The busy period of festive fixtures continues for Yeovil Town as they make the short trip to play Bournemouth on Boxing Day.
The Glovers make their shortest journey of the campaign to take on a side that came up to the Sky Bet Championship with them last season.
The Cherries have continued where they left off last season and have settled into Championship life well, they currently lie 15th in the table and 27 points have already been accumulated by Eddie Howe’s men.
Yeovil have just come off the back of a four-match unbeaten run with a defeat against Blackburn at the weekend and will be looking to get back on track with three points.
Should they be successful, a win could take Thursday’s visitors out of the relegation zone should other results go the right way.
The one thing that the Boxing Day game can almost guarantee is goals.
In 23 fixtures this season, Bournemouth haven’t been involved in a single 0-0 draw. Staggeringly, despite having eight points more than Yeovil, Bournemouth have conceded 11 goals more than their upcoming opponents and have a worse goal difference.
If it’s a form guide you’re looking for, Bournemouth have gone on a sequence of alternating between losses and wins, should that continue into Thursday, then it should be a Yeovil win.
In fact, Bournemouth have lost their last three games at home. However, the two sides have met quite a lot in recent years and the record is firmly in the Cherries’ favour. Two wins last season (1-0 and 3-0) are backed up by the fact that the last Glovers win in this fixture was way back in 2007.
Current assistant manager Terry Skiverton was on target in a 2-1 Yeovil win on that occasion.
The locality of the sides means that some players have represented both sides. Bournemouth have got Shaun MacDonald in their ranks, the Welshmen spent a number of loan spells at Huish Park under Terry Skiverton.
Meanwhile, in the other direction, James Hayter is somewhat of a legend by the seaside while Gareth Stewart also played well over 150 times for Bournemouth.
Stewart may be needed for Yeovil’s squad again, but it’s hoped that Chris Dunn will have recovered from injury significantly enough to challenge Marek Stech for his place in the squad. Elsewhere, Byron Webster hobbled off against Blackburn and Luke Ayling picked up his fifth yellow card of the season to rule him out too.
Those two incidents mean that Yeovil will need a 50% change to the defensive line, Liam Fontaine could be at the front of the queue for a place while Joe Edwards is no stranger to playing at Right Back.
W
hat Fontaine’s expected inclusion will mean is that one of the loanees will have to miss out the Glovers can have no more than five in a match day squad.
Tickets for the game are NOT available for Glovers fans on the day of the game, so if you haven’t already got your ticket it’s too late to attend in person.
However, you can of course listen to the game on Glovers player and the YTFC Official social networks will keep you up to date with the action as it happens and the post-match reaction too.
Famous Bournemouth Fans.
A rather short list, headed by TV personality, Jayne Middlemiss and the Drummer from Bloc Party.
A Foot in both camps.
Shaun MacDonald, James Hayter, Gareth Stewart, Asmir Begovic, Leon Best, Terrell Forbes, Scott Guyett, Stephen Henderson, Marek Stech, Danny Seaborne, and 1949 FA Cup Hero, Les Blizzard,
