Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 291)

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Another Saturday in the books for the Glovers out on loan and a familiar theme is starting to unfold with results not going the way of their adopted sides.

Still, plenty of match day minutes to talk about…

Let’s start at Leamington where striker Ollie Hulbert played the full 90 in a 3-1 defeat at Bradford (Park Avenue), his side were reduced to ten men just before the hour mark and couldn’t recover. Sam Perry and Ted Cann, both formerly on the books at Yeovil, were also in the Leamington side.

To those who missed out, Ollie Haste was back on the Truro bench after his successful return to the Glovers’ Under-18s side in the National League Cup in midweek, but it was the bench where he stayed as Paul Wotton’s men picked up a 1-0 away win at Gosport Borough. The White Tigers are second in the Southern League Premier Division table, two points behind Weston-super-Mare.

Will Dawes didn’t play for that Claret and Blue lot either. He was, once again, one of the unlucky extra loanees with only five named in the match day squad… W*ymouth lost 2-1 at Hemel Hempstead (maybe try picking your Green and White striker next time, just saying). The seagull bothering lot remain second from bottom of the National League South table.

Sherborne Town were without a fixture, so Benjani Junior and Jake Graziano were both left thumb twiddling this Saturday afternoon. Both played for the Yeovil Under-18s in midweek with Benji on the scoresheet.

However, goalkeeper Rob Hollard and Sam Hodges were both back in the Gillingham side, but ended up on the wrong side of a 4-1 loss away at Bristol Telephones.

Finally, Toby Stephens clocked up an hour for Plymouth Parkway as they drew 0-0 with Hartley Whitney.

Most of these sides have games this coming Tuesday, but with Yeovil in Somerset Men’s Premier Cup action at Paulton Rovers on Tuesday night, it remains to be seen how many of the dual registration lads are with their parent club rather than the first team.

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Yeovil Town Under-18s travel to Torquay United in the South West Counties Youth League’s Gary Else Memorial Cup looking to carry on their cup success on Saturday (10.30am kick-off)

The young Glovers picked up a 4-1 win over Boreham Wood in the National League Under-19s Cup in midweek with a number of players who have been out on loan, including one of their goal-scorers Benjani Junior, who is on loan at Sherborne Town, in action.

Last weekend, they won 4-3 in a thrilling tie against Wimborne Town in the league’s robin round cup tournament, their first win in the competition this season.

Their opponents at the South Devon Sports College Centre are managed by Ryan Dickson, who played more than 100 games in a three-year spell at Huish Park.

The club’s other age group sides are also in action in the Junior Premier League with the Under-13s, Under-14s, Under-15s and Under-16s teams all taking on opposition from Weston-super-Mare.

The Under-12s, who play as part of the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust, will face Torquay United.

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The Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust has launched a fund-raising drive to support Glovers’ legend Marcus Stewart‘s drive to raise money for the Darby Rimmer Foundation, which raises money to support research in to Motor Neurone Disease.

The initiative, 5 – 2 MND for #TeamStewart, gives people many different ways to donate to the charity including encouraging youngsters to take part in the You’ve Only Gone and Done It Challenge to video themselves recreate the famous goal scored by the striker in the 5-2 win in the League One play-off semi-final second leg  win at Nottingham Forest in 2007.

They want youngsters to post their recreations and encourage people to donate £5 (or more if you like!) to support the charity. 5 – 2 MND – get it?

To full details on how you can take part in the challenge, visit the Trust’s website – click here.

However, if you are not feeling quite athletic enough to unleash your inner, you can still support by visiting the Trust’s fund-raising page on JustGiving.com and donating however much you are able to give – click here.

The Trust has set an initial target of £5,000 to raise for the charity which will add towards fund-raising achieved by Team Stewart, the charity set up by Marcus and his wife, Louise, follow his diagnosis with the condition which affects a person’s nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

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Defender Ryan Law has joined Yeovil Town on loan from League One promotion chasers Plymouth Argyle for the reason of the season.

The 23-year, who made 24 appearances in League Two for Gillingham earlier this season, can play anywhere across the left side of defence and offers competition to recognised left-back Jamie Reckord.

He graduated from the academy at Home Park and was given his Pilgrims’ debut in November 2018 before departing on loan to Gloucester City and has subsequently had spells at Truro City and Torquay United.

Speaking to ytfc.net having arrived this week, he said: “It feels great to be here. I’m really excited to join for the rest of the season – I’m ready to get going now.

“My first day was good. All the boys have been class, the standard out there was good, it was just freezing.”

Plymouth first team coach and Head of Player Development Kevin Nancekivell said: “We’re really pleased that Ryan has joined Yeovil. They were really keen for Ryan to go there and play. It is an ideal place for him to get some minutes and to continue his development.”

With no match this weekend, the Devon-born defender’s first opportunity will come against National League leaders Notts County at Huish Park next Saturday.

Welcome to Somerset, Ryan!

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The Glovers’ Trust has published the minutes of its recent meeting with South Somerset District Council (SSDC) from February 2nd.

The minutes are as follows:

 

In attendance – SSDC

Jane Portman (Chief Executive), Robert Orrett (Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager), Councillor John Clark (Portfolio Holder – Economic Development including Commercial Strategy.

In attendance – Glovers’ Trust (GT)
Roger Pipe (Chair), Jane Haine (Board Member and Secretary), and Andrew Skirton (Member).

Reasons for purchase:

SSDC Members were made aware by Scott Priestnall of the difficult financial situation facing the club and were concerned that it would go into administration and be sold, with potentially the loss of the club completely. The Council therefore agreed to purchase the Stadium and the surrounding land for £2.8 million. This was not the amount received by the club as payments such as the release of covenants were made and deducted from that sum.

SSDC made it clear it did not feel that it was their place to influence or control where the money given to the club was to be spent but were aware that some was used to pay debts.

GT’s representatives made it clear that despite repeated requests no breakdown of how the money received has been spent or allocated has been received by the supporters.

Due Diligence
SSDC engaged independent advisers to ascertain the commercial value of the land and also undertook an evaluation of the club’s finances. No DD has been undertaken on the owner.

Rental
Yeovil Football and Athletic Club (YFAC) are obliged to pay the rent that will commence in May this year. The rental figure is 7% of the purchase price.

Buyback
The option to buy back rests exclusively with the Holding Company and extends until May 26. There are two leases one with YFAC and one with Yeovil Town Holdings Ltd ( YTH). SSDC stated that in their eyes both companies constituted Yeovil Town as they had shared interests. Both leases are linked meaning that one company picks up the obligations of the other. Failure for the club to pay the rental therefore would mean the Holding Company would be obliged to do so.

“Core land”
The area defined as the “core” i.e., that area needed to enable the club to function has changed from that set out in the Council report to members in December 2020. SSDC stated that this had been necessary to enable flexibility in the development. Potentially enabling the artificial pitch to move to the other side of the ground on land that was previously leased to the Club on a 999-year lease from SSDC. This land is subject to restrictive covenants preventing certain uses, so could be an area to relocate the artificial pitch and the two top pitches.

Development of the land previously owned by the Holding Company
SSDC stated that little had appeared to have happened since the purchase last May. It was suggested by GT that a meeting with planners to discuss and initial plan had taken place. GT does not wish to see a development up to the front and back doors. SSDC indicated that they would not influence the proposal that would be brought forward, and that proposals would be considered by the planning department.

GT expressed concern that the planning process does not offer the club sufficient protection.

The valuable option to buy back the land and the stadium rests exclusively with the Holding Company and extends to May 2026. It seems likely that Scott Priestnall will use this time to seek to gain valuable planning permission to develop the land surrounding the ground.

GT recognise that if such planning permission was achieved the value of the land could increase substantially. SSDC indicated that in such a scenario they would have no powers to influence where any of the windfall profits from any future sale of the land could be allocated. GT members expressed concerns that this could enable the owner to retain all profits without investing in the club.

GT members made it clear to SSDC that far from safeguarding the club the structure of the purchase has benefited the owner and will continue to benefit the owner.

SSDC agreed to answer any other questions put to them in writing.

 

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The rumour mill was in overdrive at the weekend at Huish Park. ITKs proudly trying to out-do each other with regards to the consortium who are looking at taking over Yeovil Town. If they were there, wonderful – things must be happening. If not, things are probably still happening. Some of the maths flying round at the weekend was outrageous, but let’s not get into that.

Since the announcement that the club had entered into an “exclusivity agreement” with a “preferred bidder” to become a majority shareholder of the club on New Year’s Eve, I’ve been reflecting on what I’d like to see under new ownership.

Unite the Supporters

The supporter base has been divided for so long. For the club to be truly successful, supporters have to have a vision, a mission to get behind. Years of broken and empty promises have left a once passionate fan base apathetic and for many, club-less.

Be open and honest with your ambitions for the club. Acknowledge where things have gone wrong previously, share the vision, market the hell out of it and bring supporters on the journey. This is not just an issue for recent years, communication has left much to be desired well before Scott Priestnall took over the club in 2019.

Survey the supporters. We run regular surveys on the Gloverscast that cost nothing using Google Forms – get insight from the people who care and are your direct customer base. Hold focus groups so you can really get to know supporters and their views.

Refresh the Supporters’ Alliance Group (SAG), formalise it, open it up to new people and from the group revive a supporter liaison role for someone who is visible, approachable, active with supporters and contactable in the week to create the conduit between supporters and the club. The SAG can play such an important role, but it needs to run effectively and transparently for all supporters.

I genuinely don’t believe that supporters expect you to tell them everything, but commit to regular dialogue that is shared effectively and you’ll get supporters buy-in.

Improve the facilities at Huish Park

To say it needs a lick of paint is an understatement. The last meaningful change at the stadium was the roof that was added to the home terrace in 2001. It would be wonderful to get a roof on the away end and create a more welcoming environment for travelling supporters – while you’re at it let’s add corners to the stadium too.

We were told a benefit of the sale of every piece of bricks and mortar the club owned was removal of the shackles of convenants which have been pointed at for stifling development at Huish Park – so use that freedom. Build a supporters’ bar that has been promised for decades, not just lifting an shifting a bit of the old marquee. Modernise the Alec Stock Lounge so you can serve more people more quickly. Get hot water in the toilets. Make it easy for people to pay on card anywhere. Make Huish Park a destination on a Saturday that provides supporters something to be proud of. The land feels lost, but if you can claw any of it back into club ownership, make it a site that the whole community can use. Replace the pitches with a couple of all weather pitches, build a load of five-a-side pitches.

Huish Park and surrounding land – as seen from a great height – and, no, that’s not the old Huish slope!

Some of these are long-term fixes that require a chunk of capital expenditure and some are short-term wins that will go a mile. Get the little ones right and the big ones will fall into place.

As the only professional football club in Somerset, we should aspire to be the county’s home of football for men, women and children.

Build a Culture at the Club

You’ve got a varied, passionate supporter base (who don’t always agree – see point 1) but that have been clamouring for change for so long. Bring them in, share your ideas with them and get everyone around the table to talk about the future.

If you support Tracy Crouch’s Fan Led Review and the recommendations in there, commit to some before the Government mandates it. Pledge to join the Fair Game group of clubs. Partner with Football For Future, the organisation championing environmental sustainability within football. Let’s build a club and culture that’s built around doing the right thing and setting the bar high.

The Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust does amazing work in the community already and with the right support it could do even more. We have always prided ourselves on being a community club and there is no part which encapsulates that spirit better than the Trust.

We’ve got existing areas we can build on too:

Partnership with HerGameToo

Relaunch of the womens’ club

Building on the legacy of Lee Collins and Young Minds Charity

Supporting Marcus Stewart and the Darby Rimmer Foundation

A wealth of legends who show their love for the club

I know it’s on the badge, but we’re a club that has been so divided for so long that it’s no wonder we’ve not achieved for a decade. Let’s have those difficult conversations, heal the wounds of the last few seasons and actually unite.

Invest in the getting things right on the pitch

In Mark Cooper we have a quality manager with a proven track record, who can get us back to where we belong. In his short time in charge he’s steadied the ship, strengthened as much as he is probably able to with the budget he has and I think, albeit with some blips, we’re seeing progression.

But he needs help. We’ve always been a club that’s had to have staff doing more than one job. At one point Terry Skiverton was Head of Academy and Assistant Manager. It’s evident that it’s held us back. Let’s have a team of physios and sports scientists. Let’s get the recruitment right. If we can become a club that follows the Brentford model and leans into data, hopefully we can move away from the reliance on loans and start building our own talent.

If we can get that back room team right and give the players everything they need to be successful, Mark Cooper will be able to coach a team to return us to the football league.

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Just when you thought postponed matches were a thing of the past this season, the on loan Glovers had another frustrating night.

Sherborne were meant to be playing Shepton Mallet, but Benjani Jr and Jake Graziano will have to wait as that game bit the frost.

Leamington were all set for a clash against Buxton, but a frozen pitch saw to that, Ollie Hulbert will have to wait for more game time.

W*ymouth did play, but Will Dawes did not, he fell foul of the “6th loanee” stipulation at the weekend, and that appears to be the same this midweek.

Truro didn’t have a game, Gillingham Town did though.

Rob Hollard played in the game against Bishops Lydeard, but Sam Hodges sat out – he is expected to be part of the Yeovil Under 18s National Cup team on Wednesday.

More positive news from Plymouth Parkway too,

Toby Stephens was back in the starting line up and clocked up 60 minutes before being replaced in their game against Merthyr a last minute winner secured all three points for Parkway.

Shall we try again on Saturday?

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Alex Fisher has found a plaice in the official Vanarama Team of the Week after his wonder -ish against Maidstone on Saturday.

Originally credited with both of the Glovers goals, the front man was reduced to just a single strike after the dubious goals panel realised, he got nowhere near the other one… which is fine.

He makes the team alongside former Yeovil midfielder Dale Gorman, who by all accounts, didn’t absolutley sky a couple of long range free kicks… who knew!?

Congratulations Alex!!

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What would your Monday be without another episode of the Gloverscast?

Ian, Ben and Dave are back to talk through the 2-2 with Maidstone on Saturday, and we answer your GCQs.

Thank you for your continued support of the Gloverscast. Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news and views from Huish Park.

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Leave us a review and share the pod with a pal.

We’d love to welcome some local businesses into the Gloverscast family through advertising. If you’re a business that would like to speak to a dedicated audience of more than 1000 monthly listeners, please get in touch. Find out more about advertising with us here.

If you have an idea for the website, want to contribute or just want to send us a message, feel free to email ian@gloverscast.co.uk.

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Earlier this week, the world marked Groundhog Day. The day when the groundhog of North American comes out of its hibernation burrow and looks to see if its shadow is captured in winter sun or absent due to Spring cloudiness. If it spots it, it retreats for a further six weeks until it is sure winter has gone.

Now, there were no groundhogs at Huish Park on Saturday, but there was a former England rugby union player Paul Sackey in the stands for the 2-2 draw against Maidstone United. One assumes he is not there to check on what the yellow marks in the penalty area in front of the Thatcher’s Stand are, and if the rumour mill is correct  he’s involved in the unnamed “potential investors” in an “exclusivity agreement” to become a majority shareholder in Yeovil Town.

It’s now more than a month since the last bit of news we were got about the ownership of the club – the New Year’s Eve announcement about the aforementioned agreement – and it appears that those “potential investors” have enough interest (confidence?) to attend a match.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? In late 2018, Rob Couhig was photographed wearing a green-and-white scarf giving a big thumbs up and it looked like his deal to buy the club from then-owners Norman Hayward and John Fry was done. That deal collapsed and current owner and chairman Scott Priestnall took it on alongside business partner Errol Pope who later resigned from the board.

Rob Couhig, now owner at League One side Wycombe Wanderers, in 2018.

Fast forward to December 6th 2021, it was Julian Jenkins, the former Cardiff City commercial director and the frontman for the Simul Sports consortium, who tweeted that the group was looking to buy Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, the company which runs the Glovers’ football operations.

Both of those discussions reached the due diligence stages, at least from what we can see from the outside looking in, and now we appear to have more “potential investors” involved in an “exclusivity agreement” – so why does it matter?

Mark Cooper’s plans are being stifled

Speaking after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Maidstone, manager Mark Cooper was visibly miffed (we can’t use the F-word) and spoke about players who he was asking some to “do things they can’t do.”

He concluded: “Once we get in what we want to get in, eventually, then that will turn around.”

It’s not the first time he has spoken about how he has ambitions to strengthen the team and one assumes it is the current owner which has enabled him to sign Jordan Maguire-Drew, Charlie Cooper and bring in loans like Jack Clarke and Edwin Agbaje, but he clearly wants to do more.

There’s rent to pay from May

From May, there’s going to be a hefty bill landing on the Huish Park doormat for the first rental payment to landlords South Somerset District Council (SSDC) and based on attendances which hover between slightly above and slightly below 2,000, there seems to be a huge rental income coming in.

The amount the club received from selling the land upon which the stadium stands and everything around it is presumably running low. So where is the money coming from to pay those bills?

Blimey, it feels a long time since September 2021, when we highlighted the risk of all this happening – see here.

As ever, we are not privy to any secret conversations, so we have to go on what we are being told. There’s been no real changes to suggest an influx in match day revenue. We reported in December that plans to create “a fan zone” behind the Thatcher’s Stand had been approved by SSDC, but there’s been nothing further said about that.


We just deserve to know!

Let’s not get sucked in to the whole ‘supporters or customers’ debate because we all know that we are both – but the reality is this football club would not exist without its fan base.

Go back to the 1990s when fans pulled together to save it from the taxman’s bill at its lowest ebb, then 2019 when a Crowdfunder raised more than £50,000 to boost coffers – and a donation to the Yeovil Hospital Charity, of course – and not least the thousands of people who part with their cash week in and week out.

Plus, let us never forget the football club is an employer to many people, do they not deserve a straight answer about the future of their employer?

We have no doubt that the “potential investors” have their reasons for not going public, but the rumour mill is turning, the jungle drums are beating and there seems to be a far more professional ways of introducing yourself than the drip, drip, drip of information. You never get a second chance to make a first impression afterall.

 

If the ‘groundhog’ spots its own shadow and retreats back in to its burrow, it could be a long winter at Huish Park.