Having been to most of the matches I attended towards the back end of last season (only two or three whilst Russell Slade was still in charge) I was not too sure that my decision to become a season ticket holder for 2009/2010 was a sound one, in truth. I knew I had probably been to just enough matches to justify it last season, that I wanted to be at Huish Park more often this season, and that I was quickly falling for the Glovers… I could just remember the absolute apathy I felt when in April Hereford’s second went in, we were 0-2 down at home with 30mins to play and looking for all the world like relegation was surely beckoning. I had also been to watch us surrender pathetically 1-0 at Whaddon Road in Cheltenham the preceding weekend and was beginning to wonder if deciding to commit myself to my local team was a wise choice or whether I should just blindly follow the Premiership club I had been following since I was young like most of my other friends. Then Luke Rogers pulled one pack in the 71st minute – a glimmer of hope. We were still playing terribly, Hereford looking dangerous on the break, supporters leaving – until we got a corner in the 94th minute. The crowd encouraged a reluctant Chris Weale up into Hereford’s box, the corner swung in from Andy Welsh and…. Weale completely fluffs the header, but the ball hits a Hereford player and dribbles out for another corner. The corner is taken, Weale plants a beauty, and in that moment my allegiance was confirmed. I have never lost myself like that moment, directly behind the goal in the Blackthorn Stand. Chris Weale is the reason I’m a season ticket holder, and in all honesty, especially on his run of five games without conceding on TOP of his goal in the 95th against Hereford, the reason Yeovil Town remained a League 1 team in 2008/2009.
Fast forward to August, and fancied Tranmere provided the opening day opponents for the Glovers, much changed over the summer with Luke Rodgers, Lee Peltier, Paul Warne, Aaron Brown, Josh Wagenaar, and more gone (and Danny Schofield soon to follow), and two Tottenham youngsters, an aging Bristol City cast-off, a new captain, a new (and reputedly extremely injury-prone) striker and a new loan ‘Keeper in. Bowditch’s injury (which I must say, I had rather cynically predicted before the match) aside, we were fantastic. Every supporter, from a Yeo perspective anyway, must have left the ground with a lot of optimism that Saturday afternoon. We also got a picture of an extremely unhappy looking (and with good reason, Tranmere have proved to be awful this season and he didn’t last long in the job) John Barnes after the match.
A forgettable 0-4 reverse against Norwich in the Carling Cup followed, with an understandable 2-1 defeat at Colchester the following weekend.
That Wednesday the Glovers played an away draw at Exeter, with a wonder goal by the extremely promising Ryan Mason the only highlight of what was a really terrible performance (however Andros Townsend’s goal for Leyton Orient at Huish Park easily bettered Mason’s – why didn’t he do that for us?) and without Bowditch, last season’s problem of lacking any sort of cutting edge looked to be rearing it’s head again.
August and September weren’t particularly good months for Yeovil, with defeats against the aforementioned Colchester, Huddersfield, Swindon, and Southampton. Encouragingly however, no defeat (other than two woeful penalty decisions at my third away match of the season, Southampton) was by more than a single goal, but the lack of goals, especially away, was really concerning. Also of concern was the fact that Terry Skiverton had not won a competitive away game since taking charge in February. The Glovers were already flirting with the relegation zone.
The turning point in our season so far possibly hinged on a terrible decision and an inspired loan signing. Alex McCarthy’s sending off against Stockport (right under my nose) looked a truly woeful decision, a blatant dive by their striker Nicolas Bignall, in a season becoming blighted by them. That said, the dismissal actually inspired the Glovers to their most gritty performance, certainly the one with most heart, of the season. Skivo combined that with the re-loaning of Wales Under-21 Captain Shaun MacDonald, and it was then the Glovers went on a fantastic run of six games unbeaten, including the undoubted highlight of the season so far, Terrell Forbes’ winner in a stirring Second Half performance against a promotion chasing (although badly out of form) Bristol Rovers side. Yeovil could have hit four or five in the second half and in particular JP Kalala and MacDonald were beginning to dominate games in the middle of the park for Yeovil, the latter never having lost a game in a Yeovil shirt. Until Leeds United Away.
Yeovil, over this season, have proven to be a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team. They’ll be either fantastic in the first or second half, but it won’t carry over. Never was this more apparent than at Elland Road. A quite fantastic first half performance saw the Glovers unlucky not to be winning, with Obika going close twice, a pretty solid penalty appeal falling on deaf ears in front of Leeds’ Kop End. To not even be drawing at half time was a real kick in the teeth, and it was only a freak goal two minutes before half time saw them going into the break behind. However, that says nothing about a quite woeful Second period where Yeovil were comprehensively rolled over with consummate ease by a vastly superior Leeds side.
And then let’s not mention the F.A. Cup 1st round, possibly the worst display since I started attending regularly.
That said, it all got back on track against Southend United, and the Glovers sit comfortably in twelfth position in Mid-November…
