Feeling depressed after Monday's 3-0 defeat at The Lawn ? Convinced that was as bad as it could ever have been ? Worried that the New Year's Bank Holiday match will be more of the same ? What short memories you all have! Ciderspace takes a trip down memory lane, aided and abetted by Will Ranner, who has recently opened his new Up The Glovers Site, as we find out that Monday's match was quite a pleasant day in comparison to what has gone before ......

At least you saw a football match on Monday. Last year, Yeovil fans were treated to the soft Gloucestershire tones informing us that our match with Forest Green was most definitely on, and so we all looked forward to our first trip to The Lawn. Not everyone went the full distance, but there were many of us who did, and the pitch inspection consisted of a single spike of a pitch fork in the ground, followed by the shake of a head by the match referee. A wasted day for us lot in other words, but at least we didn't lose!

Go back to Boxing Day 1997, and we were subjected to an ancient bald bloke rattling in two second half goals for Cheltenham, as Graham Roberts accused his side of having had too much turkey and not enough training. He was about right. Clive Walker scored with one free kick, and one tap-in from a Dale Watkins cross, and it was only Tony Pennock that stopped it from turning into a right thrashing.

For the previous season, we didn't even see a full 90 minutes. The Huish Park game against Oxford City was called off after 22 minutes, with the score at 0-0. You may like to know that referees get paid their full whack after 20 minutes of play. Anything less and they have to put up with travelling expenses. This is of course completely irrelevant in the analysis of why the match referee suddenly decided it was time to go home just as the pitch began to thaw out.

One pitch that certainly didn't thaw was the one at Worthing for Boxing Day 1995. The game was played on an ice-rink of a pitch down in Sussex, and despite goals from Guiliano Grazioli and Warren Patmore, Yeovil slumped thanks to three goals scored by the Isthmian League's bottom club. Sound familiar ?

As you go back through the years, it all has a nasty aura of repetition. Scenes of devastation as scores of disasters against Farnborough, B*th C*ty and W*ym**th are added to the memories ...... all far too scary to talk about, and certainly not good for therapy. In fact you have to go all the way back to 26th December 1987 for a home match against Farnborough Town to find goals from Gerry Pearson and Steve Rutter giving Yeovil their last Boxing Day success with a 2-0 win.

If there's evidence to suggest that Yeovil Town Football Club is guilty collectively of indulging in too much turkey, then when it comes to New Years Eve, it appears they are all tucked up in bed by 10:30pm with a mug of cocoa and out for their regular morning jog round the block at 6:00am the next day. Don't believe us ? Well, read on!

Of course, no-one is going to forget the fantastic team performance served up at Ninian Park in January 1999, as we halted Cardiff City in their tracks. Cardiff may have stuck six past Chester City in the first round, and four past Hartlepool in their previous league game, but a Carl Dale goal put them six minutes away from going out of the FA Cup. We won't mention "what happened next", but the day itself was one to coat the club in glory.

For the previous season, we forgot our abysmal 2-0 defeat at Whaddon Road on Boxing Day, and turned it into a 3-1 triumph, in gale-force winds and driving rain. Dean Chandler headed in a Micky Engwell corner, Owen Pickard added to it, and despite a Dale Watkins goal, a Steve Stott penalty put Graham Roberts in a somewhat better mood than seven days previously, saying "We were up for it today and I am sure we would have won whatever the conditions". The win ended a 17 match unbeaten run by the eventual FA Trophy winners.

The season prior to the Cheltenham game saw matches postponed due to bad weather, but for the 1995/96 season, two Grazioli goals, plus one from Wazza and a fourth from Martin St Hilaire gave Yeovil a 4-1 victory over Hendon.

The pattern of excellence on New Years Day is as strong as the pattern of ineptness on Boxing Day. Coincidentally, you have to go back to 2nd January 1988 - the season of the last Boxing Day success, to find the last New Years Day failure. A 3-0 defeat at Wokingham Town, with a certain Mickey Spencer leading their front line, came days before Yeovil's FA Cup Third Round tie with Queens Park Rangers.

Forest Green Rovers ? We ain't finished with you yet!