Opposition Overview: Yeovil Town
Chris Millington’s Solihull Moors team are set to make the trip to Huish Park to take on a Yeovil Town side who are led by their current manager Billy Rowley in their latest fixture of the 2026/27 Enterprise National League season. A victory against The Glovers is of course the aim, with the Moors looking to build momentum whilst also climbing up the table.
Yeovil Town is a club with an extensive history, and it was initially founded all the way back in 1890, with them initially choosing to share their home ground with the local rugby club. However, the club was then reformed in 1895 under a new name, Yeovil Casuals, playing their football in this iteration of the club at the Pen Mill Athletic Ground. This club then changed its name to what it is today, Yeovil Town, in 1907, after there was a successful merger with Petters United, with the new club first competing ahead of the 1946/47 campaign.
As time passed, the Glovers soon earned a reputation for beating sides higher up in the football league pyramid than themselves; this includes famously beating Sunderland 2 – 1 in the Fourth Round Proper of the 1948/49 edition of the English FA Cup, which was in front of a record crowd of 17,000 people. They were defeated 8 – 0 by Manchester United in the next round.
Over the course of almost twenty years between 1955 and 1973, Yeovil managed to earn plenty of success, winning several pieces of silverware. This included as many as three Southern Football League titles, whilst also finishing as runners-up on two occasions. They then repeatedly applied to be a member of the English Football League, most notably in 1976, where they narrowly missed out on membership by a slim margin of just a few votes.
Then in 1979, Yeovil Town became founder members of the Alliance Premier League, though by 1985 they had been relegated from this division, with them then playing their domestic football down in the Isthmian League. They won the title in 1988 to get promoted to the Conference before winning the Bob Lord Challenge Trophy in 1990, and in 1997 they returned once again to the Conference after winning the title with what was a record of 101 points. This was after being relegated once again.
Following Colin Lippiatt’s spell in charge of Yeovil during the 1998/99 campaign, Gary Johnson, a famous name in the history of The Glovers, was appointed as his successor. Johnson was the manager to guide them to their first major trophy in the club’s history, winning the FA Trophy in June 2001 following a comfortable and deserved 2 – 0 victory against Stevenage Borough.
Then, in the 2001/02 season, The Glovers had an outstanding season, winning the Football Conference title by a margin of as many as 17 points. They scored 100 goals in the process, earning a grand total of no less than 95 points overall. Notable players in this era under Gary Johnson included the likes of Gavin Williams, Lee Johnson, Chris Weale, Darren Way, and Adam Lockwood, who all graced the pitch at Huish Park.
Yeovil were victorious in their opening, and first-ever, football league game against Rochdale away from home, which they were able to win 3 – 1 in the end, before going on to end the campaign as high as 8th place in the end. They also reached the Third Round Proper of the FA Cup, only losing 2 – 0 to Premier League giants Liverpool.
Under the stewardship of Johnson, they would go on to lift the League Two title after accumulating 83 points from their 46 games in the fourth tier of English Football, earning a place in League One for the first time. During this time, a takeover was completed, with David Webb taking over from Jon Goddard-Watts.
Gary Johnson then decided to leave The Glovers for Bristol City ahead of the start of the 2005/06 season, with Steve Thompson taking charge. Former Yeovil player Russell Slade then took over, and in this season, they made it to the Fourth Round Proper of the FA Cup, with them only losing to Premier League side Charlton Athletic in the end.
Under Slade, they finished as high as 5th place in League One in the 2006/07 season, finishing in the play-off spots. Despite beating English giants Nottingham Forest 5 – 4 on aggregate in the semi-finals, they went on to be defeated 2 – 0 by Blackpool in the promotion play-off final at Wembley.
They then remained in the third tier of the English Football League pyramid for some time, reaching the play-offs once again after a fourth place finish in the 2012/13 League One campaign, and they managed to reach the Championship after promotion was secured in the end. They were able to defeat the likes of Sheffield United and Brentford in the play-offs along the way.
They only remained in the second tier for one single season, being relegated back down to League One in the 2013/14 campaign. Yeovil were now going through a difficult period, with them getting relegated again the following season, finding themselves back in League Two when the 2015/16 season began. This relegation season included a high-profile FA Cup tie against Premier League giants Manchester United.
Another former player took over as manager in 2015, with Darren Way officially taking charge of The Glovers. Glover led the club to safety in their first season back in the fourth tier. Big results in this period included an 8 – 2 victory against Luton Town, but also, contrastingly, an emphatic 6 – 0 triumph against Welsh outfit Newport County.
By the end of the 2018/19 League Two season, Yeovil Town had succumbed to relegation down to the National League; however, the 2019/20 campaign was cut short due to the global pandemic that took place.
After a failed takeover of SU Glovers Limited in February 2023, the club were relegated once again, this time to the National League South in the final weeks of the 2022/23 season in April 2023. Thankfully for Yeovil, they were able to return to the fifth tier for the first time of asking by winning the sixth tier title in 2023/24.
In the 2024/25 season, Yeovil Town Football Club managed to survive in the National League after ending up with an 18th place finish, and then change came in the form of a takeover by Prabhu Srinivasan and Inflection Holdings on 29th May 2025, taking the majority shareholding.
Then, last season (2025/26), they finished a few places higher in 16th place, after they had managed to earn a total of 51 points from their 46 games in total during the campaign, and this season they will be hoping to further climb the table for a potential mid-table finish.
In the opposition dugout – Billy Rowley
Billy Rowley is the current Manager of Yeovil Town Football Club, with Rowley being appointed by the club as the latest Glovers boss back on 25th November 2025, and he now takes charge of his first full season in charge after guiding the club to what was a 16th place finish in the Enterprise National League table last term.
Rowley’s career in coaching began at Chelsea as a Development Centre Coach, which was a role that he had for a year and a half from April 2006 to August 2007 before moving on to Manhattan SC of America. He held the role as an Academy Coach, and was there for more than two years between February 2009 and June 2011.
He then returned to London in July 2012 when he was appointed as a Development Squad Head Coach, where he stayed until April 2015, and during that time he was also an academy coach with Millwall, who he joined in September 2013 and left a few months before he departed from Fulham, in February 2015.
He then moved to California in the United States when he became Academy Coach at Placer United Soccer Club from May 2017 to March 2020. Returning to England, he took charge of Walton & Hersham FC for what was his first-ever permanent managerial role, and he was there for six and a half years, from May 2020 to November 2025, when he left for Yeovil.
Key Player – Luke McCormick
27-year-old midfielder Luke McCormick is arguably Yeovil Town’s standout player, and he is their current leading goal scorer with 5 to his name to date, as of the time of writing. He will certainly be one of the players for Moors fans to look out for.
McCormick has played for numerous clubs throughout his career before joining Yeovil Town permanently back on 4th August 2025. Before joining Yeovil, he has also represented the likes of Chelsea (2019 - 2021), Shrewsbury Town (Loan, 2019 - 2020), Bristol Rovers (Loan, 2020 – 2021; 2022 - 2025), AFC Wimbledon (2021 - 2022), and finally Forest Green Rovers (Loan, 2025).
Opposition Overview written by Adam Holt
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