Yeovil old boys reunion at the Hall

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BLUES

Blues boss Steve Tilson will be without forwards Alex Revell and Dougie Freedman. Revell will not feature again this season after suffering a broken leg in Tuesday's 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, while Freedman picked up a thigh injury in the same game. Meanwhile, long-term injury victim Francis Laurent remains on the sidelines with an ankle injury.

James Walker, who scored the late equaliser at Brisbane Road, and TB's man of that match by 0.1 of a mark, is highly likely, (a wild guess), to start in their absence with, we hope, Lee Barnard.

In addition to Walker, three other former Glovers are expected to start, with goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall, midfielder Jean-Francois Christophe and winger Kevin Betsy all in their midweek line-up.

Defender Peter Clarke will serve the second of a three-game ban, so Francis to continue in, arguably, his best position.

Midfielders Alan McCormack (groin) could also miss out while Anthony Grant looks set to be fit despite suffering a blow to the throat at Brisbane Road, but the midfielder will miss Tuesday's trip to Leeds due to a one-match ban.

Tilly, after making his 'keep the faith but we do feel your pain' speech, is determined to remain positive: "I watched Yeovil play Leicester on Monday and to be fair, they didn't do too badly. But being at home, even with the injuries we have got, it's a game we are looking to win."

OPPOSITION

Yeovil are boosted by the return of defender Lee Peltier ahead of the trip to Southend. Peltier has completed a two-match suspension and comes back into the frame after a midweek run-out for the reserves in their 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth.

Left-back, and ex-Blue, Nathan Jones, also featured in that match and will be in contention along with new signing Lee Cox, who arrived on loan from Leicester this week. (Hope Nathan plays and gives away another penalty.) Cox, 18, can play in either defence or midfield and the versatile youngster could make his Football League debut at Roots Hall.

Striker Gavin Tomlin - an unused sub in Monday's 2-0 home defeat by leaders Leicester City - scored both goals for the Glovers reserves.

Long term injury victims Marc Bircham and Darren Way are joined by a third midfielder Gary Roberts, who is expected to undercut the initial estimate for recovery from his ankle injury by a week or two but certainly won't be available for this weekend.

Skipper Terry Skiverton serves the second of his three-match ban following his red card against Scunthorpe. (Good player, will be missed.)

Yeovil could fall into the bottom four if results don't go their way.

Meanwhile, Glovers boss Russell Slade spoke to BBC Radio Somerstet:."I fully expect him (James Walker) to play against us. They've lost Alex Revell with a broken leg and Dougie Freedman came off with a thigh injury, so that probably gives them a bit of a headache unless they bring somebody in on loan in time for Saturday's game. But I fully expect James to play and probably have Lee Barnard playing along side him. I went to watch them in the week against Orient and they did well to come back from 1-0 down. They scored late on through James Walker. They are a decent side going forward and there is no doubt about that. They've got one or two injury problems themselves, but it's going to be a difficult task, as it is never easy to get a result at Roots Hall. We'll be doing our best though, as we need to get some points on the board quickly now. There are one or two niggly things, but other than Gary Roberts, who is going to be out for another few weeks, we are OK. Of the others, everyone else should be fit, and we've got Lee Peltier back in contention of course."

PREVIOUSLY

The two sides last met at Huish Park in October of last year, where a 1-2 home defeat saw the Glovers have plenty of possession yet fail to finish off their chances. Following a penalty by Barny, a class finish by Hal Robson Kanu finished them off as the rain poured down.

Matters were made worse for the home side by the controversial sendings off involving Danny Schofield and Gary Roberts, with the former eventually being rescinded by the FA. Yeovil manager Slade admitted it was a hard day to take: "I thought we'd done enough and I thought we were really unlucky that day. I thought it was a game where we had come off having lost 2-1, but in the circumstances we'd lost two players and so it was a game to forget from that point of view. It was one of those games where I thought how on earth have we not got anything out of it. But that was the case and that sometimes happens in football."

REF

The man in the middle is Paul Taylor from Hertfordshire.

FIXTURES

Saturday, January 24^th, 2009; (all 15.00 kick-off unless stated): Bristol Rovers v Colchester, Cheltenham v Brighton, Leeds v Peterborough, Leicester v Huddersfield, Northampton v Crewe, Oldham v Stockport, Scunthorpe v Leyton Orient, Tranmere v Carlisle, Walsall v Hereford.

Tuesday, January 24^th, 2009; (all 19.45 kick-off unless stated): Bristol Rovers v Cheltenham, Colchester v Northampton, Hartlepool v Carlisle, Hereford v Millwall, Leeds v Southend, Leicester v Brighton, MK Dons v Leyton Orient, Peterborough v Crewe, Scunthorpe v Oldham, Swindon v Walsall, Tranmere v Stockport, Yeovil v Huddersfield.

BET

Southend (11/10) Draw (12/5) Yeovil (5/2)

For all the footy odds go here: www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one.

HISTORY

Yeovil have spent almost all of their history outside of The Football League but are still one of the most famous FA Cup "giant-killing" teams that has earned them notoriety around the country and indeed it can be said around the world.

The club, founded in 1890 as Yeovil Football Club, shared a ground for many years with the town's 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. This season's away shirt, a predominantly black kit with amber trim, was inspired by the amber and black colours of Petters United.

In the 1948-49 FA Cup, Yeovil defeated Sunderland in the fourth round, in front of over 16,000 ecstatic fans (a club record) this gave them the "Giant-Killing" status. At the next hurdle, over 81,000 saw them lose to Manchester United at Maine Road 8-0.

Between 1955 and 1973 they lifted the Southern Football League crown 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.

1979 saw the birth of what is now the Football Conference the game's 'Fifth Division' - of which the Glovers were founder-members. In 1985 they were relegated to the Vauxhall Opel League. After three years 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 (ICIS) soon followed. Yeovil secured promotion back into the Conference in 1997 after winning the ICIS League (as it was then known) by a record number of points - 101.

Gary Johnson took charge in June 2001 and he won the FA Umbro Trophy in his first season in charge with a 2-0 victory over Stevenage Borough in the final at Villa Park. This was their first major trophy in 106 years as a Football Club. Yeovil Town earned promotion to the Football League in the following season, by winning the Football Conference by a record 17 points margin. They accumulated a huge 95 points and scored 100 goals, remaining unbeaten at Huish Park.

The team's first season in League football saw them finish in a creditable eighth place just missing out on the play off positions by goal difference, just four goals.

In February 2004, the team released the single "Yeovil True". The single reached 36 in the UK charts before dropping out of the top 75 the next week. The single was only available in major record stores in the town.

In 2004-05, only their second season in the Football League, Yeovil were crowned champions of League Two and were promoted to League One sealing the success on Saturday April 30 with a 1-0 win at Roots Hall in front of 11,735.

In September 2005, 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 second-in-command Steve Thompson, and Kevin Hodges was appointed as his number two, but at the end of the 2005-06 Thompson was demoted to first team coach, with the club advertising for a new manager. Russell Slade was named as his replacement on June 7, 2006.

The Messiah, (for some of us anyway), David Webb bought the club from Jon Goddard-Watts in December 2005, taking over the role of Chief Executive from Chairman John Fry. He resigned from this position in February 2006. In June 2006, it was announced that John Fry had bought all of Dave Webb's share to become the new owner of Yeovil Town FC.

On September 30, 2006, Yeovil moved into second place in League One after a 2-1 victory over Brentford, which was their highest-ever league position. Yeovil finished the regular season in fifth position, securing a play-off semi-final against Nottingham Forest, twice European champions. On May 11, 2007, Forest won the first leg 2-0 at Huish Park. Seven days later, Yeovil won the return leg at the City Ground 5-2 after extra time, taking the tie 5-4 on aggregate. Yeovil met Blackpool at Wembley Stadium on May 27, 2007, and were beaten 2-0, thus missing out on promotion to the Championship. Almost 30,000 supporters took the trip up to Wembley, a large following for a club based in a town with a population of only 41,871.

2007-08 was less successful, as Yeovil finished 18th in League One with 52 points, and this season TLG predicted relegation, something the summer activity and results up to now have done little to change.

Yeovil Town Football club have had many players who have played at the international level, for instance Marc Bircham [Canada], Andrejs Stolcers [Latvia], Efe Sodje [Nigeria], Lloyd Owusu [Ghana], Jean-Paul Kamindumba Kalala [DR Congo], Arron Davies and Gavin Williams [Wales].

Huish Park is Yeovil's latest stadium and there has been a mention that Huish could become the new home of a 15,000 all seater.

(Thanks to the all the usual suspects for their help with this article)