MATCH PREVIEW: Yeovil Town (H)

To close out the 2024/25 league season, Aldershot Town welcome Yeovil Town to the EBB Stadium on Monday afternoon.

Somerset’s only professional football club, the Glovers have had an extremely eventful start to the 21st century, with four promotions and four relegations seeing them contest in the National League South, the Championship, and everything in between.

Having been crowned sixth-tier champions in 2024, their first season back in the National League has been one of stability. With 54 points from 45 games, they find themselves in 16th position.

RECENT FORM

While fortunes are on the up compared to recent seasons, it has been a frustrating campaign for the Glovers, as an early play-off push was undone by patchy form in early-2025, which continued into April.

26/04/25 – Yeovil Town 1-2 Sutton United
21/04/25 – Eastleigh 1-0 Yeovil Town
18/04/25 – Yeovil Town 1-1 Forest Green
12/04/25 – Yeovil Town 2-1 Oldham Athletic
05/04/25 – Altrincham 2-1 Yeovil Town

Having claimed exactly half of their 56 points thus far away from Huish Park, Yeovil are one of just four sides in the division whose home performance does not exceed the amount picked up on the road.

IN THE DUGOUT

Despite hailing from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, current Glovers manager Mark Cooper seemingly cannot refrain from England’s South-West.

Coming through the academy of Bristol City in 1987, the former midfielder, and son of former England international and namesake Terry, turned out for 17 different English clubs across 22 years, including Exeter City, Birmingham City and Fulham.

His foray into management overlapped his on-field career, being appointed player-manager of Tamworth in 2004. He would guide the Lambs to their greatest ever FA Cup campaign in his second season, losing only on penalties to Stoke in the third round replay, having secured a 0-0 draw at the Britannia.

He continued to impress in non-league with Kettering Town, breezing to the 2007-08 Conference North title with 97 points, 17 ahead of their nearest rivals. An appointment at Championship Peterborough proved perhaps too much of a step-up, though any reputation lost in his short tenure in Cambridgeshire was regained the following season, leading Darlington to a first ever FA Trophy title in 2011.

He would return to Wembley four years later, taking Swindon Town to the League One play-off final in 2015, having earned their highest league finish of the 21st century. The Robins would unfortunately lose 4-0 to Preston on the day.

His crowning achievement, however, may be his tenure at Forest Green Rovers. In his first full season with the club, Cooper navigated the club’s first ever promotion to the Football League, before staying a further four years, achieving stability in England’s fourth-tier.

Having been both relegated and promoted in his first two seasons in Somerset, he may be enjoying a more subdued campaign. However, Yeovil supporters will now be hoping that next year he can further draw from his impressive managerial CV, and return them to former glory.

LAST TIME OUT

With both enjoying stints in the Isthmian League, the Conference and League Two across similar periods in the 90s and 00s, surprisingly, this matchup wasn’t contested as a league fixture until 2019.

In this most recent of histories, the nine domestic bouts thus far show nothing to separate the two, with three wins each, three draws, and even sharing twelve goals apiece.

The most recent meeting at the EBB saw spoils shared on the day. though a 1-1 draw on Good Friday 2023 was anything but for the men in green. Relegation looming, the Glovers knew anything but a victory would all but secure demotion to the National League South.

Now teammates at Ebbsfleet, Tyler Cordner’s second-half header was cancelled out by a tap-in from substitute Callum Harriott, and despite a desperate late push from the visitors, the tie would remain all-square from thereon.

While this matchup may be one to forget for the Somerset-side, it held a significance for the hosts, being a certain Mr. Tommy Widdrington’s first game in charge of the club.

PLAYED FOR BOTH

Dom Bernard – The defender spent the entirety of the 2018-19 campaign with the Shots, joining on loan from Birmingham, playing 37 times.

Following this spell, Gloucester-born Bernard spent five seasons with local side Forest Green Rovers, before joining the Glovers ahead of the current season.

TICKET INFO

Tickets are available HERE, and are priced as follows after the earlybird period has ended: