Yeovil Town hosts a fans’ forum tonight for the first time in as long as I can remember. Aside from sporadic Supporters’ Alliance Group meetings (which are a thing of the past now as far as I understand) and You-Know-Who’s infamous meeting with supporters once our open letter (with 1,500 signatures) forced him to resurface, we’ve not really done this. So, credit goes to the club for inviting supporters in at a time when the discourse on social media sites has been highly critical in the wake of recent results and performances.

I don’t think its unreasonable to suggest that the commentary on social media has led to tonight’s forum, that both chairman and owner Martin Hellier and manager Mark Cooper will attend to answer supporters’ questions. This type of engagement has been long-coming and will hopefully be the first of a regular structured two-way conversation with supporters. But, it has to be constructive and respectful to be worthwhile.

The early scores on YeoGov survey that I threw out on Saturday suggest that the vitriol online doesn’t necessarily match with mood in general – a shock I know! In what will be a surprise to some, the 140+ respondents, on average, have scored above the middle score of 4 across the board for how they’re feeling right know. Maybe, we’re a fairly rational bunch on the whole after all?

I was reflecting on Friday night’s stalemate with Gateshead and the future of our attack. With top scorer Aaron Jarvis out for the next three months, Yeovil had to change the approach going forward with Ciaran McGuckin leading the line in a very different way to Jarvis. We’re not going to be tossing the ball up for defenders to battle in the air with McGuckin up top and as a result a decrease in those grappling-induced decisions which have frustrated players, staff and supporters might just help with our on-pitch discipline and keep heartrates down in the stands.

Ciaran McGuckin in the thick of it against Gateshead. Courtesy of Gary Brown

I’m not a huge fan of gambling on balls down the channels but with our patient possession we can draw defenders out (as we tried on Friday) there could he plenty of space for the speedy McGuckin to capitalise on. Defenders will have a much different task on their hands with him up front than Jarvis in these next few weeks. The misfortune of Jarvis injury means we’ve potentially found a Plan B (which will be Plan A for the foreseeable) but also leaves me wondering what could be with a classic four four f**king two!

Football’s heart is in the community that it serves in our part of the pyramid

If ever you needed a reminder as to why supporting a club that needs you trumps all, the alleged story emerging from Manchester United on X is that clear reminder. A dementia-suffering season ticket holder of 45 years has had his season ticket cancelled after not scanning the QR code for the last five matches because of helpful stewards letting him in with his paper copy. There’s plenty of top-flight football bollocks which is off-putting and this yet another example of it.

There’s an easy PR win for Manchester United here. But based on the new regime’s track record, it’ll stay on course while alienating local supporters to make that money on the tourist supporters. The COVID pandemic took the shine off of the Premier League for me. While clubs like ours suffered and had their property sold off, the big boys continued to rake it in and pay out to millionaire footballers (and even tried to break away to cash even further). Football’s heart is in the community that it serves in our part of the pyramid. The corporations and states might pretend to understand it, but they’ll never embrace it.


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