Hello, guten tag and bonjour. We’ve caught the travel bug and can’t wait to see where the Boro’ bus is taking us next… ah. Yeovil. Can that be right? Well, it looks like it. Just three weeks after we last ventured out to the wild west to check up on our old chums, we’re heading back for what will be a milestone 25th meeting between Yeovil Town and Stevenage. Or Satanage, if they prefer.
If we want to be brutal in our truth delivery, this could well be the last trip we make to Huish Park for a fair while. It’s unlikely to be the nine-year stretch we saw between 2002 and 2011, but the Glovers are hurtling towards a third successive relegation. Since we met last month, this weekend’s hosts have struggled to score ZERO goals, lost a manager and sunk to the bottom of the 92.
Not that we’re counting our chickens at BoroGuide HQ – mainly because we’re white-collar workers and we don’t have any. But if we start crowing too much, Yeovil may bring up our woeful defensive record, rubbish form on the road and the fact that they still managed to beat Maidstone United (yeah, them) despite their current woes. And the promise of that new manager bounce. Ah.
We’re not paying too much attention to league form for this one. Yeah, Yeovil have lost 60% of their matches at home and haven’t kept a clean sheet indoors since the beginning of time – but we didn’t exactly crush their spirits on our last visit. Nor did we go by the book when we, having been battered by Oxford one week, pulled the pants down on the leaders of the league above the next.
The bookies must think we’re still too much of a liability on the road, Yeovil heading the odds for this one (28/17, Marathon) and Boro’ coming in at a best price of 24/13 (888sport). You can get 14/19 on Both Teams To Score once again (10Bet), with another 2-2 draw priced at 14s (multiple). Chris Whelpdale is 5/2 to continue his scoring run, but we’ve called it so now it won’t happen.
A spot in the FA Cup Third Round is up for grabs, and we all know what that means at this level of the game. Yeovil want it, Boro’ want it – only one can have it. And the idea of a replay? Well, we’ve all got bigger fish to fry as far as the league goes – and some of us have a bigger fish than others. Yep, that’s right Yeovil, you don’t really need the hassle of an extra cup fixture. So be a love, eh?
• This is likely to be the last BoroGuide blog this side of Christmas. We’re planning to tart ourselves up a bit for 2016, so there will be a bit of downtime over the festive period and we’d like to get it right. Obvs.
BoroGuide’s Yeovil Town club profile – go on, refresh your memory…
