Tuesday 27 December 2011

REVIEW OF THE YEAR #YEOVIL TOWN

On December 31st 2010, Yeovil Town sat at the bottom of League One and a return to the basement tier of the Football League, for the first time since 2005, loomed large.

However, a goalless draw against Plymouth Argyle, which could have been  a 1-0 win had it not been for a Sam Williams that was saved by Pilgrims keeper David Button. The match also saw Paul Wotton and loan signing Max Ehmer make their debuts.

This result sparked a mini revival as the Glovers won four from their next six league encounters. This run of form saw manager Terry Skiverton nominated for the Manager of the Month award for January 2010 and skipper Paul Huntington receive the Npower League Player of the Month award for the same month.

Skiverton also made further additions to his squad including a return for goalkeeper Stephen Henderson on loan from Bristol City, experienced midfielder Alex Russell joined from Bath City on a short-term deal and Oli Johnson was signed on loan from Norwich City.

Shaun MacDonald and Jon Obika also returned to Huish Park for their fifth and fourth loan spells respectively as Yeovil rallied to finish a long way clear of the drop zone.

Their final league position at the end of the season was 14th, their second highest league finish since winning promotion from the Conference in 2003, one place higher than Sheffield Wednesday.

However, their improved showing the second half of the season did not go unnoticed and with a number of players out of contract at the end of the campaign, the close season saw a mass exodus from Huish Park.

Andy Welsh headed north to join Carlisle United, full-backs Craig Alcock and Nathan Smith signed for Peterborough and Chesterfield respectively and leading scorer Dean Bowditch signed for MK Dons.

Despite starting pre-season training with only a handful of players under contract, Skiverton gradually assembled a squad ready for the start of the new season.

New signings included a permanent return for Gavin Williams, after two loan spells at Huish Park since his transfer to West Ham United in 2004, Dominic Blizzard and Steven MacLean and Bondz N'gala from Plymouth Argyle.

Kieran Agard was also snapped up following his release from Everton after Skiverton was alerted to his availability by a fan on the social networking site Twitter.

At the time of writing, following a last gasp defeat at the hands of leaders Charlton Athletic on Boxing Day, the Glovers lie fourth from bottom in the League One table on goals scored.

In the coming weeks, Skiverton will also need to decide on the futures of several loan players currently at Huish Park, including Oli Johnson, Jon Obika, Gavin Massey and Rene Gilmartin.

Looking further ahead, a decision on extending the loan deal of Conor Clifford will need to be made in January as Skiverton looks to beat the drop and keep Yeovil in League One.