On 19th May 2013, Yeovil Town, the only club from Somerset to ever feature in the English Football League, reached the pinnacle of one of the most meteoric rises in recent years in English football by winning the League One playoff final 2-1 against Brentford at Wembley to secure a first-ever season in the second tier, only ten years after first entering the league by winning the Conference title in 2003.
Prior to this, the club was mainly known for being regular ‘giant-killers’ in the FA Cup, having been one of the most successful non-league clubs in the competition’s history and famously beating top-flight Sunderland on the sloping Huish pitch in 1949.
However, after a 4-0 loss at Gateshead in midweek, which was followed by manager Mark Cooper receiving heavy criticism online for an interview in which he criticised his employers’ fans, the club is now on the brink of dropping into the National League South just a decade after being only one promotion away from the Premier League.
At the time of writing, Yeovil Town sit 22nd in the National League standings, five points off safety with just five league games left to play. The club host Dorking Wanderers on Easter Monday, knowing they have to win the game.
In this article I will identify the five key reasons that have caused this decline and what I believe the club needs to do in order to reverse this and thrive on and off the pitch again.
Quick dismantling of playoff-winning team
Following the playoff final victory over Brentford, Yeovil were widely tipped to finish bottom of the Championship having had by far the lowest budget in the league. Despite this, they won their opening fixture at Millwall and secured memorable wins against Watford and Nottingham Forest in the first part of the season.
However, momentum eventually ran out and the Glovers were relegated after finishing bottom of the table, seven points adrift of Birmingham City in 21st, thus suffering an immediate return to League One. After this relegation, many of the club’s key players from the previous two seasons departed, such as right-back Luke Ayling, centre-back Byron Webster and midfielder Ed Upson, and facing another relegation battle the following season, manager Gary Johnson was sacked in February 2015 just over three years into his second spell at the club.
He was replaced by assistant Terry Skiverton on an interim basis, then by experienced manager Paul Sturrock in April of that year. However, the team’s form got worse and they finished bottom of their league for a second consecutive season, 12 points adrift of safety and 9 below 23rd-placed Leyton Orient.
It is worth mentioning that out of the XI that started the League One playoff final two years earlier, only midfielder Kevin Dawson remained at the club for the beginning of the 2015-16 season, which was indicative of the way in which the work done to get the club into the Championship was undone in such a short space of time.
Failure to invest adequately from FA Cup ties
During the second half of the 2010s, the Glovers landed two lucrative FA Cup fixtures against Premier League giants Manchester United, losing the first fixture 2-0 to Louis van Gaal’s star-studded side (containing the likes of Wayne Rooney, Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao) before the Red Devils, then managed by Jose Mourinho, returned to Huish Park in 2018, winning 4-0 on this occasion with Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku amongst the scorers.
These two fixtures were played to sold-out crowds and were both televised, thus providing Yeovil with a substantial amount of income which could have been invested in improving the playing squad or marketing the club in order to attract more spectators to league matches.
However attendances kept dwindling and the squad suffered from a high turnover of players during this period, thus presenting a lack of unity amongst the squad as well as a connection with the club’s supporters towards the team. As a result, the Glovers endured three mediocre seasons in League Two, finishing 19th, 20th and 19th with arguably the worst of these being an embarrassing 8-2 defeat at Luton Town on the opening day of 2017-18.
Disaster of 2018/19
The 2018-19 season actually began pretty strongly for Yeovil, they were 5th in the table after 7 games, of which one included a 6-0 demolition of eventual play-off finalists Newport County at Rodney Parade, the club’s biggest ever win in the Football League. However, after this high, the team’s form drastically declined and after only picking up 22 points from the following 22 games, manager Darren Way was sacked in March 2019 after over three years in the position.
Earlier in the campaign, Way claimed at a meeting of the Supporters Alliance that he ‘could walk into any job’, that ‘he would be missed’ and also allegedly said the club’s fans had little knowledge of football. Since his departure from the club, Way has not had another post in senior management and is currently working as Plymouth Argyle’s under-18s manager.
Following the manager’s departure, Neale Marmon was installed as caretaker manager, however he could not inspire a turnaround in results and the club were relegated from League Two with one game remaining after throwing away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at Northampton Town.
Yeovil’s drop into non-league came just five years after their single season in the second tier and 16 years after winning promotion from the Conference, thus undoing their initial remarkable rise up the divisions. It also meant that Somerset no longer had representation in the English Football League, and there has yet to be a club from the county that has been promoted to it since.
The club was also in limbo regarding its ownership in 2019 as several proposed takeovers collapsed until chairman John Fry sold the club in September of that year to a consortium led by Scott Priestnall and Errol Pope (more to come on Priestnall later).
Initial resurgence, tragedy and Sarll poached
Despite playing in non-league for the first time since 2003, the club’s average attendance was very similar to the previous campaign in League Two (2951 in 2019-20 compared to 2953 in 2018-19), which could be attributed to an improvement in form under new manager Darren Sarll.
When the season was curtailed due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yeovil were 4th, which was only the second time since 2007 that the club finished in the top half of a division and it appeared the club was on the right track again. However, when the playoffs were eventually completed in the summer of 2020, the Glovers lost their quarter-final to Barnet, thus missing out on an immediate return to League Two.
A mid-table season would then follow, with all but two games played with no spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, an unspeakable tragedy was to rock the club and the wider football community when popular captain Lee Collins sadly passed away in March 2021 after tragically taking his own life. The club postponed their following three fixtures as a mark of respect to Collins and many tributes were paid to the center-back, including one from Port Vale supporters in which they raised £2450 for their former player’s family.
The 2021-22 season, with spectators returning, saw Yeovil achieve another successful FA Cup run, reaching the third round, where they lost 2-0 to AFC Bournemouth having beaten Sarll’s former club Stevenage in the previous round. The club would again finish in mid-table in the National League, four places higher than in the previous season’s 16th placing in 12th spot.
However Sarll was to leave the club in March 2022 to join Woking, a club that were three divisions below the Glovers as recently as 2014. This move arguably was symbolic of the steep decline Yeovil had experienced since the heady heights of the Championship, as at that time Woking were a part-time club regularly bouncing between the fifth and sixth tiers, whilst eight years later the Surrey-based club are now seen as a more attractive proposition for players and coaches.
Priestnall, Cooper and chaos
As mentioned above, businessman Scott Priestnall became co-chairman of the club in 2019 alongside Errol Pope, with the later believed to be the person that was the most willing to invest substantial amounts of money into the club in order to regain it’s EFL status.
In late 2020 however, Pope resigned from his role at the club citing complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial effects and Priestnall was left as the majority shareholders and sole chairman of the Glovers. Since Pope’s departure, Priestnall has become a very unpopular figure amongst Yeovil supporters for what they perceive to be a lack of investment in the club, with some sections accusing him of being an asset-stripper and being more interested in generating profits through developing Huish Park’s surrounding area.
This has laid the foundations for what has so far been a disastrous season in the National League for the Somerset club.
Former Torquay United player and manager Chris Hargreaves was appointed as Sarll’s permanent successor in May 2022, however he was not to last long in the role as after a poor start to the season he was sacked in late October with the club sitting in the relegation zone.
He was then replaced with controversial former Peterborough United, Swindon Town and Forest Green Rovers boss Mark Cooper, who initially stabilised the club and after being Dagenham and Redbridge in late January were five points clear of the relegation zone and only nine points off the play-offs (whilst having games in hand on most teams above and below them at the time).
However, since this the club’s form has been dire, and at the time of writing are now five points adrift of safety in the National League having won only won of their last 15 games, they also have the worst goalscoring record in the division with only 33 goals scored.
It could be argued that Cooper has become almost as unpopular as Priestnall since the interview at Gateshead mentioned at the beginning of this article, where he appeared to call fans who did not travel to the fixture not ‘proper fans’, despite Gateshead being 344 miles away and the fixture being played in midweek.
Fans have been calling for Cooper to leave for a few weeks now due to the poor results and lacklustre performances and conducting an interview this manner is likely to do nothing to change their view.
There is also increasing uncertainty over who actually owns the club and who is currently responsible for making decisions as in February 2023 it was announced that a consortium called SU Glovers, of which former England rugby union player Paul Sackey is involved with, had taken over the majority shares of the club, and that Priestnall was no longer involved with the club.
However it appears that the takeover has yet to be properly ratified as Priestnall is still listed as an active director of the club on Companies House, thus causing more worries regarding the short, medium and long-term future of the club for the staff and fanbase.
How can Yeovil turn their fortunes around?
Firstly, it is important that there is full clarity over who currently owns the club and who will be responsible for making key decisions during the off season as this will greatly shape the future direction as well as providing the fans with more clarity as to the short term future.
No matter what division the club is in next season I feel it is important for the club to also hire a manager who can connect with the fanbase effectively and build a cohesive team that is able to score goals, as it is apparent that Cooper has spectacularly failed to do both of these during his tenure and may not still be in job currently if it was not for the ownership uncertainty.
Lastly, it is also important for the club to attract more spectators to games than it currently is doing which along with effective marketing and promotion around the area is also heavily affected by on-pitch performances, a clear direction in terms of the aims and objectives set out by the board and a manager and squad that can build a strong bond with fans.
I, Martin Hellier, had reached agreement with Scott Priestnall in Nov 2022 to purchase his shares for £1, and I clearly illustrated the funds to invest (£500,000) in attacking players as well as substantial club investment / match day experience. Priestnall himself, sought me, and achieved for me, FA Director clearance, but the reneged on the deal when I declined to come in on the land development with him (something Priestnall still has exclusive buy back rights on), he then proceeded to block all communications with me.
He has since installed close friends Paul Sakey and Matthew Uggla, who do not own the club, and continue to drive YTFC into demise. Purchasing unfit / unready players, most of whom went through an agent whom is close friends with Sakey, incurring more unneccsary debt, at an already cash-strapped club losing some £30k – £40k a month, even more the £50k/ qtr rent payments kick back in in May 2023, having enjoyed a one year rent free period from the council. (whom own the stadium and grounds).
No one has really questioned, how or why they became “stewards” and despite the young ‘hooligan’ demographic embracing Uggla’s arrival, they have technically not made and investment / changes to the club, which to this moment still belongs to Scott Priestnall, the only difference being, SP no longer gets the ‘heat’, having installed his friends to “steward” the club (Badly).
Mark Cooper receives an incredible amount of the blame for what has actually been 4 years of zero investment, and a has a ‘boss’ that stirs up toxic resentment on social towards his own manager, despite MC being completely undermined, by an ‘owner’ completely inexperienced in both business and football management.
The net result is the near demise of YTFC by a very naïve local council, and a complete lack of business acumen within the ownership of the club.
For those with any doubts and argument against this statement, simply track Yeovil’s league position over the last 4 years up to now. And it’s the only answer that remains fact.
As a long time supporter of YTFC – It is extremely sad to see the former, high flying club, sink so low. I have not been to a single match for over 12 months, due to the infighting between manager/owner and am personally not intending to return anytime soon.
I know that many Yeovil residents feel the same as I do.
SORT OUT THIS MESS OR THE CLUB WILL FOLD