TERRY SKIVERTON TESTIMONIAL: A tribute to Skivo! (From This is The West Country)

TERRY SKIVERTON TESTIMONIAL: A tribute to Skivo!

9:00am Friday 3rd July 2009

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IT does not seem that long ago when Yeovil Town had to make the long haul journey north for the opening game of the 1999-2000 season in the Nationwide Conference with a “trip to the seaside” at Scarborough.

The date was August 14, 1999, and the British summer did not fail to disappoint with a day of wintery conditions of torrential rain, gale force winds and hailstones the size of golf balls!

To compound matters even worse was the fact Yeovil slumped to an embarrassing 5-0 defeat!

On the bench that day for Yeovil was newly-signed defender Terry Skiverton who had been drafted in by the then head coach Colin Lippiatt during the pre-season along with Jason Eaton, David Norton and Adrian Foster.

But little did anyone realise back then that Skivo would go on to become the Glovers’ most successful ever captain and still be at Huish Park ten years later…as player-manager!

Back then Yeovil Town were nothing more than an average Conference side who were beginning to tinker with the “big guns” in the division with thoughts of Football League status and FA Trophy glory still just merely a long-held dream.

But little did anyone realise that Skivo would help to lead the club into turning those dreams into reality and go beyond the wildest expectations of football romance.

Skivo has now featured in 382 games for the Glovers and is tenth in the club’s all-time record appearance maker’s chart. I have witnessed the majority of those – with him, in the main, wearing the captain’s armband with pride.

During the past decade he has put in commanding performances in defence, but for all the memories it is some of the goals that he has scored that live longer for me.

He opened his league scoring account for Yeovil with a brace in a memorable 5-2 victory over Brian Talbot’s Rushden and Diamonds at Huish Park in November 1999, has had an uncanny habit of netting numerous last-minute winners or equalisers, while he has also come up trumps with some of my most favourite goals of all-time.

It is my opinion that Skivo scored arguably the most important goal in the club’s history on February 23, 2002, at Doncaster Rovers. It was an FA Trophy fourth round replay and having fought back from 3-0 down to 4-4, extra-time looked inevitable in what had been an amazing second-half.

But then Skivo struck right at the death with a blistering shot from the edge of the box to give Yeovil an unbelievable victory. But that goal gave Yeovil the belief; the belief that they could beat the odds and gave the belief that the Glovers could turn all those dreams to fruition. And the rest, you could say, is history.

We have had our run-ins down the years, don’t get me wrong, but he has become nothing short of a Yeovil Town legend and the past decade has been a pleasure to watch.

Scarborough does seem a long way away now….

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