Glovers must get back to winning ways
No doubt the Huish Park faithful would love for the club to push on and give themselves a competitive chance of challenging for a play-off spot come May, but a poor run of results could see them fighting a very different battle in a few months' time. And games like this will decide which way they will go.
Southend United make the trip to Somerset today, as the Glovers look to get back on track following the FA Cup exit at the hands of Oxford United and a heavy defeat away to the high-flying Leeds.
Yeovil manager Terry Skiverton is looking to get over the recent defeats and is confident that a solid week in training can help them improve their fortunes. "It seems a long time ago now, we put that behind us and we move on," he said.
"We have had a good week's training under our belts and we go into this game a lot stronger – as a stronger squad as well as a stronger team.
"We have worked on our shape all week, looking at the way we are going to play and it's worked out well, so hopefully we can transform that training form into a game scenario."
The former Yeovil captain knows that his side will be up against it as they take on a club reeling from financial troubles in recent weeks. "It just seems every team that we come up against has had some sort of financial problems and we have our own," he added.
"They've got some decent strikers with good movement and with people like [Adam] Barrett at the back, they've got some real committed performers. We know what to expect and we now how to respond.
"We've been playing well recently, we've been passing the ball around well, we've been creating lots of opportunities and I think we've scored quite a lot of goals this season.
"For us there are positives, there are more positives than negatives and we go into this game this weekend expecting to put on a good show."
Town welcome ex-Ipswich Town striker Dean Bowditch back for contention following his dislocated shoulder and Skiverton is confident that the youngster will not have a repeat of the injury.
"For the last two weeks he's had full contact and going into this game at the weekend there's nothing structurally wrong with the shoulder now, so it's all healed," he explained.
John Obika, Shaun MacDonald and Ryan Mason returned to their parent club Tottenham Hotspur, to play in a friendly during the week, and Skiverton was understandably delighted to see Obika net four times in a 7-1 victory over Crystal Palace.
"It's just a shame it was for Tottenham and not Yeovil Town!" he joked. "It's good for their confidence to go back. That's the relationship we have with Tottenham. They go back every now and again just so they can see how they've progressed and they had a real good run out in the week, all three of them."
But while the young manager cannot wait to get into today's game, he is more than happy to finally have a home tie after three away trips on the bounce.
"We're back at home again, that was our third away game on the spin which isn't really nice.
"We had Bristol Rovers away and then Leeds away but you've got to do it and when you do get at home you've got to start taking points. So what we have in our minds is to put in a good performance for the supporters and put that result last weekend away."
If the Glovers claim victory over the Seasiders today they will move above them in the table, and could do as high as tenth.
Yeovil's Dean Bowditch is helped off the pitch by Richard Atkinson after dislocating his shoulder
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