Yeovil Town F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009) |
 |
|||
| Full name | Yeovil Town Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Glovers | ||
| Founded | 1895 (as Yeovil Casuals) | ||
| Ground | Huish Park Lufton Way Yeovil BA22 8YF England (Capacity: 9,665) |
||
| Owner/Chairman |  John Fry |
||
| Player manager | Terry Skiverton |
||
| League | League One | ||
| 2008–09 | League One, 17th | ||
|
|||
Yeovil Town F.C. are an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset. The club play in League One after having won the League Two championship in 2004-05.
Since the 2003-04 season they have played in green and white hoops, similar to Celtic, and Buckie Thistle in Scotland.
They won promotion to the Football League as Conference champions in 2003, and had long been established as the most successful non-league team in the FA Cup - having defeated major Football League teams, most famously Sunderland in the 4th Round in 1949, going on to play in front of more than 81,000 against Manchester United at Maine Road.
They play their home games at Huish Park a ground they built in 1990 after they moved from their famous sloping pitch at Huish.The ground could though be changed into a bigger capacity stadium of up to 20000 people capable of sitting inside the ground.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Non-League Football
The club was founded in 1890 as Yeovil Football Club, sharing a ground for many years with the local rugby club. In 1895 they became Yeovil Casuals and moved to play their home games at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground. The club became Yeovil Town in 1907, and in 1915 an amalgamation of Yeovil Town and Petters United led to a new club called Yeovil and Petters United.
The club came to national attention as 'giant-killers' during the 1948-49 FA Cup, in which they defeated Sunderland in the fourth round, in front of a record home attendance of 16,000. They were defeated 8–0 in the following round by Manchester City at Maine Road.
Between 1955 and 1973 they were champions of the Southern Football League three times, with the runners-up spot being reached on two occasions. During this period, Yeovil Town applied for election to the Football League on a number of occasions, coming within a few votes of being elected in 1976. [1] In 1979 the Glovers were founder members of the new national non-league division, the Football Conference. In 1985, they were relegated to the Isthmian League. Yeovil won the championship in 1988 and returned to the Conference.
There was success in the Bob Lord Challenge Trophy in 1990 and three years later Yeovil finished fourth in the Conference, their best finish ever. In January 1995, Graham Roberts was appointed manager, but demotion back to the Isthmian League soon followed. Yeovil secured promotion back into the Conference in 1997 after winning the Isthmian League with a record number of points - 101.
Gary Johnson took over as manager in June 2001 and Yeovil won the FA Trophy in his first season in charge with a 2–0 victory over Stevenage Borough in the final at Villa Park - the club's first major trophy. Yeovil Town earned promotion to the Football League in the following season, by winning the Football Conference by a record 17 points margin, accumulating 95 points and scoring 100 goals, remaining unbeaten at Huish Park. Their team included many top players, some of which went on to play premiership football. Noticeable players include Gavin Williams who moved to West Ham, Lee Johnson, Chris Weale, Darren Way and Adam Lockwood.
[edit] Reaching the Football League
Yeovil's first game in the Football League was a 3-1 away win over Rochdale. The Glovers finished their first season in eighth position, and reached the third round of the FA Cup before losing 2–0 at home to Liverpool. The following season Yeovil finished as champions of League Two with 83 points, earning promotion to League One. Partway through the season the club was sold by Jon Goddard-Watts to David Webb, taking over the role of Chief Executive from Chairman John Fry.
At the beginning of the 2005–06 season manager Gary Johnson left Yeovil Town for Bristol City, after having turned down job offers from both Plymouth Argyle and Derby County. He was replaced by his assistant Steve Thompson, and Kevin Hodges was appointed as his number two. At the season's end Thompson was demoted to first team coach and he was replaced by Russell Slade. Around this time John Fry had bought all Dave Webb's share of the club, becoming Yeovil Town's new owner.
Yeovil finished the 2006–07 season in fifth position, qualifying for the League One play-offs. In the semi-final Yeovil won the two-legged match 5–4 on aggregate, after losing the first home leg 2–0.[2][3] Yeovil met Blackpool at Wembley Stadium in the final, but were beaten 2–0.
The 2007-08 was less successful, as Yeovil finished 18th in League One with 52 points. Russell Slade continued as Yeovil manager into the 2008–09 season, but he left the position in February 2009.[4] After 1 game with Assistant Manager Steve Thompson acting as caretaker manager, club captain Terry Skiverton was announced as manager until the end of the 2009-10 season, with Nathan Jones as his assistant.[5] The duo had to wait seven games before their first victory, which came against Swindon Town. The one nil victory was vital considering Swindon were also flirting with relegation and it started a good run of form with two more wins and a draw against difficult opposition. Yeovil secured their League 1 status with a 1-1 draw against Tranmere on Saturday the 25th. This leaves Terry Skiverton free to discuss contracts with many important players such as Forbes and Peltier. Securing these players will be vital if Yeovil are to remain in League 1 in the future.
[edit] Notable former players
- Sir Ian Botham: Joined Yeovil on a non-contract basis in January 1985 and left in March 1985, twelve hours before flying out for a tour of the West Indies.
Arron Davies: Welsh International left Yeovil for Nottingham Forest with Chris Cohen for a combined fee of £1.2m.
Dave Halliday: Player-manager for Yeovil in the 30s becoming one of the highest senior goal scorers in UK football history with 376 goals. Halliday managed Yeovil into the FA Cup third round but departed before the third round tie against Manchester United to manage Aberdeen to the Scottish League Championship.- Len Harris: Played for Yeovil between 1958 and 1972 making a total of 691 appearances, a club record.
- John McGinlay: Scottish international who played football for Bolton Wanderers in the 1990s.
- Alan Pardew: Played for Yeovil during the 1986/87 season before joining Crystal Palace in the summer of 1987.
Hugo Rodrigues: Played for Yeovil during the 2003-2004 season and at 6ft 8in was one of the tallest players in the world.- Marcus Stewart: Played Premiership football for both Ipswich Town and Sunderland in between 2000 and 2005.
- Alec Stock: Took Yeovil to the 5th Round of the FA Cup during the 1948/49 season. Yeovil caused a giantkilling by beating 8th in the 1st Division Sunderland 2-1 in the 4th Round before going out to Manchester United 8-0 at Maine Road.
- Guy Whittingham: Played Premiership football for both Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday in the 1990s.
[edit] International Representatives
- Antigua and Barbuda: - Justin Cochrane.
- Canada: - Marc Bircham, Jaime Peters and Joshua Wagenaar.
- DR Congo: - Jean-Paul Kalala.
- Ghana: - Lloyd Owusu.
- Latvia: - Andrejs Stolcers.
- Nigeria: - Efetobore Sodje and Francis Kumbur.
- Northern Ireland: - Andy Kirk.
- Scotland: - John McGinlay.
- Wales: - Arron Davies, Ken Jones, Shaun MacDonald, Simon Church and Gavin Williams.
- Ireland: - Leon Best
[edit] Notable fans
- Trevor Peacock - Actor
- Nick Berry - Actor
- Richard Digance - Comedian and folk singer
- Ned Sherrin - Former English broadcaster, author and stage director
- Tellison - English indie-rock band.
- Aidan "Guns" Morilla - English Body Building Champion
[edit] Rivals
Due to the lack of large football clubs in Somerset, Yeovil haven't got many strong rivals. Yeovil have their strongest rivalry with Weymouth, dating back to their non-league games. However the two have not met in competitive circumstances for some time, and with the two clubs moving in opposite directions in league standings, the rivalry has decreased over the past years.
Matches against Hereford could be seen as derbies, often seeing fighting and hooliganism. There is a genuine bad feeling between both sets of fans, and due to both clubs being fairly well matched in their time in non-league there is history.
Both Bristol Rovers and Bristol City are considered rivals, but due to Yeovil only recently becoming a league club, the rivalry isn't as intense as others.
[edit] List of Rivals
- Weymouth
- Hereford United
- Bristol Rovers
- Bristol City
- Cheltenham Town
- Swindon Town
- Rushden & Diamonds
- Taunton Town
- Bath City
- Exeter City
[edit] Current squad
- As of 1 July 2009.
|
|
[edit] Coaching Staff
- As of 26 June 2009.
| Position | Name |
|---|---|
| Player-Manager | Terry Skiverton |
| Player-Assistant Manager | Nathan Jones |
| Managerial Assistant / Centre of Excellence Manager | Mo Hopkins |
| Acting Director of Football and Chief Executive | Martyn Starnes |
| Youth Team Coach | Stuart Housley |
| Goalkeeping Coach/Head Scout | Ben Roberts |
| Physio | Simon Baker |
[edit] Club honours
- Football League One Play-off Final Runners-Up 2006-2007
- Football League Two Champions 2004-2005
- FA Trophy winners 2001-2002
- Football Conference Champions 2002-2003; runners-up 2000-2001
- Isthmian League Champions 1987-1988, 1996-1997; runners up 1985-1986, 1986-1987
- Southern League Champions 1954-1955, 1963-1964, 1970-1971; runners up 1969-1970, 1972-1973, 1975-1976
- Southern League Western Division Champions 1923-1924, 1931-1932, 1934-1935
- Western League Champions 1921-1922, 1924-1925, 1929-1930, 1934-1935; runners up 1930-1931, 1931-1932, 1937-1938, 1938-1939
- Somerset Premier Cup Winners 1975-1976, 1978-1979, 1996-1997, 2004-2005
[edit] Club records
- Most Overall Appearances: Len Harris, 691 (1958-72)
- Most Goals: Johnny Hayward, 548 (1906-28)
- Most League Goals: Dave Taylor, 285 (1960-9)
- Record Attendance Football League & (new Huish Park): 9,527 v Leeds United, 25 April 2008 (Football League One)
- Record Attendance All Time: 16,318 v Sunderland, 29 January 1949 (FA Cup Fourth Round)
- Longest Serving Player: Len Harris, 14 years (1958-72)
- Longest Serving Manager: Billy Kingdon, 8 years (1938-46)
- Highest League Finish: 5th League 1, 2006/07 season
- Highest Transfer fee received: £1,200,000 Arron Davies and Chris Cohen, Nottingham Forest F.C., July 2007
- Highest transfer fee paid: £250,000 Pablo Bastianini, Quilmes Atlético Club, August 2005
- Highest Victory in the Football League: 6-1 v Oxford United, 16 September 2004
- Heaviest Defeat in the Football League: 5-0 v Brighton & Hove Albion, 14 March 2009
[edit] References
- ^ Football League Division 4 1975-76
- ^ Yeovil 0-2 Nottingham Forest - BBC Sport
- ^ Nottingham Forest 2-5 Yeovil - BBC Sport
- ^ "Yeovil split with manager Slade". BBC Sport. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/football/teams/y/yeovil/7892607.stm. Retrieved on 2009-02-16.
- ^ "Terry Skiverton is named as Yeovil Town manager". YTFC Official Site. http://www.ytfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10673~1562198,00.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-19.
[edit] External links
- Official Club Site (PTV)
- Green & Whites Official Supporters Club
- Ciderspace - Unofficial Club Site
- Pride of Somerset - Independent Yeovil Town Website
- Every Match Result and League Table while in the Football League
