances, an inability to hold on to leads, apathy amongst supporters and dwindling gates, we are in serious danger of sleepwalking this season into nothing.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Latest Yeovil Town News

At around this time on Saturday, April 23, Yeovil Town owner and chairman Scott Priestnall spoke to a group of supporters in the Alec Stock Lounge at Huish Park to lay out his vision of where he thought the club was and where he thought it was going.

We captured his words in an article – see here – and included links to a series of videos the club published on its social media channels, The Priestnall Tapes, which you can watch to hear his words for yourself.

It’s now five months on from that address there’s been two further statements made by the owner – one following the sale of the club’s Huish Park stadium and surrounding land to South Somerset District Council (SSDC) and one following the appointment of Stuart Robins as a director and shareholder.

So, we thought it was timely to take a look at some of the comments (commitments?) at that time and see where we are with them 153 days on…..

Managerial Update

Chris Hargreaves was announced as Yeovil Town’s new manager on 18th May.

Scott said: “We’ve had 40 or 50 applications for the manager’s job, we’ve had some big profile names, names that have been in the top division, managers who have worked in the EFL in the last two years have applied, managers from this league and managers who have been out of work for the last few years, as you would expect.

“I have been open with (then-caretaker manager) Charlie (Lee)  that I have spoken to some (of the applicants), I have not formally sat down with any at this stage but I intend to do that over the next couple of weeks, including Charlie. I will make a decision before the end of the season, maybe sooner.”

What’s happened since?: Chris Hargreaves was announced as manager on 18th May, three days after the end of the National League season, although his comments upon being unveiled suggest he may have been around longer than that. So “a decision before the end of the season, maybe sooner” – we can give Scott that one.
It’s not unfair to say that Hargreaves does not fit the description of candidates given precisely, he had worked at an EFL club within two years before his appointment, albeit in the youth set-up at Bristol Rovers. Former Glovers’ captain Jamie McAllister, who had been assistant manager at both Bristol City and Sunderland, was among the latter candidates shortlisted but the identity of any other applicants was never known.

Playing Staff

Captain Josh Staunton is one of a number of players retained by the club over the summer. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Scott said: “I have made contract extension (offers) to a lot of the squad that we are looking to retain and those negotiations I would expect to go on until the end of the season.“

“We have to show you the commitment for you to buy season tickets. We will put a new manager in place and show commitment signing players and then we will put a deal together for season tickets.“

What’s happened since? In the summer, Priestnall triggered contract clauses to extend the stays of goalkeeper Grant Smith, defender Max Hunt, midfielders Matt Worthington and Toby Stephens and forwards Charlie Wakefield and Tom Knowles. He also awarded a two-year deal to Josh Staunton and gave a professional deal to Ollie Haste. He appointed a new manager and offered a package on season tickets which froze prices. Promise fulfilled on those, folks.

This season’s ambitions

Scott said: “This club will have a squad ready for next season that wants to compete for (the) play-offs, otherwise why get out of bed? That’s what we want to do.
“It’s not always possible in this league with the amount of money about, but what this league has proven in previous seasons is it is not always about money, it’s about having a settled squad, a set way that works in this league.”

What’s happened since?

With nine games of the season gone, Yeovil Town sit 19th in the National League table, level on points with FC Halifax Town who occupy the division’s first relegation spot.

After nine games, absolutely, but Bromley who occupy seventh place just above the dotted line of teams in the play-offs have double our points total.

Context is important, there’s been some decent performances in those nine games and there’s been some unacceptable ones, but if the ambition is to compete for the play-offs, there’s little doubt we’re not doing that yet.

Board appointments

Martyn Starnes, left, with Stuart Robins, centre, and Scott Priestnall, right, at the match at Altrincham in August.

Scott said: “I have had a number of conversations with people to join the board, from an investment point of view, to invest in the football club going forward. Both from a sponsorship point of view and to make funds available for the playing budget.

“I am pleased to say there has been some positive conversations on that part and I’m hoping to have a concrete framework around the board by the end of the season, so we are not in limbo during the summer. I do appreciate there has been a lot of limbo during the past few months.”

What’s happened since?:

On May 20th, the day the club announced the sale of its home to SSDC, Priestnall added that he would be “announcing appointments over the next week or two” adding: “The new board will have a combination of specialist football operations, a voice for supporters and a wealth of experience in business, that will come together and help shape the future of Yeovil Town.”

On May 27th, retired businessman Stuart Robins was unveiled as a director and shareholder in the club. It has subsequently been confirmed he owns 20% of the shareholding in Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, which operates the club’s football business, albeit quite how much money he invested for that share remains unclear.

If we assume Robins, as a lifelong supporter, is the “voice of supporters” with “a wealth of experience in business“, then the “specialist football operations” appears lacking. Perhaps former CEO Martyn Starnes, who has been openly at the club’s matches and around Huish Park since the summer, fills this role albeit on “a voluntary basis“, as Robins told us during his appearance on the Gloverscast.

As far as “a concrete framework around the board by the end of the season” – well, Robins’ arrival came a fortnight after the final fixture so if he is the promised “concrete framework” then at the very best the deadline was missed. I guess definitions of a framework may differ, but a single director and the re-emergence of Starnes seems more like a bit of sharp sand more so than concrete.

Long-term vision

Scott said: “I am not going to sit here and say that our long-term vision is to have a new ground with a hotel in it, our goal is short-term to stabilise a new board, so it’s not just one voice, it’s a collective approach, bringing investment to the club.

“Between us we will work on what that plan looks like; we could have that plan in a month, it could be two months, but I would like to think this summer we do have a long-term vision in place.”

“We have to make changes, I have to make changes and what I am doing is not sitting and waiting. The only thing I can commit to is that there will be a new board in place in some guise and I will be able to tell you what that looks like over the next few weeks.“


What’s happened since? Five months on from these statements it is fair to say “a plan in a month, it could be two months” was not achieved – or at the very least not a plan made public to any supporters we are aware of. And as for having “a long-term vision in place” in the summer, when the leaves start falling from the trees we must assume that goal has not been achieved.

Perhaps the nearest to a long-term vision we have had came in statements made around the sale of Huish Park and surrounding land to South Somerset District Council (SSDC) in a deal worth £2.85m announced on May 20th. In that statement, the chairman spoke of how the deal would allow the club to “move forward with a viable plan to grow our infrastructure off the pitch, to help with gaining future success on the pitch.” He added it would allow the club “to engage contractors and consultants to put forward a planning application for the site as well as allowing us to sensibly invest in required maintenance work and our playing squad.”

However, supporters have not been privy to any vision which lays out how the club is going to generate the additional <INSERT VALUE HERE> required to meet the rental payments it will need to start paying to SSDC rent from May 2023 when its rent free period expires. On the question of ‘how much is the rent?’, we’ve asked SSDC portfolio holder Councillor John Clark and he told us: “This should be in the public domain when the Agreement is registered by the Land Registry, but that timing is outside our control.”

The minutes of the most recent Supporters’ Alliance meeting include Scott Priestnall being asked by Glovers’ Trust chairman Roger Pipe what would happen to any uplift in the value of the land if and when planning permission is granted on it. The minutes show: “SP stated that the money would be used to invest in the club in order to make it more sustainable.” Nice to hear, definitely. But a long-term vision? Not so sure.

There’s also been no clarity around what the £2.85m has been spent on. On his appearance on the Gloverscast, Councillor Clark told us all loans held by the club would need to be cleared before the deal was done. We’re left to assume that means the £1.35m of debt taken out from MSP Capital by Scott Priestnall and his then-business partner Errol Pope and effectively mortgaged against the club has been cleared using the money from the sale of the club’s assets. But, from everything we can see, we still owe Sport England the best part of £1m in loans we took out.

More questions than answers on this one.

Sport England loans

Scott said: “We’ve taken not as much as some other clubs and only what we needed and we have been promised as a league by the Sports Minister that over the next four years, he is working towards getting those loans written off.”

What’s happened since? The Sports Minister, Nigel Huddlestone, is the same man who promised Scott and his fellow club owners he would be working towards getting the almost £1m which we have borrowed written off. We’ve got in contact with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport to ask how the Minister is getting on – but, to be fair to the department, they’ve been in charge of arrangements for The Queen’s funeral in recent weeks. We’ll let you know if we hear anything…….

Supporters’ Alliance

Scott said: “It would be great if the Alliance could be more inclusive for me or try and set out some objectives about how it wants to be communicated with by the football club rather than being sat in a meeting.”
What’s happened since?: Since this April 23rd, there’s been one meeting of the Supporters’ Alliance – if you’ve never heard of this, find out what they are here – which was held at the club on June 28th with Scott Priestnall, Stuart Robins and Martyn Starnes all in attendance. The minutes of it were published by the Glovers’ Trust nearly two months after the meeting – read them here. There’s nothing in them that suggests any objectives were agreed at that meeting, but the Gloverscast understands another meeting is scheduled for next week where the objectives will be discussed. We’ve been assured the overall objective of the Alliance is to be the voice of supporters and to get the best for the club. Sounds good to us and we’d suggest that being entertaining and successful on-the-pitch and stable and secure off it would be what most of us would agree is best for the club.
The minutes of the Alliance meeting from June 28th, say that when asked about the need to improve communication with supporters: SP (Scott Priestnall) suggested that he is bringing in professional help to do this. We need to build an environment of trust between YTFC and the supporters. We’re not sure whether such professional help has been brought in, but aside from Stuart Robins’ efforts to communication – in person with supporters, through his appearance on our podcast and in (at least) one column in the matchday programme – there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of output from any so these professionals.

Matchday experience

Commercial manager Mark Robinson said: “We have a lot of things in the pipeline coming, but it’s not done overnight and, like any other business, we have just come out of one of the toughest times anyone has experienced, so we ask for your patience and persevere with us.“
What’s happened since?: We’re now a little over a month of the new season with five matches played at Huish Park and for the month of August (when three of those five matches were played) our monthly YeoGov opinion poll gave the matchday experience a below average 2.76/7 rating. This would suggest there is room for improvement. We at the Gloverscast understand that “things” (and we’re not privy to any more detailed plans than that) remain in the pipeline to improve the matchday experience at Huish Park. In his appearance on the podcast in August, director Stuart Robins hinted at similar plans although details are yet to be forthcoming. The other indication of what might be to come was mentioned in the minutes of the Supporters’ Alliance meeting at the end of June which quoted Scott Priestnall saying: “Plans are in place to put a marquee behind the Thatcher’s stand where a bar and live bands can play before matches.” We have extended an invitation the Huish Park hierarchy to join us to talk about the proposals – or indeed any of the matters covered in this blog – at any point and that offer remains open.

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Latest Yeovil Town News

So, the National League has taken a decision….well, kind of. After a tantrum from Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds about why he couldn’t live stream matches – presumably he doesn’t have a “little camera” like our own Scott Priestnall – it looks like matches might be streamed by the end of the season.

I say ‘might’ because, well, it’s the National League and they don’t have an exemplary track record and also it’s not really live streaming like you might first think. This isn’t going to be like the ‘lockdown season’ of 2020-21 when all matches will be available as it’s already been said that matches televised on BT Sport won’t be streamed and nor will any games with breach the ‘black out rule’ preventing the broadcast of matches in England and Wales between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on a Saturday.

So, in essence, it means midweek matches and games played on a bank holiday can be streamed. There was a few other dates in November and December which are exempt from the rule, or Article 3 – Transmission Rights’ of Article 48 of the UEFA Statutes, which would allow broadcast of matches during the winter World Cup in Qatar. Not that these really matter as the National League will unlikely have decided the date of its next meeting by November let alone anything else!

Today’s Non-League Paper suggests there’s likely to be a variety of ways to pay for streams, including per game, per month or in the form of a ‘season ticket’, which would see subscribers able to choose which match to watch, as opposed to being tied to a single team.

The big question comes down to – where’s the money going? The National League has said the finances will benefit the 72 teams in the three divisions and presumably this will need to support teams in National League North and South (Hi, W*ymouth!) to get set up for televising games. Do they even have fibre optic cables in South Dorset?

The decision was “unanimously” approved by the entire National League Board, which includes our own chairman, of course, at a meeting on Thursday and therefore we assume the lower division clubs have been given some kinds of assurances.

Surely  at least a percentage of the money needs to be equitably distributed to avoid deepening the financial gulf between the big spenders and the small spenders. In this instance, as a National League Premier club drawing crowds of more than 2,000 to home matches, we’re almost certainly a big(er) spender – can someone pick Scott up off the floor, please? It’s got to be about what’s fair for everyone, right?

The other thing is, are we going to see clubs buggering about with kick-off times to enable them to stream outside the 2.45pm-5.15pm window on a Saturday? Will Ryan Reynolds be insisting on evening kick-offs for Wrexham to allow him to tune in from Los Angeles? I’m sure all he needs to do is put a tweet out and the National League will listen.

But seriously, there needs to be a firm line taken on that or else we’re going to find ourselves at the mercy of those who want to broadcast.

I agree that Article 48 was brought in by Football League chairmen fearful of television companies in the 1970s and is therefore quite outdated, but there is more than a grain of common sense in its presence – let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, eh?

By:
On:
In: Gloversblog, Five Conclusions, Latest Yeovil Town News

The Glovers let two leads slip against the league leaders, but showed a big improvement on their last two matches. Here is Ian’s conclusions from the 2-2 draw with Chesterfield.

Chiori Johnson has waited patiently and taken his chance. Through no fault of his own, Morgan Williams missed out yesterday and patiently waiting in the wings has been summer signing Chiori Johnson. Johnson took his chance and was one of the bright sparks of the game. He provided an outlet going forward on the right and looked the most natural of the players who’ve played wingback so far this season. Jamie Reckord has been our main wide threat before yesterday and as a result we’ve ended up focusing our play on the left, Johnson gave us the opportunity to get it down the right too.

Josh Staunton was solid in the heart of defence. I know there’s still a debate about whether to play him in centre midfield, but his performances in midfield against Scunthorpe and Eastleigh haven’t inspired confidence so far. In the middle of a back three, he’s looked stronger in my view. Wrexham and Dagenham were highlights, and we can add Chesterfield to that too. He got a goal (I think) but he led in typical fashion and was a rock in defence. I think we can put to bed the midfield discussion.

Gime Toure was in the mood. He gambled early on and hassled the Chesterfield defence to earn an early goal and his afternoon was probably his best in a green and white shirt so far. He scared the Spireites back line with his direct running, hunted down loose balls and got himself in a dangerous areas that caused panic amongst the Chesterfield defence. Can he do it consistently? Can any of them? I don’t know, but I enjoyed what I saw from Toure.

We need to find a way to see these games out. We’ve let leads slip against Altrincham, Eastleigh and Chesterfield and got three points from those games rather than nine, which would make us all feel a lot more happier than we are. While we were resilient against Dagenham and hung on, albeit with our backs firmly planted in the wall, against Chesterfield we had a bit of everything but lacked the concentration in key moments. Shortly after the opener, Grant Smith decided to go on a walkabout and wiped out Joe Quigley, giving us a set piece to contend with, which we didn’t. Why he decided to cover Jamie Reckord’s position needlessly, only he can explain. The delivery on the corner for the second goal just seemed to catch the Glovers napping. The flat delivery to the edge of the box, the weak shot, the hashed clearance and poor marking. You can forgive worldies from distance and genuine class, but the equalisers yesterday felt of our own doing.

Gime Toure. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

We need to reproduce these performances against the rest of the league. The drastic improvement from York and Eastleigh needs to be more than a one-off. If this is what we can do, it needs to be the standard. Not just the level for the likes of Wrexham and Chesterfield. In our season preview podcast, Adam Virgo said how the big games look after themselves, it’s the ones you ‘should win’ that cause problems. If that doesn’t sum up our season so far, I don’t know what does. We need to make these passing, pressing, “blood and guts” (Staunton 17:9) performances the norm – not the exception.