For Yeovil Town, the 2010-11 campaign will be remembered as being a season of two halves.
On New Year's Eve 2010, the Glovers were rooted to the bottom of League One with 16 points and were six points adrift of safety.
However, come May 7th, the final day of the regular season, Yeovil finished the campaign in 14th place after beating Carlisle United 2-0 at Brunton Park, one place higher than Sheffield Wednesday who lay in second place going into 2011.
After winning their opening game of the season 2-1 at home to Leyton Orient, the Glovers' form soon nosedived as they found themselves in the bottom four by the end of September.
Manager Terry Skiverton had used the loan market to good effect during the 2009-10 season to bring players such as Steven Caulker, who won the majority of the club's Player of the Year awards for the campaign, Ryan Mason, Jon Obika, Shaun MacDonald, Gavin Williams and Alex McCarthy.
Unfortunately for the Glovers', the names of Cameron Stewart, Luke Freeman and Rob Kiernan didn't match the form shown by their predecessors.
One of the key factors in the Glovers' post new year revival was the signings made by manager Terry Skiverton during the January 2011 transfer window.
Making their Yeovil debuts' on New Years' Day against Plymouth Argyle were midfielder Paul Wotton, who joined on loan from Southampton, a deal that was later made permanent, and young German defender Max Ehmer who signed from QPR on loan.
Both proved to be inspired signings as Wotton brought plenty of experience to the Glovers' midfield and Ehmer filled the void left by Steven Caulker, who produced a number of assured performances during his season long-loan from Tottenham Hotspur in the previous campaign.
Other signings during the transfer window included the permanent acquistion of former Torquay, Bristol City and Exeter midfielder Alex Russell who joined from Bath City and demonstrated that despite being 38 years of age, he could still do a job at League One level when called upon.
Striker Oli Johnson and goalkeeper Stephen Henderson joined on loan from Norwich City and Bristol City respectively and both proved to be inspired signings. Henderson, who also had a loan spell with the Glovers earlier in the season, but was recalled his parent club due to injury, virtually swept the board at the club's Player of the Year awards and, at the time of writing, looks set to return to Huish Park on a permanent basis.
Yeovil only lost one game in the month of January from a possible seven and skipper Paul Huntington was awarded the Npower League One Player of the Month award and Skivo was also nominated the Manager of the Month prize.
Following their 2-0 win over Brentford on January 8th, Skivo told the assembled media: "I wanted to know whether the players were with me or not and they have proved that they're up to the challenge over recent games.
"I showed them a picture of a boat leaving the harbour and asked them if they wanted to be on it or left behind.
"They've stayed with us and been rewarded for showing the bravery and desire that I have been demanding"
The Glovers continued to show that desire for the remaining games of the season and ended the campaign with only two defeats in their final 12 matches which included a 5-1 win over Leyton Orient, which saw Shaun MacDonald, returning for his fifth loan spell at Huish Park from Swansea City, score his first career hat-trick.
Their 14th place is also Yeovil's second highest ever league placing since they won promotion from the Conference in 2003.
Skivo has stated his desire to bring MacDonald to Huish Park on a permanent basis and if he was able to sign him and persuade the vast majority of the Glovers' out of contract players to remain with Yeovil, which include 15-goal leading scorer Dean Bowditch, experienced defender Adam Virgo and winger Andy Welsh, then the Glovers could turn out to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2011-12 campaign in League One.
