\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before I start banging on about why and how much, let's do a little survey: whoever has heard of this club \u2013 Yeovil Town \u2013 raise your hand.
\n(Not a single hand in the air.)
\nOK, so let's start by saying the name properly. (Not many hands in the air here either\u2026)
\nGot it?<\/p>\n
It all started with a computer game. I picked Yeovil in the most arbitrary way possible, for two reasons (completely true): 1. It had the weirdest name. 2. It played in green. From then on, for years, I played that computer game only with them. In every other game too, whether some manager game or, many years later, FIFA on the PlayStation \u2013 only Yeovil. Ever since, every Saturday, as internet technology has improved, almost every move the Glovers make beeps on my phone, much to my family's dismay. And then we swore. With childish enthusiasm, we swore in front of that computer game that we'd visit 'our' clubs when we were 'grown up'. And now cut to more than fifteen years later \u2013 and here are the wheels of our hire car rolling over the cold grey tarmac of the football club at Huish Park \u2013 and the dream came true. I was there. And there, of all the twelve other clubs, we got the warmest welcome. There, of all places, they honoured us with two original away match shirts, worn by players who had finished loan spells at the club. There, of all places, I was able to have my name printed on the official shirt from the club shop. There, of all places, in the very season we visited, the club was promoted to the second tier for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n
I don't follow this club's playing system. I don't know if it even has one. What could be special about the 4-4-2 played by the whole of English football?<\/p>\n
I don't know by heart the names of legendary former players with all their goals and successful seasons. Same goes for managers and chairmen.
\nThe little I know is enough for me: Yeovil was, and will always be, a modest club, ever since it was founded in 1895 as Yeovil Casuals. This club was so modest that only in 2003 \u2013 that's f***ing 108(!!!) years of plodding along later \u2013 did it manage to squeeze into the top four divisions on the English isle: the Football League.<\/p>\n
Yeovil have a few Cinderella-style cup flashes to their name, ones that will be remembered for generations, such as: beating Sunderland in the fourth round in 1949, which led to a later-round meeting with none other than Manchester United at Maine Road in front of 81,000 stunned and appreciative spectators. Other successful performances came in our era, when the Greens met Liverpool in the third round in 2004, managing to squeeze out a goalless draw at Huish before losing 3-0 at Anfield. Here you can see the goals from that tie:<\/p>\n