Yeovil Town travel to the Bescot Stadium tomorrow, where they will face Walsall in a League One match. Having dropped into the bottom four during the midweek home game against Southampton, the importance of tomorrow's game is magnified by the fact that the Saddlers sit one place below them in the latest League One Table and one point worse off. Win and the Glovers would be desperately unlucky to still be in the bottom four come Saturday tea-time. Lose and they can guarantee they will drop at least one more position in the table. Is it too early in the season to mention the great footballing cliche, the 'six-pointer'?
Both teams go into the match decidedly short of good form, although perhaps arrested the slide a little bit in midweek. Whilst the Glovers have won just once since the opening day of the season, up until Tuesday the Saddlers had lost six games in a row, with a 0-0 draw against Leyton Orient restoring a little bit of confidence to their side.
Over the past three seasons, Walsall have been a solid mid-table side, but striker Troy Deeney departed for Watford just before the season started, whilst Sam Parkin headed to St Johnstone and with captain Darren Byfield currently out with a knee injury, they are short of fire power. Midfielders Steve Jones (ankle) and Richard Taundry (knee) will also be absent tomorrow.
The Glovers have similar injury concerns, with Gavin Williams (ankle), Jean-Paul Kalala (knee), Stefan Stam and Shaun MacDonald (hip) all needing to be assessed ahead of tomorrow's game. However, the return of Rob Kiernan to parent club Watford would imply that the central-midfield area is not quite so bereft of bodies as the above might suggest - it would appear that at least some of those players have been passed fit to play. Manager Terry Skiverton has talked this week about needing to pick a settled side to bring consistent results - whether he gets that opportunity is another matter. On the plus side, he will almost certainly restore captain Craig Alcock to the side, meaning that Luke Ayling will be looking to take advantage of any midfield injury crisis that might materialise.
The two sides have met 12 times over the years, with Yeovil's record in the West Midlands of four wins in seven trips being not too shabby. Walsall have the edge in terms of recent meetings between the two sides, with four wins and a draw in the last six matches, but the most recent was a 1-0 victory to Yeovil, with former Saddlers loan striker Sam Williams doing the dirty on his former club and netting the 5th minute winner in snowy February conditions.
Tomorrow's game kicks off at 3.00p.m. with tickets available on the day, subject to a matchday surcharge. For full details see the Ciderspace guide below. If you're not going, we'll be on Twitter during the day, whilst BBC Somerset will be broadcasting live commentary on 95.5FM.
Link: Ciderspace Guide To Walsall.
Link: Good Team News ... And Bad Team News.
Link: Officials For Walsall vs Yeovil Town.
Link: GWSC Travel To Walsall.
Link: Devon And Dorset Greens Travel To Walsall.
Link: Ticketing For Walsall vs Yeovil Town.
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1 October 2010 : 
