Latest Yeovil Town News (Page 311)

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Plans for development around Huish Park are expected to be available before Christmas, the minutes of the latest Supporters’ Alliance Group meeting have shown.

The minutes of the meeting held on October 13th were published on Tuesday by the Glovers’ Trust, and include a commitment from chairman Scott Priestnall that the preferred scheme will be open to public consultation before a planning application is submitted.

If you want to read the meeting minutes in full, click – here.

The chairman also told the meeting that he expects a formal application to be submitted next year.

The minutes show Mr Priestnall gave the meeting the following update: “He updated the meeting on the proposed developments during the last few months. He has been working with architects, consultancy firms and the council to produce drawings and to find out what developments are possible. The plans will go to public consultation before being submitted. There has been a lot of activity with the council during the past year. The details of the preferred scheme should be available before Christmas, but no formal application will take place this year. SP explained that he is not looking to just develop the land but to re-develop the stadium.”

When asked for further details on the proposals by Glovers’ Trust chairman Roger Pipe, the minutes show: “SP (Scott Priestnall) answered that there could be small retail establishments, with renting or leasing some buildings. There could be sports clinic and health provision. Also, player accommodation could be on site. There were no plans for office blocks or commercial premises.”

The publication of the minutes follow a series of social media exchanges between the Glovers’ Trust and the club on Monday night in response to an open letter asking questions about the planned development. The letter was drafted by the Trust and signed by other groups, including Gloverscast, and you can read more – here.

The minutes show a commitment from Mr Priestnall to making plans for the Huish Park site’s development open to public scrutiny.

Whilst the proof of pudding (or the publication of the plans for public scrutiny, at least) will be in the eating, the absence of a reference to housing development as part of the preferred scheme is positive, and the name-checked development feels like it could add to the viability of Huish Park as an operation outside matchdays.

In his closing remarks to the meeting, the chairman adds that the club needs “a long-term sustainable future.”

On the subject of the club’s finances, the minutes, Mr Priestnall reiterated that the National League is “still working” to have loans taken by clubs written off by Sport England. Yeovil Town took almost £1m in loans which are subject to “a four-year holiday period” during which no payment is necessary.

As we reported back in October, this detail was part of the chairman’s latest update to supporters. You can read more about that – here.

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The minutes of a meeting of the Yeovil Town Supporters’ Alliance have been published today.

The minutes are not yet agreed by all parties, as the Glovers’ Trust has requested an amendment to include a commitment by chairman Scott Priestnall to host an open forum for supporters which he made at the meeting on October 13th as well in a recent update he gave to fans.

For this reason, these minutes are better described as ‘draft’, but given their content seems to have caused a stir they have been published and we are pleased to re-publish them for your viewing pleasure…..


Minutes of the YTFC Alliance Meeting at Huish Park on Thursday 13 October 2022 at 13.00

Present:

  • Rich Rendall (RR) – Chairman of the Alliance/Green & White Supporters’ Club,
  • Scott Priestnall (SP) – Chairman and Owner (by Zoom)
  • Stuart Robins (SR) – Director,
  • Martyn Starnes (MS) – Chief Executive Officer,
  • James Hillier (JH) – Stadium Manager,
  • Mark Robinson (MR) – Commercial Manager,
  • Sam Collard (SC) – Media Department,
  • Roger Pipe (RP) – Chairman of the Glovers’ Trust
  • Terri Burt (TB) – Glovers’ Trust
  • Rob Newport (RN) – Cary Glovers
  • Emma Jarvis (EJ) – Commercial Assistant
  • Marilyn Cottle (MC) – Commercial Assistant/Junior Glovers

Apologies: Paul Hadlow (Green & White Supporters’ Club), Sharon Swain (Disabled Supporters’ Alliance – DSA), Simon Woodland (DSA).

RR opened the meeting and asked everyone to introduce themselves and their roles.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved. RR spoke about the new season and remarked that the team are playing well and this needs to continue and draws to become wins. We would like to wish all the coaching and backroom staff success and our best wishes are with Marcus Stewart on the diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

RP asked about the racism incident at the York game.

JH explained that the police and the club have now closed their investigations. Supporters, stewards and officials were spoken to, but no-one heard anything. Nothing was reported on the day, it was only when the recording was shown on Monday. JH also spoke to Kick It Out for advice.

SC explained the position of the camera. The press box including BBC Somerset did not hear anything.

RP thanked the club for their investigation.

JH and MR then spoke about the impact the incident had brought on the club. The club have spoken to a number of key sponsors. SR reiterated that the club takes incidents like these very seriously, will not tolerate racism or discrimination in any form and operates a zero tolerance policy. The reputation of the club is at risk and social media comments were not helpful.

Updates from the previous meeting were discussed. RP said that communications had not improved.

JH updated the meeting on other projects. Planning for the marquee to be moved to the corner between the Screwfix and Thatcher’s stands is awaiting approval. The club are disappointed in the delay. The new scoreboard will be fitted shortly. Access control is working well. There are now Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) terminals in all areas and cards can now be used in all areas of the ground.

The new lift has been ordered and we are waiting for the installation date. The Football Foundation provided 70% of the cost, the G&WSC donated £2000, the DSA gave £2000 and £7000 was donated from the lottery department at the club.
The DSA are painting the barriers on the home terrace. We would like to thank the DSA for all their work.

RP asked why there was only going to be three sides open for the FA Cup match with Taunton.
JH said that there was a cost implication to open the Screwfix Stand. The expected crowd is 2500 and they can be accommodated in the other stands. There would be a bar behind the away terrace and the tea bars were opening early.
RP asked about the issues with entry to the Screwfix Stand for league games.
JH explained that the new scanners have now arrived and there will be 2 gates open in the future. RR asked if it could be advertised which gates are open.
RP asked why the lights were on at the Boreham Wood match.
JH said that the referee insisted that they stay on. There have been discussions in the EFL to change KO times to 1pm to conserve energy. However, this could mean teams staying overnight and problems for fans to arrive by 1pm. The club will continue to save money, but there are no plans to close the Screwfix Stand for league games.

MC explained that the Junior Glovers are no longer a separate section. All young people under 16 who purchase a season ticket receive a free shirt. We are including children more on match days. Mascots are now allowed, and we have local teams as guard of honour and flag bearers. We have introduced a penalty shootout at half time for youth teams.

SP joined the meeting by Zoom.

He updated the meeting on the proposed developments during the last few months. He has been working with architects, consultancy firms and the council to produce drawings and to find out what developments are possible. The plans will go to public consultation before being submitted. There has been a lot of activity with the council during the past year. The details of the preferred scheme should be available before Christmas, but no formal application will take place this year. SP explained that he is not looking to just develop the land but to re-develop the stadium.

RP asked for more details.

SP answered that there could be small retail establishments, with renting or leasing some buildings. There could be sports clinic and health provision. Also, player accommodation could be on site. There were no plans for office blocks or commercial premises.

SP then explained the Sport England Loans. Sport England have not requested re-imbursement. The National League have regular meetings about the loans and all clubs have a four-year holiday period and are still working to have the loans written off.

RP asked if the National League are trying to convert them to grants.

SP said that the loans are directly with the clubs. He explained the loan system and why they were brought in. He asked for the supporters to be patient.

RP invited SP and SR to the Glovers Trust AGM. SP said that he had been approached in an aggressive manner by two members of the Glovers’ Trust at the Dorking game and he would have to speak to SR before giving a response. MS also witnessed the incident and said it was out of order. SP asked if this had been dealt with by the .

RR asked if there was any more investment in the club.

SP said there is ongoing discussions but for new investors the finances have to look decent, performances on the pitch need to inspire them and the environment needs to be friendly. Protesting is having a negative effect on the club. All supporters are welcome to attend the Alliance meetings.

Discussions then took place between TB and SP regarding the take-over by Simul Sports. TB believed that they had the money and that new investors are not willing to invest because of SP.
SP confirmed that there was a contract for Simul Sports to buy the club but they didn’t sign it. He advised that if the group wanted to buy a football club then there are a few for sale, but they haven’t bought anything.

SP explained that the council deal did not stop the Simul Sports deal. RP said that some people are disenchanted with the club.
SP asked if it matters who owns the club. The important factor is to be competitive. SP will be issuing a statement of future plans. The club needs a long term sustainable future.

RR thanked SP for his update.

The meeting finished at 15:00.

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Yeovil Town’s defence of the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup has been delayed by the weather.

The Glovers have confirmed tonight’s second round tie with Taunton Town has been postponed with rain forecasted for later today.

In a statement, the club said: “After an assessment of the pitch by a local referee and forecasted rain later today, tonight’s Somerset Premier Cup fixture has been postponed.

“Details of a further date will be released in due course.”

It added that tickets for the potsponed date would be honoured for the rearranged fixture.

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Alex Fisher celebrates a goal in the 3-1 home win over Gateshead. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Alex Fisher, the two goal hero from Saturday is in the official Vanarama Team of the week.

Because of course he is.

The Fish was fed twice and scored twice… he had a glorious chance to notch a second Glovers hat trick… but, well, yeah.

Nice one Fish… same again next week!?

The full team can be found below.

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Four groups of Yeovil Town supporters have issued a set of questions to Yeovil Town owner and chairman Scott Priestnall today.

Led by the Glovers’ Trust and backed by the administrators of the Ciderspace Facebook Group, The Green Army and the Gloverscast, the letter asks for clarity on the future development of Huish Park and calls for the open fan forum which was promised in the last update on October 14th.

Dear Mr Priestnall

As supporters of Yeovil Town FC, we have become increasingly concerned about the state of our club under your ownership.

We have seen our ground and the land that surrounds it sold to South Somerset District Council with no obvious plan on how to buy it back, whilst at the time of writing our team languish just outside the relegation zone.

Moreover, we are worried that matters could get worse. The proposed development of the land around the ground potentially threatens the very existence of our club.

We now write to ask that you urgently provide clarity in respect of the following;

1. Please provide a breakdown of how the money raised by the sale to South Somerset DC has been spent/ allocated.

2. You have informed us that architects have been engaged to draw up plans for the land around the ground, and that supporters will be consulted. We call upon you to start this process immediately and to share the initial plans with supporters and local residents.

3. You have also said that the development of land previously owned by the holding company will benefit the club and provide a revenue stream. Could you now please set out your vision for how this will be achieved and give a firm commitment to this process.

4. You have made a public commitment to holding an open meeting with fans, we ask now that you set a date as soon as possible for that meeting.

We look forward to hearing from you. 

In a response posted on the club’s Twitter feed posted at 7.08pm on Monday, it said:

It’s disappointing that after only receiving this letter today from Glovers’ Trust chairman Mr Roger Pipe and after offering Mr Pipe a meeting at the club tomorrow to discuss, that the decision was made to publish this letter anyway.

It’s confusing, considering that these points were discussed at the recent Supporters Alliance meetings, answered by Club Chairman Scott Priestnall and these answers documented in the minutes of the meeting and sent to attendees.

It is therefore questioned why the Glovers’ Trust have not fed back the answers to their members.

The club will confirm an open meeting in due course and will communicate to supporters directly.
 

Then in response to the club’s response posted by the Glovers’ Trust at 8.38pm, the Trust said…..

The Glovers Trust note the response from the board of Yeovil Town Football club to our joint open letter. We were disappointed, but not surprised that rather than answering the important questions contained within, the owners saw it appropriate to seek to slur our organisation and our chairman.

The Glovers Trust would like to reiterate that this was a joint letter, signed by multiple supporter groups associated with our fanbase, and not just the Glovers Trust. Groups that have no other motive than to safeguard the club we love. When the letter was sent to Scott Priestnall, it was made very clear that it would also be made public. Public letters are not uncommon and we believe fans have the right to know what questions are being asked, and what answers are/aren’t being given.

While the directors are correct that many of these questions have been repeatedly asked at Alliance meetings since the sale of our assets to SSDC, we have yet to receive anything like an adequate response to any of them.

We do not wish to engage further with the owner on social media, but once again extend an invitation for him to join us for our AGM where he can answer these questions and more in the presence of our members and wider fanbase. Failing that, we look forward to a date being confirmed swiftly for the November open forum.

We will continue to support Mark Cooper and the team. But we will also not be distracted from the very important off-field issues that continue to plague our club.

…..we await a response to the response to the letter – is that enough responses? Anyway, you get the idea……don’t you?
 

Why have we signed it?

The endless cycle of statement, silence for several months, statement, silence for several months is draining. The dialogue between the club and supporters should be shared, transparently and in a timely fashion.

It appears that a Supporters’ Alliance Group meeting has taken place in the recent past, it appears minutes of this meeting exist, it appears these minutes contain some information which would be of value in understanding what is happening with our football club. So where are they?

In the end of season survey which had 499 responses, we received an average score of 2.5 out of 7 to the statement ‘YTFC will benefit from the sale of Huish Park to SSDC’.  Our monthly pulse surveys also show supporters still feel things need improving. We, and many supporters, still have around how this deal improves the long-term future of the club and recognise many decisions lie with SSDC and, as a public authority, we have reached out to them for answers. As and when we receive responses, we will let you know.

For the time being, there’s a response from the club to the Trust’s letter and we look forward to the open meeting for supporters in due course.

The above are questions, among others, we wanted answered after more than 1500 supporters put their signature to a letter in April.

We all want the best for the future of the football club. And if you’ve listened to the recent episodes of the podcast, you’ll all know we’re right behind Mark Cooper and willing this team to get us out of trouble.

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Goals from Alex Fisher and Malachi Linton saw Mark Cooper pick up his first win as Yeovil manager against basement club Gateshead yesterday. Here are Ian’s Five Conclusions.

Alex Fisher is rejuvenated under Mark Cooper. Everything feels a bit fresher, but no one has had a bigger turnaround than Yeovil’s number 9 under the new boss. With another two goals yesterday (it should have been a hat trick), Fisher’s form might make it difficult for Louis Britton to make an early impact. Two fox-in-the-box type goals exemplify the simplicity with which Mark Cooper has asked his striker to play. Hold it up, move it wide, get in the box. Both of his goals came from crosses when he was inside the six yard box. It’s amazing what can happen when you play a number 9 as a number 9.

Alex Fisher celebrates a goal in the 3-1 home win over Gateshead. Picture courtesy of Mike Kunz.

Oluwabori built on his Tuesday night cameo. The right winger shone against Maidenhead and yesterday was no different. He’s the type of player to create something from nothing and has added so much to this squad. His confidence his high and you see it rubbing off on his new teammates. He doubled up nicely with Chiori Johnson, linked up with Matt Worthington and he and Fisher look to building a good connection. Oluwabori was constant thorne in the side for Gateshead, who surrounded him at every opportunity. We’ve got a talent here who can make a genuine creative difference for the Glovers.

Matt Worthington was my man of the match. I thought Worthy was fantastic yesterday. He’s gone from being the senior midfielder in a pair under Chris Hargreaves to playing in the number 10 role for Mark Cooper and given the licence to get forward by having Josh Staunton and Jamie Andrews behind him. He was relentless and making a difference in spaces where we’ve probably not seen him before, forcing the Gateshead defence into mistakes by triggering the press. Can he add goals and assists? That’s the next challenge.

The power of Huish Park was evident. Mark Cooper gave a bit of a call to arms on Tuesday after the volume picked up in the stands and a bright start got Huish Park up for it yesterday too. There was a lull in the middle of the first half but Yeovil were roared home in the second half. It feels like it’s been a while since a managers name was sung in the crowd, but it’s not taken long for “Mark Cooper’s Green and White Army” and “Heeey Mark Cooper” to make it to the terraces.

It feels like we’ve got the right man in charge. Mark Cooper has added his own personnel, simplified everyone’s jobs and it’s making a difference. We can’t get ahead of ourselves, this was a bottom of the league team that looked lower on confidence than we did. But, it was a game that we needed to win and we did so. Next we travel to top of the league Notts County where the pressure will be entirely on them in front of a big crowd. It feels like we’ve got a decent foundation to build on now though, and you can see what that first win meant to everyone yesterday. You can’t help but wonder where we would be if we’d be able to opt for him in the summer, but sure I’m glad we’ve got him now.

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Yeovil Town Under-18s began their Gary Else Memorial Cup campaign with a 2-2 draw against BRS Coaching Youth Under-18s at Alvington this weekend.

Having gone ahead with a long range effort from Mason Hunter just before half-time, the young Glovers were indebted to goalkeeper Robert Hollard who pulled off a fine stop to keep them in front at the interval.

Mason Hunter. Picture courtesy of Matt Partridge.

But three minutes after the restart the Ringwood-based visitors drew level and added a second soon after 73 minutes only for captain Jake Graziano to complete the scoring from the penalty spot a minute later.

The game against Ringwood-based, who are much improved from the side Yeovil beat 6-0 in league action last month, was the first in the competition’s group stages. The other teams in the Glovers’ group are Torquay United and Bridgwater United.

Yeovil Town Under-18s: Robert Hollard, Ethan O’Sullivan, Josh Sutton, Jacob Shore, Harrison Foster, Jake Graziano, Mason Alden, Charlie Bateson, Mason Hunter, Alex Stevens. Max Dyer. Substitutes: Mikey Archibald, Harry Evans, Ryan Price, Josh Haskett, Nathan Hart.

 

A number of the club’s youth group teams playing under the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust were also in action in the Junior Premier League.

The Under-14s ran out winners in their fixture against Taunton Town, whilst the Under-13s drew and the Under-15s lost against competition from the county town.

The Trust’s Under-11s lost their fixture against FC Wiltshire while the Under-12s match against Cheltenham Town was postponed. The Under-16s were without a match this weekend.

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Only one of Yeovil Town’s two loanees was in action for their loan clubs this weekend.

Midfielder Toby Stephens played a pivotal role for Plymouth Parkway in a 3-1 win home win over Hayes and Yeading in the Southern League Premier Division South

He played through a “delicious” ball for former Glovers’ loanee Ben Seymour to score the opening goal and played the full 90 minutes.

Defender Ollie Haste wasn’t named in the matchday squad for Truro City’s trip to the Metropolitan Police, a result which keeps Paul Wootton’s side a point ahead of Weston-super-Mare at the top of the Southern League Premier Division South.

The Gloverscast understands he took a slight knock in training on Friday and was advised by the Yeovil medical staff to sit out this weekend, but should be back on the pitch sooner rather than later.