From Arsenal to Yeovil – via Cambodia
Brought up in North Dorset in the 1970s, my football clubs were Southampton if I wanted to watch big clubs, Bournemouth because their ground was close to my Grandma and Yeovil, who were non-league and my Dad wouldn’t take me there.
So I ended up supporting Bournemouth which was fun so long as Ted McDougall and Harry Rednapp and Phil Bowyer were playing but not so much in the decades that followed.
When I moved to London , I watched Arsenal for a bit – that’s where my mates went but I nearly got beaten up after a Nottingham Forest game in the late nineties and it wasn’t till my son went football nuts that we started watching Fulham (and when we could afford it- Chelsea). Fulham were great – giving out free tickets to kids in youth teams and cheap tickets to parents. My son played mainly for Windsor but we got to see great football for nearly free. But Chelsea turned us right off .
My son asked me about who I’d supported and I explained. I wanted to do what my Dad didn’t and take my son to Yeovil so we started watching away games near London and then started going to home games, This would have been around 2007.
We followed Yeovil up to the Championship, watching us win at Wembley against Brentford when I lived in Brentford. You could see Brentford’s old ground from my flat. The week before the game, we hung out flags.
A glover living in Brentford (the old ground in the distance)
The story for Yeovil after a season in the Championship was a gloomy one. Financial problems from mis-management fed through to football problems on the pitch and the club got relegated four times in a decade to find itself in the National Conference South in 2023.
But the tide has gone out far enough. We have a new owner and new management. We have a new team and we are currently sitting 10 points clear at the top of the league.
Last week. more than 6,300 came to support Yeovil against Taunton at Huish Park. Today we play Taunton in a reverse fixture. That’s assuming the pitch is playable and Taunton don’t get too jittery about our fans making it a home game for us.
🚌| Ciderspace Away Travel Guide – Taunton Town
It’s the second leg of the all-Somerset clash (don’t call it a derby) with Taunton Town with a trip to the county town tomorrow.
If you have a ticket, make sure you check out Huish Hugh’s guide.https://t.co/zgyAjYPnOr #YTFC
— Gloverscast 🎙⚽️💚 (@gloverscast) December 30, 2023
Yeovil is a friendly family club and it is the pride of the town. It is a place where fans and players and club are in the same place
Hearing my 7 year old refer to @YTFC as “we” is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard her say. #proud #ytfc pic.twitter.com/fgGXKEiItQ
— Samantha! 🌵🐢 (@SamYTFC) December 27, 2023
Cambodia and Qatar, Taunton and Yeovil. Come on you Glovers!
