AFC Totton
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THE RISE AND FALL OF YEOVIL TOWN is a Netflix series waiting to happen. From humble beginnings in the Somerset Senior League, The Glovers made it all the way into the Championship – the second tier of English football – only to then turn around and plummet back down to the National League South following a series of relegations amid behind-the-scenes turmoil regarding ownership of the club.
Their story, however, remains one of a small club punching well above its weight for many years. The Huish Park faithful could be forgiven for adopting “We’re going to need a bigger trophy cabinet” as the club motto, such has been the extent of The Glovers’ trophy haul over the course of their 128-year history. By the time Manager Gary Johnson led his team into the 2002/03 season, the club had already amassed 55 trophies, the most recent of which at that time was the 2001/02 FA Trophy they won by beating Stevenage Borough 2-0 at Villa Park.
Johnson’s team won the Conference in 2002/03, and Yeovil’s first ever game in the Football League the following season was a 3-1 away win at Rochdale. They finished the season in eighth place in League Two, and they reached the Third Round of the FA Cup before Liverpool beat them 0-2 at Huish Park. Before the game, the club released a record in their club shop, featuring a song called Yeovil True.
The success story went on when Yeovil Town claimed the League Two Championship title in 2004/05, in only their second season in the Football League, to continue the club’s phenomenal rise through the divisions. Yeovil qualified for the League One Promotion Play-Offs in the 2006/07 season, after they had finished in fifth place. In the two-legged Semi-Final, they beat two-time European Champions Nottingham Forest 5-4 on aggregate, before losing to Blackpool in the Final at Wembley Stadium.
Victory over Brentford in the Final of the League One Play-Offs resulted in promotion to the Championship in 2013, with Gary Johnson back in charge of the team. However, successive relegations saw the club spiral back down the Football Pyramid. Their 16-year stay in the EFL ended in the 2018/19 season, following a 2-2 draw against Northampton Town to confirm relegation from League Two.
Relegation to the National League South occurred last season, when they finished 22nd in the 24-team National League table, with 40 points from 46 matches. Despite having conceded fewer goals than fifth-placed Barnet, they were the division’s lowest scorers with just 35 goals. They were joined in the drop to Step 2 by both Maidstone United and Torquay United, who also have previous EFL pedigree in their recent histories.
New AFC Totton striker Jake Scrimshaw, who is originally from Ryde on the Isle of Wight, began last season with The Glovers, before leaving the club by mutual consent halfway through the season and moving to Eastleigh. It’s not known whether the top scorer in the summer’s Island Games football tournament will feature in Saturday’s friendly at the Snows Stadium but if he does, he will no doubt be keen to make his mark against his former club.
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By Ben Rochey-Adams
