In The Programme - Yeovil Town

And so 2003 ends with a thump and a rousing hangover from the Potters as a thrilling and deserved victory over fellow promotion setters Yeovil brings to an end an interesting and emotional year for us Jacks.

It started with us the proverbial country mile away from league safety and with all of us looking into the crevasse of non league football and some even going towards the clutches of evil Uncle Sam (yeah right... shove a frozen parsnip up my bottom before that happens)

It ends with a great deal of 'guarded' optimism and the thoughts are turning to fresh challenges, optimism (yes that word) is starting to rear its head amongst the believers and today's result will not have stopped this train of thought.

After the Hull match i wrote a piece for Dai on www.scfc.co.uk with some thoughts about the Club and City and more importantly its followers. It was a City that came within a whisker of losing its biggest marketing tool and as I said at the time, the club and supporters if they had not quite fallen in love with each at the time, they certainly had been out on the first few dates.

Seven months on and the love affair is strong, still as frustrating but a whole lot stronger than it was and this has to be a good thing. Whiterock IS just around the corner and the team sit handily placed to make that second half of the season charge that others seem to have perfected for so long.

If the side gain the same number of points, from the remaining games this season, as they did last season we will end up with 70 points. This will I feel be too small a total for the play offs this year but there again are we saying that this squad will only win 8 games in 2004 as they did at the end of last season. For me I think a total of 77 points is more likely with 11 wins and 5 draws to come our way. Today was a massive test and not one of the challengers will relish coming to the Vetch now. There will be a lot of bravado of course from others but this will hide their nerves and tensions. We are very very well placed lets use the spring board.

Of course for me there are 3 issues to resolve, firstly Centre Half and I await with interest who Flynn decides to buy/use. Secondly has to be Roberto a man assassinated at the start of the season and I am sure the other teams at the top have bought Mr Bennett a few beers over the past few months and thirdly and lastly an argument, who if at all will Flynn bring in to keep Daps and Thommo on their toes until the end of the season. I was going to use 4 and include the Maylett factor but that's our secret and long may that remain.

The list has argued long and hard about the pros and cons of our erstwhile leader no doubt this will intensify one way or the other should results go for or against us. For me it is at present no argument, yer man has done the business and he will continue to do so.

The man has made more right decisions than wrong ones and in my book that counts a whole lot better than worse. His best decision of course has to be the the one and only Mr Lee Trundle.

Here is a young man who has rode into the city on a white charger and served up a feast for us that I have not witnessed at the Vetch for many a long year. To my dying day i will never forget the 'Day of the Shoulder Roll' and a full 10 minutes after the whistle Daps signing autographs with the Centre Stand and then jogging to applaud a still FULL North Bank still in a state of awe of what they thought they had just witnessed. PR agencies are paid a fortune to organise such events, we got it that day for £11 a head.

WE fell head over heels AGAIN with SCFC that day and Mr Flynn needs congratulating for making sure that it happened in the first place.

The title above says that this to some has been a horrible year, for me this has turned out to be the best year in the clubs history. The Club, City and supporters fell in love again and we have watched football with a smile on our face and have seen the side play SWANSEA football to the best standards we have seen for ages.

Would I support another club, say someone striving to get to the premiership but with nagging doubts over finances and the imminent threat of the bubble about to burst na dont think so.

The new stadium is imminent, the City is slowly starting to regenerate itself to another phase and welcome visitors from all parts of the world. 2003 has turned into a fantastic year for the club i love, from that moment in a Weymouth caravan park in May ( the Watches are nothing if not classy) to the 91st minute against Yeovil today, I love SCFC more than i ever did, i have met and discovered new friends, the new stadium is nearly here, we have players bringing a smile to our face and i feel bloody good

To Jacks everywhere heres to a fantastic 2004 and heres to the next couple of diamonds that Flynn discovers

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