This article is part of the ‘League Preview’ series, in which every day we take a detailed look at one of Aldershot Town’s 23 prospective opponents for the upcoming National League season.
In the spotlight today we look towards the South West, to a team who played in the second-tier as recently as 2014. Somerset’s only professional football team, Yeovil Town.
Founded in 1895, ‘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.
Sixth-tier champions at the first time of asking in 2023/24, their return to step-one saw the side finish in 18th place, falling off after a relatively strong start. Tasked with continuing a surge back up the football pyramid is former Swindon Town and Notts County boss, Mark Cooper, who has been in charge since 2022.
With such varied league occupancy across the past two decades, it is difficult to assess at which level exactly Yeovil rightfully ‘belong’, though Glovers supporters will be the first to tell you that the answer is Football League status at the very least.
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Where is Yeovil?
The town of Yeovil is situated in England’s South West, the southern reaches of the county of Somerset, straddling the border of Dorset. With a population of approximately 42,000, Yeovil is the fourth largest settlement in the county. Roughly 98 miles from the EBB Stadium, this 1 h 58m journey will mark Aldershot’s tenth-closest away trip of the upcoming league season.
With nearby Bristol technically belonging to its own county, the Glovers are currently the only professional football club in Somerset, with part-time pair Bath City and Weston-Super-Mare currently playing in the National League South. With the west country proving one of the quieter footballing regions in the country, Yeovil possess a significant catchment area, currently serving as the closest place to see step-one football or higher in the towns of Bridgwater (~42,000 pop), Weymouth (58,000), and Taunton (61,000), among others.
Yeovil play their home matches at Huish Park. Opening its doors in 1990, it has been the club’s home for 35-years and counting, and is the successor to the club’s similarly named ‘Huish Ground’, which served as a base for the previous 70 years. With a capacity of 9,565, it is the seventh-largest ground in this year’s National League. Its record attendance was recorded in April 2008, as a crunch League One tie versus Leeds United saw 9,527 through the gates.
Yeovil finished the 2024/25 season with an average league attendance of 3,215, the seventh-best among teams currently in the division.
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Recent history and club highlights
It has been a bittersweet modern existence for the Glovers, from reaching the dizzying heights of the Championship to the dramatic and unprecedented pyramid plummet that succeeded it. However, with National League stability and a memorable title win, it appears that the pendulum is slowly but surely swinging in the favour of the Somerset side.
2024/25 – National League (18th)
2023/24 – National League South (1st, Promoted)
2022/23 – National League (22nd, Relegated)
2021/22 – National League (12th)
2020/21 – National League (16th)
2019/20 – National League (4th)
2018/19 – League Two (24th, Relegated)
2017/18 – League Two (19th)
2016/17 – League Two (20th)
2015/16 – League Two (19th)
Yeovil’s record league placement comes courtesy of their single season in the second-tier, finishing 24th in the Championship one year on from an historic 2-1 Wembley victory against Brentford in the 2012/13 League One play-offs.
The club’s magnificent rise in the early 21st century may distract from the fact that Yeovil Town have, for the large part, historically existed as a higher-end non-league side, only first reaching the Football League in 2003, 108 years after inception.
However, despite relative minnow status, the side did grow something of a reputation as giant killing specialists, with notable surprise FA Cup victories over the years. In 1949, a Yeovil side playing in the Southern Premier defeated First Division Sunderland, a result that remains to this day the lowest ranked side to defeat a top-tier team in the competition. More recently, the Glovers beat Fulham in 1993, earning a home tie against Arsenal, where Ian Wright went on to score a hattrick in a 3-1 win.
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Pre-season, incoming transfers and other news
At time of writing, Yeovil have made 7 first team signings.
| Player | Pos. | Age | Arriving from… | Highest level played |
| James Daly | LW | 25 | Harrogate Town | League One (Bristol Rovers) |
| Junior Morias | CF | 30 | Notts County | SPL (St. Mirren) |
| Tahvon Campbell | CF | 28 | Solihull Moors | League One (Gillingham) |
| Kyle Ferguson | CB | 25 | Rochdale | League Two (Harrogate) |
| Jed Ward (loan) | GK | 22 | Bristol Rovers | League One (Bristol Rovers) |
| Byron Pendleton (loan) | RB | 19 | Birmingham U21 | N/A |
| Ben Wodskou (loan) | CF | 18 | Birmingham U21 | NL North (Rushall Olympic) |
In terms of permanent transfers, it has been a quiet yet impressive summer for the Glovers. With a combined 321 appearances in the Football League, a quartet of seasoned professionals will don green and white this campaign. Among these is former Aldershot Town loanee James Daly, the speedy forward who played 15 times for the Shots between February and April 2024, scoring twice.
Son of 45-time Scotland international Barry Ferguson, and cousin of highly-rated Bologna midfielder and namesake, Lewis, the Glovers will be hoping that central defender Kyle Ferguson unlocks his international potential in Somerset.
Hoping to follow in the footsteps of Kofi Shaw, who recently secured a £1 million move to Brighton following a successful loan spell at Huish Park, 22-year-old goalkeeping talent Jed Ward joins Yeovil from nearby Bristol Rovers on loan. The former England U20 international impressed for Forest Green Rovers last campaign, conceding just 22 goals in 28 appearances.
Yeovil’s pre-season campaign, which like Aldershot, predominantly saw them visiting local semi-professional sides, resulted as follows:
Exmouth Town 0-1 Yeovil Town (05/07)
Sherborne 1-2 Yeovil Town (09/07)
Chippenham 2-3 Yeovil Town (12/07)
Yeovil Town 2-3 Cardiff U21 (15/07)
Yeovil Town 1-2 Bristol Rovers (19/07)
Bath City 1-3 Yeovil Town (26/07)
Weston-super-mare 1-0 Yeovil Town (02/08)
With preparations concluding with defeat on the Bristol Channel, the Glovers will now gear up to begin their Enterprise National League campaign, hosting Hartlepool United on Saturday, 9th August.
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When will Aldershot and Yeovil play each other?
Following the release of the National League fixture list, the Shots will host Yeovil Town on Wednesday, 24th September, while Tommy Widdrington’s men will make the trip to Huish Park on Tuesday, 20th January.
Yeovil Town first travelled to North Hampshire exactly 70 years ago, for the first leg of what would become a three-game epic between the two sides in the first round of the 1955-56 FA Cup. With 1-1 draws at each ground, a second-replay was contested at the Dell in Southampton, where the Shots would finally decide the tie, winning 3-0.
Despite both sides spending significant time in the Football Conference and League Two during the first decade of the 21st century, Yeovil’s promotion to the Football League in 2002-03 – the same year that the Shots were first promoted into the fifth-tier – meant the sides would not meet again until September 2019, where the Glovers won 3-1 at the EBB Stadium following their relegation to the National League.
Sharing four of the last five seasons in step-one, the sides have since met on a further nine occasions, with very little separating the two…
Games played: 10
Aldershot wins: 4
Yeovil wins: 3
Draws: 3
Aggregate score: 14-13
Record Shots victory: 2-0 (2022)
Record Yeovil victory: 3-0 (2020)
The sides last met in May, as the Shots emerged 2-1 victors on the final day of the 2024/25 National League season. Goals from Jack Barham and Tyler Frost either side of half-time put the hosts into a two goal lead, former Shot Dominic Bernard scored to threaten a comeback, though that was where the danger stopped. Despite both teams having decidedly little to play for on the day, the result was significant, as the Shots leapfrogged their Somerset-based rivals on the day, finishing above them in the final standings.
