The opponent: Yeovil Town
“Elks Stolen From Farm”, not the normal phrase you would begin a matchday thread with, but if its good enough for the headline from The Yeovil Express, then its good enough for me. Apparently someone has stolen 6 elks from a Yeovil farm, local bobby, PC Jackie Poole says, “I am particularly interested in speaking to anyone who has been approached about elks or elk meat”. After a bit of investigation, I have established eating elk is not a Yeovilian tradition. Although with just under 40’000 people calling Yeovil home, you really can’t rule anything out.
So, The Glovers, named after the booming glove making industry of the 1800’s, make their way to North Wiltshire, the first part of a rather tricky away day double header against ourselves, and the mighty Crawley Town. Some fans of Yeovil will find having a beer in Swindon a bit of a luxury, as back in April 2006 Yeovil became the first town in Britain to introduce a somewhat controversial system of biometric fingerprint scanning in nightclubs. Clubbers wanting to gain access to one of the town's nightclubs were asked in the first instance to submit their personal details for inclusion in a central system. This included a photograph and index fingerprint. Thereafter, each entry to one of the participating premises will require a fingerprint scan. The idea was if it proved a success, other local authorities would do the same.
Back in 2007, Yeovil made the league 1 play off final, and if there is ever such thing as a good day to do a burglary it would have been that day, as 35’000 made the trip to Wembley, ultimately to lose, but still, a very impressive turn out considering the population is just a shade over 40’000. Some of those in attendance that day could have well been Olympic Pentathlete, Sam Weale (his brother Chris plays for Shrewsbury Town) and fellow Olympian, gold medal winning rower, Heather Stanning. Some would say that Yeovil’s most famous product would have to be ex-cricketing legend and charity walker extraordinaire, Ian Botham.
What are they saying about us? – Not a great deal it must be said. The only forum with any activity is known as The Green Room, which requires membership just to browse their forum. Very little is being said apart from the usual who is driving etc. Sounds like they have done some homework though as apparently Gary Roberts is the one to watch.
“I just hope Sir Gary is not planning to roll out Smith and D Johnson on sat. Based on the last three halves played we will get mullered if he does. Garry Roberts is a good player and will not take any prisoners. Worried”
There is a bit of the anti Swindon drivel that we seem to have became accustomed to now -
" Re: So thats why they are stinging us £25.....The thing that truly grates on this one is that they're freely admitting that they're overspending. And they don't care. Di Canio even moaned as if it was an injustice when they got put under a transfer embargo.
Sometimes clubs do get royally screwed by corrupt owners and then there's a bit of a "what if" moment where you reflect upon what opportunities their fans had to spot that being on the cards, and what they could have done about it. But if Swindon land in financial trouble on the back of this, then they will deserve zero sympathy including their fans, because they watched it happen, and were happy to lap it up"
Yeovil Last 6 – WWWLLW (Currently sat 11th on 25 points)
The Threat – Former Cherries hitman, James Hayter currently leads the way in the goalscoring charts for Yeovil. Back in 2004, Hayter came on as a 82nd minute substitute for Bournemouth and hit an incredible 140 second hat trick!
The irrelevant stats – Yeovil have picked up 4 wins and 4 defeats on their travels, scoring 16 and conceding 13. Although they are currently 3rd in the league 1 form guide, they have only managed 3 clean sheets all season, the record for the most currently being held by ourselves, with 9.
Head to Head – We have only played The Glovers on 11 occasions, with STFC currently edging it with 5 wins, 4 defeats, and 2 draws.
The Odds – Swindon
4/6 Draw
5/2 Yeovil
9/2 (odds from Bet365) Fancy a bet on our new signings? Chris Martin is currently at
9/2 and Danny Hollands at
11/1. If you think Yeovil are going to open the scoring, Hayter is currently at 11/1, and Reuben Reid (I wondered where he ended up), is at
10’s. Its worth pointing out Hayter is
7/1 and
15/2 everywhere else, so
11’s is a massive price at Bet365.
Sid Says – I have treated the old boy to some ivy leaves this week, and he has looked on form ever since. 1-0 home win.
The Prediction – Not been the worst week ever, the e*****o is gone and forgotten, a couple of decent signings in Danny Hollands and Chris Martin (I won’t bother adding to the list of Coldplay puns). Our form has picked up a bit over the past couple of weeks, and with the greatest of respect to Yeovil, if we have any serious thoughts of promotion, then a 3-0 victory is on the cards, goals from Williams (2) and a Zlatan-like rocket from Martin, sending the crowd of 7’723 home in Para, Para, Paradise. Sorry.
And Finally – The first recorded vaccination in the world was carried out at Yetminster near Yeovil in 1774. A farmer there, Benjamin Jesty, as was the case with Jenner two decades later, reasoned that inducing cowpox (whose sufferers were known not to suffer from smallpox subsequently) would bring immunity to the deadlier disease. He scratched the arms of his wife and two sons with pus from a neighbour’s cowpox-infected beast, using a darning needle. It worked – though his wife’s arm became infected, probably due to the needle being dirty. * This practice is still thought to be carried out in The Blackbird Leys area of Oxford and St Paul’s in Bristol (*-All true up to this point, although that’s probably true too).
