Sunday 19 May 2013

ACHIEVEMENT BY UNITY

On the day Sir Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United for the final time, Yeovil Town created their own piece of football history by defeating Brentford to gain promotion to the Championship for the first time.

First half goals from Paddy Madden and Dan Burn gave the Glovers a two goal cushion before Harley Dean pulled one back for the Bees in the second half, but Gary Johnson's men dug in and hung on to protect their lead to ensure they will be playing in the Npower Championship next season.

This now means that the Glovers can a] mark their 10th anniversary as a football league team by winning promotion playing at a level that they have never played at before and b] they can successfully claim to be the leading club in the Westcountry as Bristol City, one of manager Gary Johnson's former clubs, are travelling in the opposition direction to them after being relegated to League One.

They are already in a higher league than Bristol Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City and Torquay United.

The Wembley win over represents a remarkable journey for a club that was even relegated from the Conference in 1995 and only won promotion to the Football League in 2003 after a 108-year wait, during which time they missed out on being elected to the league on several occasions.

Whilst they were waiting for league football, they had to make do with several FA Cup giant-killing acts, 20 in all, but as of next season they will be starting out in football's oldest knockout competition at the third round stage.

Not a bad achievement for a club written off by many as "Little Old Yeovil."

Well done Yeovil Town.