L1: Yeovil 4 Hartlepool 0

Friday morning and I woke up with a headache, aching sinuses and a fever. But enough of my better half's problems, I felt fine and was looking forward to my trip to HP on Saturday to witness the second coming of Super Gav, aka Gavin Williams in the match against Hartlepool.

Oh bitter fate. Saturday morning and I was the one with the headache, the aching sinuses and the fever, but being a man, I had it bad. I could no more have got up to go to the football than I could have got up and walked to the moon; so I missed Super Gav's return and his part in the 4-0 win over the Monkey-Hangers. I missed Gavin Tomlin's penalty that put us 1-0 up, I missed Super Gav's super free-kick that put us 2-0 up, I missed Super Gav's super lob that hit the woodwork and then rebounded in off a Hartlepool defender to put us 3-0 up, and I missed Dean Bowditch's stunning solo effort that made it 4-0 to the Glovers. I also missed Super Gav retaliating to a late tackle which led to him receiving a red card which means he now misses the next three games. Bloody hell!

That's 3 wins out of the last 4 games which leaves the Glovers 11th in the table on 44 points from 36 games played. I personally think that will be enough for safety this season, I can't see any of the bottom 4 pulling back the 11 points they need to get to us, though doubtless Skivo will be continuing to crack the whip in training to get us as high up the table as he can.

And talking of Skivo, it was interesting to hear Steve Claridge's comments on the gaffer in the Football League Show on BBC1 last night. IPATHLYK commented that in his opinion the two outstanding manager's in the division this season were Paul Lambert at Norwich City and our very own Skivo. Lambert for the turn around at Carrow Road which now sees the league leaders finally punching their weight after a poor start to the season; and Skivo for his achievement in leading the smallest club in the division with the smallest budget to the top half of the table. Not often I agree with anything Claridge says, but he's got this spot on. Skivo (and Nathan Jones) deserve huge credit for the way they've approached the season. Most of their permanent signings have contributed well and their loan signings have been uniformly excellent. We've looked fitter as a team than we have for a long time and we at least try to play passing football, even if we don't always succeed. Sure, there have been disappointments - Scott Murray, Danny Hutchins and the FA Cup defeat at Oxford stand out - but on the whole the season has gone as well as it could have gone given the limitations a club the size of Yeovil has.

We've seen the last of Ryan Mason at Huish Park, at least for this season. Quite rightly both Skivo and Spurs have come to the conclusion that the player will be better off with some rest and recupuration at Spurs Lodge rather than trying to play through injury for the rest of the season. Ryan was superb for us during the first half of the season but began to struggle as the weather and the pitches deteriorated. There's no doubt in my mind that he's got a big future in the game if he can develop the physique and physical stamina to compete against the top players. The best of luck to him, I'm sure all Glovers fans will watch his career with huge interest.

The Glovers are in action again on Tuesday evening, making the long trip to Carlisle for a rearranged game. The bookies make the home side evens favourites, the draw is 12/5 and a Yeovil win 11/4. My fiver's going on the draw. Running total: +£6.62p.

Just read: Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd. I didn't expect to but I ended up more-or-less enjoying this, a way overlong (1400+ pages!) history of human habitation of the Salisbury area, seen through the eyes of six families and their descendents. Having said that it's too long (1400+ pages!) it did just about manage to keep my interest until the end. Parts of it are excellent, other parts could have been happily junked. I don't think I learned anything new from it, other than perhaps not to read such big books in future. I've got the author's Dublin to read waiting on my shelves, but I think it will be waiting a while before I do eventually pick it up. Something shorter for me next!