After all of the magic of the FA Cup, it’s back to the bread and butter of the National League action and it’s points were after (three of them ideally) when in-form Altrincham head to Huish Park on Saturday afternoon.
FORM…
YEOVIL TOWN
The place in the FA Cup 1st Round proper has been secured after 180 minutes against Leatherhead. But those results have extended the Glovers’ unbeaten run to nine (including the Somerset Men’s Premier Cup).
Those nine games have seen Billy Rowley’s side rack up 34 goals! In fact Yeovil are only half-a-dozen goals away from eclipsing the entire 25/26 goals tally… in all competitions!
The Glovers sit fourth in the National League table, with 25 points to their name.
ALTRINCHAM
Alty head to Huish Park just a single point and a couple spots below Yeovil in the table. Their 13 league games have seen them accumulate 24 points, but they have scored a full 12 goals fewer.
Three defeats in their opening three matches had supporters feeling like it could be a long season and it was a 5-1 hammering at Woking in September which sparked a run of form which has propelled the Greater Manchester side in to the play-off places with 13 games played.
Five wins in their last six – the other being a 3-1 loss at leaders Boreham Wood at the start of the month – have seen them revived. But it is largely their home form which has them in such a good position, but they have picked up wins at AFC Fylde and Forest Green Rovers already this campaign.
Like Yeovil, Alty needed a replay to progress in the FA Cup. On Tuesday night they came from a goal behind to win 6-3 at Northern League Premier Division side FC United of Manchester, having gone behind to a stunning strike from ex-Glovers’ loanee Matty Grivosti.
Interestingly, that’s the first time they have won having gone behind in a game all season.
KEY PLAYERS…
YEOVIL TOWN – BRETT MCGAVIN
The Glovers’ newly-appointed captain has been the man who makes it all happen in recent matches and will be crucial if we are to get anything this weekend.
The 26-year-old has also developed a taste for goals with five in his last four matches – including a stunning hat-trick in the last league outing at Wealdstone – but it is the control he brings in the middle of the park which makes him so influential.
Since the absence and subsequent departure of now-former skipper Luke McCormick, McGavin has stepped up to show what an asset he is to the Yeovil midfield.
In what seems likely to be a battle between two in-form midfield units, his performance against Altrincham could prove pivotal.
Picture by Indy Pitman/Indy’s Visuals.
ALTRINCHAM – SAM TAYLOR
The summer signing has been a revelation at full-back which came as a shock to any supporters who saw him at his former club Tranmere Rovers – where he was playing as an attacking winger.
An injury to left-back Eddy Jones in pre-season saw Taylor given unfamiliar defensive responsibilities and he has responded in some style and formed an impressive partnership with Charlie Kirk down the left side.
There is plenty of attacking intent from the 22-year-old and he got a goal and two assists in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round replay at FC United of Manchester on Tuesday night – and celebrated with a spectacular back flip.
THE GAFFER…
Neil Gibson had some big shoes to fill when he arrived at Altrincham to replace long-serving manager Phil Parkinson a year ago.
The ex-Wealdstone boss originally came in on an interim basis alongside assistant Lee Jones, who he had worked with at two of his former clubs, and was quickly given the job permanently having taken ten points from a possible 17 in his first month in charge, pulling Alty away from the foot of the table.
They finished the campaign comfortably mid-table in the National League Premier Division and have made an impressive start to the current campaign and arrive at Huish Park in sixth place after 13 matches.
Gibson’s playing career saw him turn out for Tranmere Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday before dropping in to non-League football in his native Wales where his managerial career began with Prestatyn Town, the League of Wales outfit where he finished his playing career.
He was well-regarded at Wealdstone having lifted them from a relegation scrap in the 2024-25 season to surviving on the final day before leaving by mutual consent admitting the travel from his home in Wales was too much.
The 47-year-old was given the job following the sacking of Phil Parkinson, who had been in charge at the J.Davidson Stadium for eight years, in October 2025.
WE’VE MET BEFORE
Substitute Terrell Works netted the only goal of the game the last time these two sides met in Greater Manchester in February.
The Fulham loanee came off the bench to bag the winner in a match with saw another loanee, goalkeeper Jed Ward, save a penalty from Alty forward Jimmy Knowles.
In the meeting between the two sides at Huish Park last season, the Glovers came out on top with defender Morgan Williams heading the only goal. That game was one of a run of three wins under then-interim boss Richard Dryden.
DON’T I KNOW YOU?
There is one very familiar face in the visitors’ squad in the shape of winger-turned-midfield lynchpin Otis Khan.
The Manchester United academy product made 87 appearances, scoring 18 goals, having arrived from Barnsley under Glovers’ boss Darren Way in 2016, scoring on his debut in a 2-0 opening day win over Notts County.
He made a rip-roaring start to the 2017-18 campaign, becoming the first player to score more than ten goals for the club by the turn of the year for almost 15 years. In that season he (in)famously got sent off in a home defeat to Chesterfield for shoving the referee and missed out on the chance to feature in an FA Cup tie against Manchester United, the club where he began his football career.
Having departed for Mansfield Town at the end of that season, the 31-year-old had a nomadic career including stints at Tranmere Rovers, Grimsby Town and Leyton Orient before returning to Huish Park on loan from Oldham Athletic at the end of the 2024-25 season – a five-game spell which ended with a red card at Eastleigh.
After that he played in Malaysia last season, before returning to his native North West with Altrincham where he has become an integral part of the side which has made an impressive start to the new campaign.
THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE…
Ben Atkinson has never been in charge of a Yeovil Town game before… he will this weekend
Read more here.