The Rise And Fall Of Yeovil Town

Yeovil is a small town in Somerset in the south west of England, it has a population of roughly 50,000 people and a football team that currently plays in the National League, roughly where you’d expect a team from a town that size to be. However it wasn’t always like that. Yeovil Town spent most of their existence in the fifth and sixth tiers of football, but they experienced a meteoric rise and an even more meteoric decline in the last 25 years.

Yeovil Town’s Rise

In the 2002-03 season, Yeovil Town were playing in the Conference, having spent the last five years there since they were promoted from the sixth tier. The year before they had won the FA Trophy, winning 2-0 thanks to a Man of the Match performance from Adam Stansfield, father of current Birmingham City striker Jay Stansfield. Adam remained at the club for the 2002-03 season, helping them to promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history.

In their first season in the EFL, Yeovil exceeded everyone’s expectations and finished in eighth place, a comfortable distance from any sort of danger. They also reached the third round of the FA Cup where they faced Liverpool. The following season, they won the league and were promoted to League One. During the course of the campaign, the club changed ownership, however that didn’t affect results on the pitch. They managed to get one step further in the FA Cup too, but lost to Premier League side Charlton Athletic.

Yeovil Town spent eight years in League One. They were close to earning promotion in just their second year in the third division, but lost in the playoff final to Blackpool. The next few seasons saw them struggle but each time they managed to just about avoid relegation. They eventually earned promotion to the Championship via the playoffs in the 2012-13 season.

Congratulations to Yeovil Town. Good luck in the Championship.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 19, 2013

Yeovil spent just one season in the Championship. They earnt memorable wins over Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool but that wasn’t enough to see them finish anywhere above bottom of the league. For such a small football club, even one season in the second tier was a remarkable achievement. Their stadium holds just 9,500 fans and was the smallest in the division by some way, even smaller than Bournemouth’s. Their relegation was inevitable and they returned to League One for the 2014-15 season.

Yeovil Town’s Fall

The season after their relegation from the Championship was also a struggle for Yeovil Town. Manager Gary Johnson, who took them up to the second tier was replaced by Paul Sturrock, however he could not turn results around and they were relegated to League Two, just a year after they had been playing Championship football.

The club settled in League Two for a while, but struggled in the division, finishing close to the bottom two for three years before they eventually returned to non league. They recorded their biggest ever defeat in the football league on the opening day of the 2017-18 season, losing 8-2 to Luton Town. In the 2018-19 season, Yeovil were finally relegated to the National League, finishing bottom of the division on 40 points, having won just nine games all season. There were times in the campaign when it looked as if they could stay up, but they ended the season four points from safety.

Yeovil’s return to the National League wasn’t a particularly happy one, and their form from 20 years prior was not repeated. They finished 16th in their first season back and then 12th in the following season, a rather strange one for the league, as there were just 23 teams. The season prior had been cut short due to COVID so no relegations took place, however Macclesfield Town folded during that season, so the league had to continue the next year a one less team than usual.

In 2014 Yeovil Town were a Championship club

Fast forward to 2023 and #ytfc have been relegated to the National League South

Has to be one of the saddest drops in football

Heartbreaking for Glovers fans 💔 pic.twitter.com/ISCFMFzJdV

— tomhwilliams23 (@tomhwilliams23) April 18, 2023

The 2022-23 season saw Yeovil relegated again, this time into the sixth tier of English Football. Their time in the National League South was short lived as they won the division by 11 points. They now sit comfortably in mid table as they look for some stability in the lower parts of the football pyramid. For their fans, the season in the Championship more than 10 years ago feels a bit like a dream, and while it doesn’t appear as if they will be heading back to the Football League anytime soon, stranger things have happened in English Football.