Five Conclusions: Gateshead 4 Yeovil Town 0

At 4.45am on Wednesday morning, a supporters’ club coach pulled in to Huish Park filled with 50-odd of the Yeovil Town supporters who were part of a travelling contingent of 141 at Tuesday night’s 4-0 defeat at Gateshead, a warped trick of the fixture machine that they had to do that midweek.

Here’s the morning after the night before thoughts of Dave, who made it back to his (northern) home at 1.30am, on what he saw from the other side of the athletics track….

That’s it then. We’re down. “We’ve been to Elland Road and Bramall Lane, Coventry away……now we’re off to Taunton, Taunton awaaaaaay…….Taunton awaaaay!” echoed (to the tune of Rotterdam by The Beautiful South) from away end at the International Athletics Stadium in the second half. A bit of humour in response to what we were seeing unfold in front of us. If I have seen a worse Yeovil Town performance than that (and I remember the last time we played in regional football) then I cannot recall it. That was a team* without commitment (sorry, Mark, you might not be able to question it but after that you must be blind), without quality or at least not showing it, and without any pride to play for the badge or themselves. It’s National League South next season, I just don’t see how it is anything but. Please just put us out of our misery now.
*- as ever, Josh Staunton and Grant Smith came out of it with some credit.

Even the defence has lost it. The blunt attack has been there all season, heck it was there last season as well. It doesn’t even count as a conclusion to say that we’re rubbish at scoring goals – but the defence was the one thing we had to hang on to. Just watch the goals that Gateshead scored on Tuesday night and tell me if you have seen worse defending? Owen Bevan (who I still believe has a very bright future ahead of him) was targeted and turned inside out playing at right back (I mean, he’s not a right back) but Gateshead were literally taking the mick by the end of it. Playing little one-twos inside the box whilst we floundered around trying to stop them.

Three points, four goals & five points clear! ?#WorClub ⚪️⚫️ pic.twitter.com/93lT7ekKtJ

— Gateshead FC (@GatesheadFC) April 4, 2023

Can it get any worse if Cooper goes? Mark Cooper looked like a beaten man after that. I get he’s not a particularly smiley guy when the cameras roll, that he feels he’s been let down by the wrong recruitment and (even if he won’t say it himself) by many of his players. It’s hard to argue with ‘if we had a decent striker, we’d not be in this mess’ argument and that comes down to recruitment which he obviously feels it is not of his doing. But, can it get any worse if he was to be given his P45 today? We have been poor all season (just look at the results) but now we have a team and a management utterly demoralised. Chris Todd stayed after Chris Hargreaves left and looked to be the only one trying to direct proceedings on the touchline at Gateshead – why not put him in charge for the rest of the season? Honestly, can it get any worse?

If you claim you love this club – show it! Our absent owner Scott Priestnall told us he was a fan, Matt Uggla speaks with passion about how he’s fallen in love with the club – but whatever glacially slow process is holding up the transfer of power from one to the other is killing the thing they both claim to love. There’s blame everywhere for that – with those two, the owners prior to them, South Somerset District Council, players, managers, directors, you name it. But the time for pointing fingers and saying “it’s their fault” has passed. Supporters will (barring a miracle) be watching regional football next season, there’s staff at Huish Park (on and off the pitch) who will be wondering where their futures lie next season and a very public civil war breaking out all over the place. It’s time for people to grow up, put their differences aside and show their allegiance to the only thing we all care about – Yeovil Town Football Club.

Spare a thought for JG-W. In a few weeks time we will mark the 20th anniversary of the club’s promotion to the Football League. It took 108 years to get there and now things have never felt bleaker. I thought back the other day to Jon Goddard-Watts, the founder of Screwfix Direct whose generosity created all of that. He invested to take us from part-time to full-time football, he invested to get us in to the Football League – he had no desire for minor celebrity status in fact I am not even sure how in to football he was. He wanted to do a good thing for the community which had served his business and when he resigned from the board in 2005, he wrote off a £1m loan to the club. I imagine he’d roll in his grave to see what those who followed him have allowed to happen.