Wrexham return to league action hoping to avenge our only home defeat of the season so far.
Yeovil have had an inconsistent season so far, but their promotion ambitions are still intact. A win would lift them to within five points of us with a game in hand, and bring the play-offs into sight.
However, they must improve on the patchiness of their form if they are to mount a challenge for a post-season spot. The story of their matches between now and their visit to The Racecourse in November encapsulates how their all-or-nothing form has developed.
They came to us on the back of a 5-game unbeaten streak - in fact, apart from Chesterfield we were the top teams in the National League form table at the time. The Glovers emerged with a first win in North Wales, aided by a couple of well-taken late goals and the first half dimissal of Liam MacAlinden.
After that victory Yeovil maintained their terrific form with a couple of 1-0 home wins: a giant-killing in the FA Cup against Stevenage was followed up by victory against Barnet. Those results meant that they went into Boxing Day on a 10-game unbeaten run, and they'd won 8 of those matches.
However, things turned around in spectacular manner at that point. Torquay United did the double over them in their festive double-header, and after Burnemouth beat them in the cup they succumbed to a defeat at the hands of Southend United in their most recent game.
HEAD TO HEAD
We enjoyed our first win at Huish Park last season, when Kwame Thomas ’ close range goal in the first half secured victory on the second Saturday of the season.
We held onto the win fairly comfortably, in contrast to our previous matches at Yeovil, which were catastrophic.
The season before we collapsed to a 3-0 loss. Despite being emphatically second best in the first period, we looked like we were going to hang on until the break, but with two minutes left Courtney Duffus scored a bizarre goal, tapping the ball into the empty net after Rob Lainton and released the ball to kick it away. At first look it appeared to be a horrible error by the keeper, but close scrutiny of the footage showed that Lainton had every right to be unhappy with the referee’s decision to let the goal stand.
The second half was a formality: Town got a second ten minutes after the break and completed the scoring in added time.
Our previous match at Huish Park was equally unhappy. It was an FA Cup first round tie in November 2003, and the BBC covered it live so the whole nation could share in our embarrassment. The game at the end of a particularly unhappy week in cup competitions, as the previous midweek we’d travelled to Stockport for an LDV Vans Trophy match and lost 5-4!
Last Meeting:
30/11/21 Wrexham 0 Yeovil Town 2 (Staunton 64, Lo-Everton 83)
Wrexham: Lainton, Hayden, Tozer, Lennon (J Jones 63), Hall-Johnson, McAlinden, Young, Davies, Hosannah (Hyde 78), Ponticelli (Green 78), Mullin. UNUSED SUBS: Dibble,Yeovil Town: Smith, Hunt, Staunton, Williams, Barnett, Moss, Gorman, Worthington, Wakefield, Lo-Everton (Wilkinson 88), Yussuf (Bradley 81). UNUSED SUBS: Evans, Haste.
Attendance: 8,047
Referee: David Richardson
Yellow Cards:
Wrexham – Lennon
Yeovil – Moss
Red Cards:
Wrexham – McAlinden (34th minute)
Yeovil - None
To be fair, we didn’t field a full strength side at Edgeley Park, and ought to have won when we went 4-2 up midway through the second half. However, a goalkeeping error allowed County back into the game and they scored a penalty in the 6th minute of extra time, giving us just 9 minutes to equalise under the rightly defunct silver goal rule.
The journey to Yeovil three days later saw us ship goals again, but there was no hard luck story this time. We were behind at half time to a goal by Kevin Gall, who would spend an unhappy season at The Racecourse 6 years later.
After the break we capitulated, conceding in the first minute of the second half and finding ourselves four goals down with 25 minutes left. Chris Armstrong (above) scored with two minutes left, but it was nothing more than a consolation.
POTENTIAL MILESTONES
If Wrexham score, we will set a club record by scoring in each of our first 14 away games in a season.