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IT'S ALL DOWN HILL AT YEOVIL

Whatever is happening to Yeovil Town at the moment, it certainly cannot be described as non-league football.

Not only was total segregation in effect for Boston's last ever visit to the famous Huish slope, plus the additional inconvenience, veering towards paranoia at a sharp tangent/ of having to notify the club secretary and Yeovil police of any away fan's intentions of attending a game, but all potential visitors are sent a four page copy of the Huish ground regulations, which contains a few rules even the current Albanian regime would consider a little bit out of order. One of which was the regulation that "anyone waving a banner will also face ejection".

Comically, or rather it would be were it not so vindictive towards that most pre-labelled and stereo-typed of individual-the footy fan - was the regulation "no one will be admitted if they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs" (which shows there is something wrong with their vetting system because our back four got in).

In spite of being on a coach since 8am, all of our party, on arrival at the ground, where immediately escorted across the road and to the ground. Requests for food fell upon unsympathetic ears. Additionally, we were also refused entry to their social club - the police asking for a nominated spokesperson from the FBYF coach (me!) to discuss the point with their (not particularly helpful) club secretary.

In fairness the police weren't too bad, in spite of their stupidly large presence - ten policemen allocated for the 33 Pilgrims fans who had embarked upon the large journey to Somerset and, in reality, was a fairly impressive turn-out; certainly it was according to the police whose ten men allocation was for the 13 who they had been informed where travelling.

Helpfully, the police did comply with my request to ensure that some refreshments were on sale in the away end, and most of the officers chattered amicably enough: "you're no. 8's (Harry Willis) is good", though some of our younger supporters were forcibly removed from the covered enclosure to the terracing for ........ (wait for it)......singing.

After being monitored for the duration of the game by CCTV (non-league football!)/ we were then kep"t in at the end for ten minutes; this keeping supporters behind at the end appears to be for one reason only -namely to allow the home fans enough time to stage an ambush.

As for the game itself, who should be making his first full appearance for the Glovers after overcoming a chronic injury, but Paul Wilson - given away by Kerr for a paltry £13,000. The emotions experienced when Willo scored against us was similar to finding your wife in bed with another man; the feeling of it being the ultimate act of betrayal then leads to the self-questioning as to what you did wrong to ensure that they weren't happy with what you had to offer them.

Still, all three goals in our 2-1 defeat at least displayed the hallmark of quality finishing. None more so than debutante Deane, who came on as substitute after 80 minutes and promptly managed to do in ten minutes what other Boston strikers (Waitt, Danzey/ Gallagher) had failed to do all season: score. Sadly, at the final whistle, only McKenna applauded our long-distance travelling support.
See the 1989/1990 season in full at Ken Fox's BUFC site HERE

© Richard O Smith 1989 | This article orginally appeared in From Behind Your Fences, issue 8. Reproduced with permission.
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