Yeovil Town are back in SkyBet League One action this coming Saturday when the Glovers host Gillingham at Huish Park with a 3pm kick off.
Acting Manager, Terry Skiverton has been busy this week preparing a new look side for Saturday’s fixture as the Glovers look to get off the bottom of the table and close in on League One survival.
Yeovil, currently have 28 points in 24th place, with Saturday’s opponents sitting comfortably in mid-table with 41 points.
Just 13 points separate the sides – Yeovil are incidentally less than 20 points from the play offs – which means that League One is incredibly tight and a run of four or five positive (or negative) results at this stage could make a huge difference.
As we’ve mentioned Skiverton has been busy in the transfer market this week with three loan signings and a permanent addition joining the Somerset side.
Craig Eastmond (pictured below), a former Arsenal youngster has signed a deal until the end of the season while Darren Way worked his links with Swansea to secure the services of both attacking midfielder Josh Sheehan and defender Stephen Kingsley.
Sheehan is in Somerset until May while Kingsley joins on an initial one month deal.
Furthermore, the loan of Liam Shephard has been extended until the end of the campaign too.
The final addition will need no introduction to Yeovil fans as play off hero Byron Webster returned on Thursday on a deal until the end of the season.
The Millwall defender joins on loan with the side he gained promotion with two years ago.
What this does do, is mean that Yeovil currently have six loans on the books when you include Stephen Arthurworrey and Ben Nugent, as per the Football League rules one will have to miss out on match day.
If that wasn’t enough fresh faces for the side, there has been some encouraging news from the treatment room with Nathan Ralph, Joel Grant (pictured) and Liam Davis all returning to training.
Fitness is the key for those three and with a Somerset Premier Cup tie on Tuesday, it remains to be seen how many are deemed ready for first team action.
What that does leave Terry Skiverton with is options; Fergus Bell and Adam Morgan are still awaiting their first appearances in Yeovil colours this season too.
Joe Edwards and Ajay Leitch Smith are injury concerns with long term problems still keeping Kevin Dawson, Simon Gillet, Chris Weale and Jakub Sokolik side lined.
The Glovers form has been a bit patchy of, the win over Crawley was nearly two weeks ago now and that has been followed up with frustrating defeats against Crewe and Doncaster.
On the flip side, Gillingham are flying with their form.
They lie top of the form table having taken 16 points from their last six games including a win over promotion chasing MK Dons last week.
The change in fortune has been due to the introduction of a new manager with Justin Edinburgh (pictured) taking the reins.
The sides have already met twice this season with the Gills coming out on top on both occasions.
In a League Cup fixture way back in August, Yeovil crashed out of the cup 2-1 in their own back yard.
Simon Gillett scoring the Yeovil goal in between strikes from Brennan Dickinson and Aaron Morris.
No fewer than four days later, the sides met in the league, this time at the Preistfield Stadium.
The second fixture went even worse for Yeovil, a 2-0 defeat this time. Joe Martin and Danny Kedwell doing the damage.
Prior to this season, the encounters between the sides in the Football League have been relatively even, Yeovil took the lion’s share of the early fixtures with Gillingham taking the points and bragging rights more often than not over recent seasons.
You have to go back to 2007 for the last Yeovil win; James Walker grabbing a late winner in a 2-1 home win.
A repeat of the performance and result would go down very well this Saturday.
Gillingham may have conquered the likes of Peterborough, Sheffield United and Oldham in this run of form and will be fired up to continue their march towards the top six but Yeovil will be out to start their own run of positive results.
What’s more, Gillingham don’t have the SkyBet League One fan of the month in their corner, Yeovil do.
Pat Custard will once again be right behind the team on Saturday and you can join her.
Click HERE to buy tickets online, call the ticket office now on 01935 847888 or come down to the ground in person.
There is good news from the ticket office too, with the early bird deadline extended right through until 1pm on match day.
Famous Fans: Reality star Rik Waller, Wine connoisseur Oz Clarke and comedian Joe Wilkinson.
A Foot in Both Camps: Justin Cochrane, Antonio German, Luke Freeman, Scott Flinders, Romain Larrieu, Jaime Peters, Craig Rocastle and Efe Sodje.
Did you know: The “G” in Gillingham is pronounced like a “J” due to old texts that refer to the town as Jillyingham… unlike our closer Dorset counterpart where the “G” is pronounced like a fish’s gill.