Yeovil Town opened the 1963/64 season in the Southern League with two defeats at Cambridge City and Bath City. Meanwhile, 1,014 people saw the Reserves open their season at Huish with a 6-2 win against Andover - the new stand being used for the first time, although there was still a lot of work to be done to complete the bars, vice presidents room and offices.

Yeovil played their first home game against Hinckley Athletic and won 8-1, Dave Taylor getting five goals. Fortunes continued to improve so that, by the time the F.A. Cup came along, the team was in fourth position in the league.

For the first time in the Club's history, the team had to leave the mainland for an F.A. Cup tie. Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, provided the opposition for the Fourth Qualifying Round match and a special train was run to Southampton to connect with the ferry to the island. In a hard fought game, a goal from Adam Moffat put Yeovil into the First Round. During the second half tempers ran high and Peter Hall, Yeovil's centre-forward, had to be restrained by the police as a fight developed on the pitch between the players.

Drawn at home to Southend United in the First Round, a goal from Terry Foley was enough to give Yeovil victory. A week later Yeovil had a great league victory at Chelmsford City - their first ever in Essex and they first met in the 1938/39 season. The draw for the Second Round of the F.A. Cup brought Crystal Palace to Huish on 7th December. By then, work was partially completed on the underside of the new stand, which was opened temporarily for this game.

Many older supporters were talking of the 1934/35 season, when Yeovil had defeated Palace 3-0 in the competition. This time, goals from Dave Taylor (two) and Ken Pound saw Yeovil into the Third Round yet again. The draw brought another home tie giving history the opportunity to repeat itself, for Bury came out of the hat. Most of the tipsters in the national press were forcasting a Yeovil victory, but two fatal goalkeeping errors saw the Second Division side progress to the next round. 12,055 attended the game, the Yeovil Team being: Jones; Herrity, Harris; Albury, Lambden, Muir; Pounder, Foley, Hall, Taylor, Pound.

By the time the F.A. Cup run was over, Yeovil were third in the league, twelve points behind Romford but with four games in hand. Romford were undefeated after playing over half their games. But they were to win only one more game in the rest of the season and slumped to fifth place.

In February, manager Basil Hayward left the Club to join Bedford Town as manager. His place at Huish was taken by Glyn Davies. He had a long playing career with Derby County and came to Yeovil as Player/Manager from Swansea Town. In the same month the Club obtained a license and the Social Club was opened officially for the first time. The Supporters Club held their first Bingo Drive in the Long Room the following month.

The Southern League Cup again saw the team put up good performances. They went out in the Fourth Round to Weymouth after overcoming Trowbridge Town, Bath City and Cheltenham Town in the earlier rounds.

By the end of March, Yeovil had risen to the top of the league - a position held right to the end of the season. The Southern League championship was back at Huish once again! The title was gained on 22nd April, when Yeovil defeated Nuneaton Borough with a Terry Foley goal, the team finishing with 63 points - four ahead of Chelmsford and six ahead of Bath City. Dave Taylor was again leading goalscorer with 48, followed by Terry Foley with 30. The team was undefeated at home and only Romford and Guildford City managed to take a point away from Huish.

In April, Glyn Davies arranged for Derby County to come to Huish to play in a testimonial game for Dave Jones, Dave Topping, Ray Lambden and Len Harris. Between them, these four players had over 30 years' service with the Club and had played in over 1,000 games. The match ended in a 3-3 draw (Derby travelling down without even charging expenses) and the 'gate' was 2,724.

In addition to those who appeared in the team against Crystal Palace, Moffat, Ashe, Watts, Chivers, Topping, Davies, Hirst and Witley also appeared in the first team.

Link: 1963-64 First Team Fixtures And Results.

Link: 1963-64 First Team Scorers.

Yeovil Town's 1964-65 squad as defending champions of the Southern League

Hopes wore high when Yeovil Town opened the 1964/65 season as current Southern League champions and an enhanced F.A. Cup reputation. But the season proved a disappointment and although Yeovil stayed well in touch with the leaders throughout the season - not losing their first match until 28th November - they slipped to fourth place. They also made an early exit from the FA Cup.

During the close season Ken Pound had been transferred to Swansea Town for £1,000.

The season had started with a 'bang', Chelmsford City being defeated 5-1 at Huish, Welton Rovers being defeated 5-4 in the Somerset Professional Cup and Burton Albion being defeated 4-1 in the annual match between the Southern League champions and Southern League Cup holders.

In September, 1964, a Junior Supporters' Club was formed. They had their own committee and over 250 youngsters joined. Each week Yeovil Town players went to their open meetings to give talks, etc. The Juniors helped the senior Green & White Supporters' Club and also ran their own coaches to away games.

When the draw was made for the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup, few Yeovil supporters were worried about the short journey up the A30 to play Salisbury (then in the Western League). However, Salisbury outplayed Yeovil on the day to deserve their 2-1 victory, Yeovil's goal coming from Bill Albury from the penalty spot.

Despite this setback, Yeovil were progressing well in the Southern League Cup, defeating Trowbridge Town on aggregate in the First Round and receiving a bye in the next. This set up a match at home to Worcester City, whose line-up included former international wingers Norman Deeley and Peter McParland. With Malcolm Hirst netting four goals Yeovil ran out easy 8-2 winners. A 0-0 draw at Hillingdon in the Fourth Round and a place in the semi-finals was beckoning, but Hillingdon won 2-1 at Huish in the replay.

On 22nd March an International XI came to Huish for the official opening of the new stand, Yeovil winning 3-0. Plymouth Argyle came the following month with their full Second Division team for Tony Pounder's testimonial game. Danny Paton made a guest appearance for Yeovil, who won an entertaining game 3-2. At the end of the season Swansea Town made an approach to the Club for the services of Glyn Davies, whom they wished to appoint manager. Yeovil demanded a fee and received £750 from the Welsh club . . . the first time ever that a fee had been paid by one club to another for the services of a manager.

A loss of £1,449 was reported for the season, the first deficit for more than twenty years.

The first team playing squad was as follows: Jones, Harrity, Read, Harris, Albury, Lambden, Muir, Pounder, Foley, Hall, Taylor, Brookes, Glyn Davies, Chilvers, Hughes, Austin Davies, Hirst, Withey, Ashe and Webber.

Link: 1964-65 First Team Fixtures And Results.

Link: 1964-65 First Team Scorers.