The derby with W*ymouth has been postponed due to COVID-19 in the camp down on the seaside.
The match had been due to be played at Huish Park on December 28.
A new date will now need to be found for fixture, when tickets bought for the original date will still a valid.
Anyone who bought tickets and needs it refunded should contact the Ticket Office at ticketoffice@ytfc.net
Now we’re not saying the BBC programmers listen to the podcast (mostly because it’s not true), but our recent call for the FA Cup tie with AFC Bournemouth will now be televised.
We are on the BBC Red Button for the third round tie Saturday, January 8 with kick-off now slipped 15 minutes to 5.45pm.
There’s no replays in this round to help out that poor Mr Klopp has his squad which is running in to treble figures, so the 14 men of Yeovil Town will go to extra time and penalties if they don’t beat the Championship Cherries after 90 minutes.
As it’s Christmas tomorrow we thought it would be nice to share with you what we’d like for Christmas this year. As regular listeners to The Gloverscast will know, there’s three of us who like to chew the cud about our beloved football club and each of us have shared what we’d like left under the tree this year.
Ian: After a largely torrid couple of years as a Yeovil Town supporter 2021 is shaping up to finish rather well. The turnaround since October’s dismal run at Huish Park is a distant memory and our excellent form has given us a rather odd feeling of comfort and confidence. I don’t think I can recall feeling this way since the run in of the 2012/13 season – and we all know what happened there.
So, on tomorrow I would love to wake up to a carefully, extravagantly wrapped present containing more of the same please! Darren Sarll has worked miracles in spite of the off-pitch situation and has made this team one to be proud of. Keep it up lads, and let’s dream the impossible dream!
Dave: One of us had to take it off the pitch, so I would love to see a second half of the season where every fan wants to go to Huish Park.
We go in to Christmas Day with talks about takeover still bubbling, still concerns about the financial situation of the club, and still silence from those involved in these discussions.
So, rather than sending a letter to Santa this year, I would love to see one from someone in charge of our club with passion, a plan to improve the supporter experience and plot a course for further 125 years of a football club at the heart of its community.
Ben:
Dear Santa,
I’ve been a very good boy this year. Could I please ask for some nice things, not for me though, for my friends.
Can you please help Darren, Terry, Josh, Charlie, Tom, Grant, Max, Luke, Jordan, Adi and others get new contracts at Huish Park.
They’ve all worked so hard to bring joy to Glovers fans and I would like to see them rewarded.
I have such fun watching these players and would like the chance to see what this group can build not just for the remainder of this season but beyond. I’d hate for us to fall just short of our targets and not get the chance to see what they could achieve if given the chance to grow as a unit. I don’t want this squad picked off by other teams? I don’t want my friends to get broken up, we all have so much fun together.
Can you also ask if our new friends, Dan, Sonny and Jack can play with us a bit longer please? I know their parents think a lot of them, but they really do make things better.
Thanks, and Merry Christmas
Ben, age 33 ¾
We’d like to wish our Gloverscast listeners and readers a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2022.
Happy Christmas Eve listeners. We couldn’t leave you without a Gloverscast on a Friday so here it is.
Ian, Ben and Dave chat about the week, what the implications of behind closed doors football could be, the FA Trophy and a look at Torquay on Boxing Day. Dave chatted to TorquayTalk to get the low down on Gary Johnson’s side. We’ve had some questions from the listeners and as always, there’s a quiz.
Thanks for listening!
Remember to add Gloverscast.co.uk to your favourites and check the website daily for the latest news from Huish Park.
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Top scorer Joe Quigley is back in training with Yeovil Town as they head in to a busy festive fixture schedule.
The six-goal striker has not featured since picking up a knee injury in the 1-0 win at Dagenham & Redbridge a little over a month ago but returned to training this week.
Assistant manager Terry Skiverton, who was deputising on media duties on Thursday in place of boss Darren Sarll who had a bereavement in the family, said the defender Mark Little was always “progressing well” having returned after a long lay-off.
Speaking ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Torquay United, he said: “We have had a few back in training and it’s been good having Mark Little back on the training ground.
“Joe is doing little bits and pieces, Reuben is getting stronger with every game and training session, so it’s looking good.
“So, we’ve had a 7v7 and an 8v8 rather than a five-a-side in training which has been nice.”
He added: “The squad is getting stronger at the right time, so for us it is important we look to get results in these games.
“Recent results and performances means everyone wants to get in the team.”
Skivo was also asked about facing his old manager Gary Johnson twice over the Christmas period, the current situation with COVID-19 and off-the-pitch takeover rumours, here’s what the assistant had to say:
Yeovil Town 4 Cheltenham 1 – Sunday 26th December 2004
Christmas is usually a time for festive local derbies, but for a long time it was also associated with one thing – the Boxing Day Curse. When I first started going to Huish Park in the 90’s, as far as I was concerned any Boxing Day fixture was a write-off, we never won. My first true exposure to the severity of The Curse came in 1999 with a long trip to Forest Green to see Yeovil get absolutely thumped 3-0 by the Conference new boys. The salt in the wounds was rubbed in by a goal from one David Norton, who had arrived at Yeovil in the summer, got injured, presumably decided he didn’t like the treatment room, and moved to Forest Green when he’d got fit, scoring against us in one of his first games for them.
It was at this point that I learned about The Curse, as Yeovil had not won on Boxing Day since a 2-0 win over Farnborough in 1987. That was during a stint in the Isthmian League (then named Vauxhall-Opel), and in 20-odd years in the Conference between 1979 and 2003, Yeovil only won twice on Boxing Day, both away – 1-0 at Forest Green in 2000 and 3-1 at Weymouth in 1983. In fact 1983/84 was a pretty good year as the win at Weymouth was followed with a 6-3 win on New Year’s Day, with two goals each for Brown, Finnigan and Doherty.
In what you could call the ‘Conference Years’ of 1979-2003, Yeovil played 21 times on Boxing Day and won only three, losing 12 times – that is relegation form in any division. By contrast, New Year’s Day form was generally much better, playing 19, winning 10 and losing only five. Not quite promotion form, but probably playoffs. Although in later years the Boxing Day fixtures tended to be away from home with the New Year’s Day game at Huish Park (apparently at the club’s request), it was not always the case that Yeovil lost away and won at home – against Weymouth in 1988/89, the Glovers lost the home match 3-2, but won away 2-0.
This seems to have been mostly a Conference problem, as in the Southern League days of the 1970’s Yeovil were unbeaten on Boxing Day and won seven out of nine fixtures between 1969 and 1978 (1979/80 being the first year of what is now called the National League).
Depending on where Christmas fell, there would occasionally be games on the 26th and the 27th. Not usually against the same team, as New Year’s Day tended to provide the return fixture, but in 1969/70 Yeovil managed to beat Bath twice in 24 hours, with a 2-0 win away on the 26th and 2-1 win at Huish on 27th! There were occasionally no league games on New Year’s Day due to the FA Cup, which historically had its Third Round day on the first Saturday in January, although these days it tends to be the second. The games against Cardiff in 1999 and twice against Arsenal all led to New Year’s Day league games being postponed.
With Weymouth and Bath both relegated, when Yeovil returned to the Conference in 1997 there was a bit of a shortage of ‘local’ rivals, the first season being played at Cheltenham some 80 miles away. From 1998/99 we got Forest Green for a few years, which is slightly closer but doesn’t feel like it, especially after a 3-0 defeat. The curse definitely felt real then, as even Gary Johnson’s all-conquering team of 2002/03 lost there, almost losing by two goals for the only time that season, until Skiverton’s injury time consolation made it 1-2. It was our only defeat in the second half of the season.
Into the League then and things didn’t start much better, with a dismal 2-1 defeat at home to struggling Kidderminster in 2003. In atrocious conditions which probably should have seen the game abandoned due to heavy water on the pitch, Kevin Gall did equalise to make it 1-1 but not only did the Glovers go on to lose 2-1, but also had to put up with John Williams gloating at the Yeovil fans, as he would do again when he dived for a penalty in the reverse fixture, but Chris Weale had the last laugh in that one as the Glovers won 1-0.
In 2004, and back to playing Cheltenham again, even though Yeovil were in very good form and closing in on leaders Scunthorpe, it was a case of ‘here we go again’ when the visitors took the lead through a deflected shot from Martin ‘Disco’ Devaney. It all turned out alright in the end though, as goals from Gall and Jevons put Yeovil ahead at the break and late goals from Davies and Terry gave the final score a comfortable look. This was a time when Yeovil were on fire, and it seemed like no matter how many goals the opposition scored, Gary Johnson’s men would just score more. Just a couple of days later, they would go in 2-0 down at Cambridge, but come back in the second half to win 5-3. It would be their best run of form of the League Two winning season, winning 13 out of 15 league and cup games (not including the Somerset Premier Cup) and losing just once, down to ten men at Lincoln. In that period, Yeovil scored 41 goals (an average of almost three a game!) and conceded 19; conceding over one goal a game, but still winning almost all of them. If you wanted to see goals in 2004/05, you watched Yeovil.
In the Conference and below, the festive tradition is to play the same local team twice on New Year’s Day and Boxing Day. This is not the case in the League, as the Boxing Day game tended to be local-ish (Charlton, anyone?), but the NYD game could be anyone. There no longer seems to be any evidence of a curse since that defeat at home to Kidderminster, with Boxing Day (4 wins from 15) and New Year’s Day (3 wins from 11) being about the same. Of course much of these years were spent in League One where the games were much harder so we would expect to win less often than in the Conference. The 3-1 win away at Brighton in 2006, followed by another win at Crewe a few days later came as a pleasant surprise as Russell Slade’s men found form over Christmas and pushed for the playoffs.
The 4-0 win at home against Wycombe in 2009/10 was one of the most comfortable and enjoyable Boxing Days I’ve had at Huish Park, and there haven’t been a lot of good ones! After that though, we went on a dismal run of five Boxing Day defeats in a row including consecutive 3-0 defeats by Bournemouth and an injury time loss at home to Charlton. There were no wins at all until 2017, with a 2-0 win at Cheltenham being our last Boxing Day win in the Football League. The return to the Conference brought a 6-2 win over Torquay in 2019, followed by an absolute hammering at Plainmoor that we won’t talk about. 2020 didn’t happen so that’s fine. This would appear to mean that the 6-2 win over Torquay was our first win EVER at home in the Conference on Boxing Day.
So has the curse returned? Only time will tell. I won’t be putting money on Yeovil to win at Torquay that’s for sure, but New Year’s Day will probably be okay.
Team that day: Chris Weale, Paul Terry, Michael Rose, Terry Skiverton, Colin Miles, Darren Way, Lee Johnson, Kevin Gall, Andrejs Stolcers (sub. Andy Lindegaard 80), Bartosz Tarachulski (sub Scott Guyett 88), Phil Jevons (sub. Arron Davies 68). Subs not used: Steve Collis, Adrian Caceres
Rob Couhig, the American businessman who tried to buy Yeovil Town when it was eventually sold to current owner Scott Priestnall, has spoken about his efforts to buy the club.
Having failed in his effort to buy the club from then-owners Norman Hayward and John Fry, he went on to buy Wycombe Wanderers from its supporters’ trust in February 2019.
Speaking to the Price of Football podcast, Couhig said he was contacted by Mark Palmer who was brought to the club by Hayward in an effort to find a buyer.
Couhig said: “I met with Mark and my best friend, he and I had invested together in things for 40 years.
“When we walked out of the meeting with (Mark), my friend, Dick, said to me ‘under no circumstances and I investing in that, do not use my name, do not act like I am involved in this.
“I said ‘Dick, we have done everything together for 40 years!’ and he said to me ‘you’re not hearing me – I’m out.’
“But (my wife) Missy and I made the trip to Yeovil, we really liked it there, it’s a terrific area of the country, the people down there could not have been nicer, but they were in financial trouble so we lent them some money.
“That is when we first started to understand ‘maybe this thing was sliding away from her and towards what Rob wanted to do.
“We couldn’t get that deal together and we thought we were out.”
For those of you who don’t remember the deal with the Couhigs, back in February 2019 it appeared a deal had been done to to buy 92% of Huish Park Partnership, the company owned by Hayward and Fry which owned the club’s assets.
He spoke with the local news and the deal looked to be done until after the club’s relegation out of the Football League when the club issued a statement saying it had “not been possible to agree mutually acceptable terms and conditions.”
In his own statement, Couhig went on to say that neither the price or the club’s relegation were the reason for the deal collapsing.
There was then a bit of ‘will they, won’t they?’ with a consortium including former Glovers’ director Andy Rossiter which failed to conclude a deal with Hayward and Fry, and in June 2019, Priestnall and his fellow owner Errol Pope turned up and completed a deal.
You can listen to the interview with Rob Couhig in full – here.
Good morning,
We’re now on day 18 of Scott’s seven day deadline.
The problem is we’re getting news, that’s not actually news. Another article appeared this week, saying the takeover was going to be done on the 21st. Here we are on the 23rd. We’ve been here before a few times.
It’s frustrating and disheartening to keep reading the nonsense, based on rumour and conjecture, repeated and taken with such credibility. Throw a dart at the calendar and hope it sticks.
As we’ve said before, the only people who know exactly what’s going on are at the heart of the deal – the individuals at the table. Everything else is noise and misinformation. Despite how it’s dressed up.
Terry Skiverton is taking the “gaffer’s presser” today in a bit of a switcheroo. I always think it’s interesting to hear from Skivo every now and then. As a bonafide club legend, his take on the situation at the club he’s been at since 1999 is always worth listening to. Plus, we’re up against another legend in Gary Johnson on Boxing Day – we hope.
The less said about our last trip to Plainmoor the better. This could not be a more different Yeovil Town heading to the English Riviera than last December.
There’s a good interview with Grimbsy’s owner, Jason Stockwood on Grimsby Live, where he talks about governance within the National League and refers to Wrexham and Stockport County.
“The downside is the people who can come in and spend disproportionate amount and underwrite losses through advertising revenues that others don’t have access to.
“It completely distorts the wage structure and the expectation of fans if you can sign a player from a top team and spend over 5K a week.
“That makes it impossible for teams like Grimsby. It is outside the constraints of what is sustainable within our budgets and it would upset the wage structure within your organisation.”
“All power to the Wrexhams and Stockports. It would be disingenuous to say you wouldn’t want someone to invest at that level in your club. It’s just the potential consequences I worry about.”
He goes on to talk about Fair Game and Tracey Crouch’s review, as well.
I’m just jealous of a local news outlet sitting down with the owner of the local football club for a multi-part interview. What a novelty.
Keep an eye on the website for all the latest news from the press conference. We’re recording tomorrow’s podcast at midday today so if you have any questions get them in early!
Yeovil Town’s FA Cup third round tie against Bournemouth will be officiated by EFL referee Jeremey ‘Jez’ Simpson.
Simpson was congratulated by his home County FA on Twitter for the appointment on Wednesday, before the FA had made any official announcement on the referee and assistant appointments.
The FA Website says of Simpson;
“He has refereed over 200 EFL games, and since the start of the 2016/17 season, has been part of the Select Group 2 Referee list”
Simpson is vastly experienced, even if he does have a slight reputation for giving out a few cards… only twice in the last two and half seasons has he failed to give at least one card in a game he has been in charge of.
Going back through the records, he has taken charge of a few former Glovers’ games.
The Johnson v Johnson clash was played under Simpson’s watchful eye as Gary of Yeovil played Lee of Oldham towards the end of the 2012/13 season.
A year later he was in charge when Yeovil squandered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 vs Derby in the Championship.
But the last time he was in the middle for a Yeovil game, we won!
A 1-0 win over Swindon in League One in April 2015. James Berret the scorer.
The FA Cup third round clash with Bournemouth is scheduled to take place at Huish Park on Saturday the 8th of January with a 17:30 kick off.
Torquay United have offered some updated information ahead of our Boxing Day visit to Plainmoor.
The advice is pretty much identical to that offered by Yeovil Town to supporters attending last weekend’s 3-1 win over Woking at Huish Park.
The main points are:
You can read the advice in full (there’s other stuff about going in the Club Shop which seems like less of a problem for away fans) on the Gulls’ website – here.
Don’t forget that tickets are not available to buy on the day and you need to get them on the Gulls’ website – here. The Ticket Office at Plainmoor will be open from 12pm-3pm for enquiries only.
Obviously, the one thing any of us can’t do is try and guess whether there’s going to be any further restrictions put in place by the Government, as putting ourselves in the mind of Boris Johnson is not a place we’d like to be.
If you are heading to Devon on Boxing Day, don’t miss our Ciderspace Away Travel Guide – here.
