Mansfield Town

Manager: Paul Sturrock

Last Season: Sky Bet League One, 24th.

It doesn’t seem that long ago since Yeovil Town were riding on the crest of a wave and competing in the Sky Bet Championship alongside teams such as Derby County, Leeds United and Queens Park Rangers.

Nevertheless, since those heady days of 2013/14, the Glovers have suffered back-to-back relegations and were in the drop zone in Sky Bet League One for pretty much the entirety of last season.

An opening day defeat to Doncaster Rovers set the tone and despite a slight upturn in fortunes coupled with an FA Cup run which saw Gary Johnson’s men host Manchester United in the third round, it wasn’t anywhere near enough to prevent them from suffering a second successive relegation.

After Johnson was relieved of his duties in February, the popular Terry Skiverton took charge for what proved to be an unlucky 13 games, before Paul Sturrock was appointed as boss for the last few games of the campaign.

Despite being undoubtedly one of the biggest giant-killers of non-league football, Yeovil Town only won promotion to the Football League in 2002/03, so we have only met them on four previous occasions. 

Goals have been aplenty, however. In the last meeting alone, just over a decade ago, the Glovers came from behind to win 5-2 at Huish Park – a game which saw seven different players get on the score-sheet.

Our only win against them was a 4-1 success at One Call Stadium in August 2004.

Yeovil Town 5-2 Stags, April 2005, Huish Park

Stags 4-1 Yeovil Town, August 2004, One Call Stadium

Yeovil Town 1-1 Stags, March 2004, Huish Park

Stags 0-1 Yeovil Town, September 2003, One Call Stadium

Fergus Bell was the last player to appear for both ourselves and Yeovil Town.

The midfielder featured on 21 occasions for us last term, scoring once in a victory at Exeter City, before joining the Glovers mid-season and making only a couple of appearances.

Others to have turned out in both the amber and blue and the green and white hoops are Brian Thompson and Gary Roberts, who was with us during our Conference Premier title-winning season of 2012/13.

The Glovers play their home games at Huish Park, which is a stadium that consists of both seats and terraced areas.

Away fans are primarily housed on an uncovered terrace behind one of the goals, but a section of seating running parallel with the 18-yard box is usually reserved for their use too.