User:Ytfc23/YTFC Sandbox/Yeovil Town

Yeovil Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Yeovil, Somerset, England. The team compete in the National League, the fifth tier of league football in England, as of the 2019–20 season.

Founded in 1895, the club spent the first 108 years of its history in non-League football, before earning promotion to the Football League for the first time in 2003.

played seven seasons in non-League football before folding in 1917. A new club was formed in 1922, and played in the Midland League for seven years before joining the Football League. They played in the third tier until 1959, when they were promoted for the first time. York achieved their best run in the FA Cup in 1954–55, when they met Newcastle United in the semi-final. They fluctuated between the Third and Fourth Divisions, before spending two seasons in the Second Division in the 1970s. York first played at Wembley Stadium in 1993, when they won the Third Division play-off final. At the end of 2003–04, they lost their Football League status after being relegated from the Third Division. The 2011–12 FA Trophy was the first national knockout competition won by York, and they returned to the Football League that season.

Yeovil are nicknamed the Glovers, a reference to the history of glove-making in the town which became a centre of the industry during the 18th and 19th centuries, and team traditionally play in green and white kits. Having initially played at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground until 1920 when they moved to Huish Athletic Ground where they stayed for more than 70 years. Before moving to their current ground, Huish Park in 1990. Yeovil have had rivalries with numerous clubs, but their traditional rivals are Weymouth and Bath City. The club's post-war record appearance holder is Len Harris, who made 691 appearances, while their leading scorer is Dave Taylor, with 284 goals.

Early years
The first association football club in Yeovil was founded in 1890, known as Yeovil Football Club they initially played in conjunction with the Yeovil Rugby Club, both codes being staged on a ground in West Hendford with rugby and football being played at the ground on alternate Saturdays. The birth of today's Yeovil Town Football Club was in 1895 with the formation of Yeovil Casuals, the team played at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground, situated next to the Yeovil Pen Mill railway station. The club originally joined the Somerset Senior League and won the league title in just their second season in 1897.

1907 the name of the club changed to Yeovil Town Football Club. 1908 Petters United founded.

Colours and crest
The club's original colours were green and white stripes. 1907 new strip of green shirts with white cuffs.

Petters United colours amber and black.

Current crest adopted in 1985, loosely based on the Yeovil coat of arms.

Stadiums
From the club's foundation in 1895 until 1920, Yeovil Town played their home games at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground situated close to the Yeovil Pen Mill railway station. Yeovil purchased the land for the Huish Athletic Ground, in the summer of 1920, located more centrally in the town. Initially the terraces were flat and the only covered accommodation was the 300 seater stand which had been moved from Penn Mill. This stand served the club until 1963 when a new stand was built.

In January 1985, Yeovil started negotiations to sell Huish and move to a new stadium in the Houndstone area of Yeovil on the site of an old army camp.

Supporters and rivalries
The 2003 Football Fans Census revealed that no other Football League side's supporters considered Yeovil to be their club's main rivals. Traditionally, Yeovil's main rivalry have been with Weymouth, but the two clubs haven't played each other in a competitive fixture since 1999. Similarly Yeovil also share a historic local rivalry with Bath City but the two sides haven't met in the league since 1996.


 * Hereford Untied competitive rival from Southern League days
 * Rushden & Diamonds
 * More recently since entering the football league minor rivalry with the two Bristol clubs, Rovers & City. Also geographical proximity to Bournemouth, Exeter & Swindon.

Chairmen
The following men have been chairman of the club's Board of Directors:

Statistics and records
Defender Len Harris holds the record for Yeovil Town appearances, since the Second World War, having played 691 matches between 1958 and 1972. Dave Taylor is the club's post-war leading league goalscorer, having scored a total of 284 goals between 1960 and 1969. He also holds the record for most goal scored in a single season, since the war with 59 goals in the 1960–61 season, with Joe Taylor holding the ultimate record having scored 66 times for the first team in the 1934–35 season.

The club's record home attendance is 17,123 for a FA Cup fourth round match against Sunderland on 29 January 1949 set at their former ground of Huish, while the record attendance at Huish Park is 9,527 for a League One match against Leeds United on 25 April 2008.

The teams biggest ever win in the Football League was a 6–1 victory over Oxford United in League Two on 18 September 2004, while the club had previously registered a 14–0 victory over Street in the Somerset Senior League on 30 April 1900. Their widest victory margin in the FA Cup is a 12–1 victory over Westbury United in 1923, while Yeovil's record defeat in the FA Cup was 8–0 to Manchester United in 1949.

The highest transfer fee received for a Yeovil player was the joint £1.2m fee from Nottingham Forest for Chris Cohen and Arron Davies on 6 July 2007, while the most expensive player bought is Pablo Bastianini, who cost an undisclosed five-figure sum from Quilmes on 3 August 2005. The youngest player to play for the club in the Football League is Ollie Bassett, who was aged 17 years and 195 days on his debut against Crawley Town in League Two on 19 September 2015.

Current squad

 * For more information on the squad, see 2016–17 Yeovil Town F.C. season.

Managerial history
Yeovil Town's team was selected by committee until 1923, when former Queens Park Rangers player Jack Gregory was appointed player-manager. The appointment coincided with Yeovil's election in to the Southern League for the first time. Gregory remained in charge for five seasons, winning the Southern League West Section in 1924, until in 1928 he was replaced by former Newcastle United inside forward Tommy Lowes. Lowes lasted just one season before being by Scot David Pratt who experienced more success winning the Southern League West Section, Western League and the Somerset Professional Cup in his four year stint as manager. Pratt's successor was former England international Louis Page whose two season spell with the club again brought Southern League West Section and Western League titles. Prolific Scottish goalscorer Dave Halliday replaced Page after he left to join Newport County, Billy Kingdon followed Halliday in 1938 and remained in charge for 8 years spanning the Second World War and holds the record as Yeovil's longest serving manager.

After Kingdon, was Alec Stock who joined the club in 1946 and famously led Yeovil to the FA Cup fifth round in 1949, the best performance in the club's history, including victory over First Division side Sunderland. In 1949 Stock left Yeovil to join Leyton Orient his replacement Scottish international George Paterson led the club to two Somerset Premier Cup triumphs before leaving for Stirling Albion in 1951. The club then appointed Harry Lowe as their first ever manager, with all previous appointments having been player-managers. Former Portsmouth striker Ike Clarke replaced Lowe in 1953, and in a widely successful four year period as manager led the club to the Southern League and Southern League Cup double in 1955. Following Clarke's departure in 1957, former Exeter City manager Norman Dodgin was appointed although Dodgin departed before the 1957/58 season to take over at Barrow, he was replaced by Jimmy Baldwin. Basil Hayward was appointed in 1960 and brought about an immediate change in fortunes of the team leading the club to the Southern League Cup in his first season in charge. Hayward left the club in February 1964, to be replaced by Glyn Davies who led the club to their second Southern League triumph. Davies left at the end of the following season to join Swansea City with Yeovil demanding a fee for his services and receiving £750 from the Welsh club the first time ever that a fee had been paid by one club to another for the services of a manager. Joe McDonald replaced Davies staying at the club for two seasons before in turn being replaced by Ron Saunders. Saunders left the club to join Second Division side Oxford United in 1969, his replacement was Mike Hughes who in his four seasons at the club won both the Southern League and the Southern League Championship Cup. The 1970s saw Yeovil managed by Cecil Irwin, Stan Harland and Barry Lloyd as they continued to challenge in the Southern League. The formation of the Alliance Premier League saw a decline in Yeovil's fortunes, with Lloyd's successors Malcolm Allison and then Jimmy Giles failing to live up to previous successes and after three more managers in as many years the club was relegated for the first time in its history in 1985 under Gerry Gow. Gow's successor Brian Hall saw Yeovil return to the Conference in 1988 and won the Conference League Cup in 1990. Hall was controversially sacked in October 1990 to be replaced by Clive Whitehead but was sacked before the end of the season to be replaced by Steve Rutter. Hall returned to the club in 1994 but only lasted a year to be replaced by former England international Graham Roberts who could not avoid relegation back to the Isthmian League. In Roberts three year reign he managed to lead the club back tot he Conference in 1997 before being sacked for misconduct in January 1998 to be replaced by Colin Lippiatt, but resigned shortly after due to his refusal to go full time. Midfielder and fitness coach Steve Thompson took over as manager before being replaced by David Webb in March 2000 and becoming assistant manager. Webb lasted just seven months before leaving to join Southend United his replacement Colin Addison despite leading Yeovil to second place in the Conference their highest finish ever was sacked by Chairman John Fry in May 2001.

Addison was replaced by former Latvia manager Gary Johnson who in his first season led Yeovil to FA Trophy triumph and the following season won promotion from the Conference, to lead Yeovil into League football for the first time in their 108 year history. In their second season in the Football League Johnson managed Yeovil to the Football League Two title, before leaving the club the following September to join Bristol City. Johnson was replaced by his assistant Steve Thompson who managed to avoid relegation from Football League One. Thompson was in turn replaced by Russell Slade at the end of the season who in his first season in charge led the club to Wembley and the Football League One play-off Final. Slade was sacked in February 2009 and replaced by club captain Terry Skiverton, initially as player-manager, who on limited resources managed in his three years as manager to maintain Yeovil's place in League One. Before in January 2012, Gary Johnson returned to the club with Skiverton becoming his assistant and leading Yeovil via the 2013 Football League One play-off Final into the second tier of English football for the first time in their history.

Honours

 * ''For a complete record of the club's achievements, see List of Yeovil Town F.C. seasons.



Yeovil Town Ladies
Yeovil Town Ladies is the women's football club affiliated to Yeovil Town. Founded in 1990 as Yetminster Ladies they were renamed Yeovil Town Ladies in 1999 and are currently managed by Jamie Sherwood. They play in the second division of the FA WSL, the second level of women's football in England, the club have won the South West Combination twice and are four time winners of the Somerset FA Women's Senior Cup.