Under 19s Season Round Up

Yeovil Town Under 19s had a positive first season in the National League U19 alliance system for the first time, finishing third in their league and seeing a number of players make the step into the first team set up at various stages.

The season had a managerial change, Matt Percival leaving in January to explore new opportunities. Jamie Phillip took over the reigns with former Glovers captain Josh Staunton joining the club as Under 19s Operations Lead. 

Finishing their 16 games in Division E, the young Glovers won eight, drew three and lost five; 59 scored with just 31 conceded.

Basingstoke have one game left in their campaign, so long as they don’t beat the Met Police by an eight goal margin or more, the Glovers are set to finish third in the table, 12 points off second and a whopping 16 points off Dorchester’s youth side who were almost perfect throughout their season.

Yeovil were one of the two teams to take points off the league leaders when drawing 0-0 back in October.

George Geraghty ended the season as the division’s second top scorer, his 21 goals just a couple shy of Eastleigh’s Ilya Ihnatenko who racked up 23.

Alec Thomas ended with 12, Ollie Hughes with eight.

Other notable milestones include a brilliant run to the Quarter-finals of the National League Alliance Cup, as well as a number of wins in the County Cup, however they did fall at the first hurdle in the FA Youth Cup.

The Francis Hillier Somerset Men’s Premier Cup gave a large number of Under 19s the chance to represent the Glovers in a first team atmosphere, in the end the Glovers lost 1-0 to Odd Down in the first round, but Blake Watts did break a record becoming the youngest captain of a Yeovil Town Men’s first team fixture.

Watts confirmed this week his time with the Glovers has come to an end after being associated with the club since Under 10s.

Three young Glovers made first team appearances in either the league or FA Trophy too, following in the footsteps of Corey Koerner who was the only academy graduate the season before.

Ollie Hughes, Liam Nardiello and Jaydon Biss all got plenty of time within the group including debuts for all of them at various times.

Hughes and Biss were named in match day squads more than dozen times each, with Nardiello included a couple of times too.

Hughes’ debut against Tamworth on March 3rd made him the fifth youngest Yeovil Town player to represent the Glovers in a league game.

The winger also got international representation with England Colleges receiving his cap just before Christmas.

As for Jaydon Biss, he made two appearances, once against Telford in the FA Trophy before making his league debut alongside Nardiello in the April fixture vs Eastleigh.

News will filter through over the coming days of players who have departed and those who will be with the group again next season.

Good luck to all those departing and here’s to another season of seeing the connection between the Under 19s and first team flourish.

THE GLOVERSCAST WOULD LOVE TO COVER MORE OF THE UNDER 19’S JOURNEY NEXT SEASON.
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