Yeovil Town prefer to play the top sides (From Somerset County Gazette)

Yeovil Town prefer to play the top sides

10:26am Saturday 10th May 2008

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YEOVIL Town would have been a top ten side this season - if the league was based on the club's results against the teams that finished the 2007-08 campaign in the upper half of the table.

Stastics show that Yeovil, who finished a lowly 18th in the table, would have been tenth had it been based on results against the teams who finished in the top half.

Yeovil chalked up eight victories and three draws in their 22 matches with clubs that finished the seasons in positions 1-12.

Those eight wins included "league doubles" over Doncaster Rovers who finished third, Brighton & Hove Albion (7th) and Northampton Town (9th).

The other wins came against Carlisle United (4th) and at champions Swansea City on April 19 - a surprise victory which ensured Yeovil's League One survival.

Incidentally all but one of those eight matches ended 2-1 to the Glovers.

The only team from the bottom half of the actual table to do better than the Glovers against sides from the top half were Yeovil's West Country rivals, Bristol Rovers, who notched 30 points from their 22 games.

More worrying, for Yeovil, however is that their record against teams that finished in the bottom half of the table was poor with just six wins and seven draws - which, if turned into league table, would have seen them in 21st place, a spot in the relegation zone.

Ironically, Bristol Rovers also did badly against teams in the lower half and they would have finished in 23rd spot with just five wins against the bottom 12 sides!

Yeovil's nine defeats against teams in the lower section of the table were Millwall (17th, twice), Leyton Orient (14th), Crewe Alexandra (20th, twice), Swindon Town (13th), Luton Town (24th), AFC Bournemouth (21st) and Hartlepool United (15th).

Although hindsight is a wonderful thing and supporters can talk about the "ifs, buts and maybes" for ever more, the statistics do not lie and nine defeats against those sides equates to 27 points...a tally which would have been good enough to have put Yeovil into the play-offs.

Easy to say that on paper though...!

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