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The Inside Line: Yeovil Town v Bristol City (10/03/2015)

A fair bit has happened to Yeovil since we last played them. A national television appearance and certainly little shame in their huge FA Cup tie with Manchester United, followed just a few weeks later by Gary Johnson paying the price for their season-long flirtation with the relegation zone.

Meanwhile City have gone on and on, with our visit to Wembley later this month the reason for this re-arranged fixture. Stu Radnedge caught up with Leeds-based Glover Ben Barrett for his typically humourous take on the situation at Huish Park ahead of the final match in our mini-series against the bottom four.


“Last time I did this, I said that 500 words wouldn't be quite enough to describe the goings on at Huish Park this season, the truth is, that three months down the line, this email could turn into a dissertation-length ramble if I'm not careful.

Right, let's keep this simple, I'm a positive bloke, I love being a Yeovil fan, but my word - this season sucks.

We're still in the relegation zone and the performances and results are just as frustrating as before.

Of course, the big news is that Gary Johnson has left at the request of his employers. As the transfer window slammed shut the murmurs and the rumours started, a short 48 hours later, he’d gone.

A bona fide legend, let’s not get that wrong, but the time had come – it was a decision that I agreed with. This might be the first time I’ve admitted that, at least in public.

Terry Skiverton has taken over and, to put it bluntly, it hasn’t got much better.

Some battling draws, a decent win over Crawley and some decent signings are good, but with just over a dozen games to go… it is just not enough.
Skivo is a ‘avoid defeat’ type of manager, we need a ‘win at all costs’ kind of man right now.

At Scunthorpe, at 1-1, he decided to hold his central defenders from going up for a last minute free kick. It was sending out the wrong message. It turned out to be an away point we’d have taken gladly sat in 15th, not in 24th.

At home, we are at least more positive and that has to be a good thing going through the run in.

The truth is, we need play off form from now on in to stay up. We’ve done it before and done it under Skiverton, so we’re not ruling anything out but it looks tough.

You have to hope, and I know I do, that behind the scenes, the plans are long term rather than short.

Are we going to stick with Skiverton or look elsewhere? Are we going to provide the supporters with a pricing structure to try and lure back the disgruntled fans, regardless of which division we’re in?

But those decisions are going to be made while Skiverton tries to get us out of this mess.

I stand by some of the things I’ve said before about how unlucky we’ve been with injuries and that the likes of Joe Edwards, Sam Foley and Joel Grant are arguably as good as any midfielders in the division. But it’s just not clicked.

Looking back at the blog I did for this site for the Boxing Day fixture it seems that nothing has really changed; you’re cracking on towards promotion and let’s just say…we’re not.
The only real difference is that it’s now March.

One thing I’m proud of is that people keep coming, there are still a few thousand of core home fans and the same faces keep coming to every away game, I personally couldn’t blame anyone for walking away.

As for Tuesday specifically, we have to win, it’s that simple. The quality of opponent has ceased to be of any importance, all that matters is three points.

I’m writing this before the Saturday fixture against Oldham, if that’s gone well, then we’re going to have a better chance on Tuesday.

If that hasn’t gone well then our fixture is ‘win or bust’/’now or never’/’crunch time’ for us. Choose your own cliché, we don’t mind.

As for what happens if, if we do… you know… for the second season in a row…

Oh, would you look at that, I’ve run out of word count … *buries head in the sand*

I guess this is farewell, have fun in the Championship… we’ll see you soon.

I hope.”


My thanks to Ben and Stu for squeezing this one in amongst all the other fixtures. 

COYR!

The Exiled Robin

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