That was the season that was.

It seems a fairly long time since I last blogged and indeed it is a fairly long time - just over a month to be somewhat less than precise. In that time the Glovers played (and lost) their last game of the 2009-10 season and finished in 15th position in the League One table, exactly as I forecast at the beginning of the season, and to hell with false modesty!

It's worth having a quick look back at the season as a whole. Overall we must say it was a success. The main target for the management team of Terry Skiverton and Nathan Jones was survival, and that was achieved relatively comfortably in the end by the standards of recent years. The football on display at Huish Park was generally entertaining with more goals than we got used to during the Russell Slade era, albeit being scored at both ends of the pitch. Crowds were up slightly, averaging 4,664, up by 5.2% against last season's football league low of 4,432. The main disappointment was the lack of any sort of cup run, with the Glovers being knocked out in the opening round of each cup competition entered.

As far as the squad itself was concerned we were fortunate enough to watch some of the finest young talent ever seen in Yeovil Town colours. Steven Caulker I'm convinced is a Premiership star of the future and it wouldn't be the greatest of shocks to see him in the senior England side in years to come. Alex McCarthy has surely a long and fine career in the game ahead of him, sadly for us at a rather higher level than we are likely to be playing at. Ryan Mason needs to bulk up, but otherwise showed enough in the first half of the season to suggest that he too could eventually be an important addition to Tottenham's first team squad. And Shaun MacDonald in my opinion is every bit as good as the likes of Chris Cohen (currently being linked to Premiership side Boltonin a £5 million deal - we did have a sell-on clause attached to his transfer, didn't we?) and a player I would love to see back here next season if by some miracle parent club Swansea decided against offering him a new contract. And of course the icing on the loanee cake came with the return of Super Gavin Williams who almost single-handedly (it seemed at times) dragged us kicking and screaming over the finishing line to safety.

As for our contracted players, I thought Craig Alcock was the stand-out performer. As the season went on he grew into his role as captain and became in my opinion our most consistent and reliable player. Terrell Forbes and JP Kalala also enjoyed fine seasons, such a pity that Forbes has now finally left the club. Nathan Smith got better and better the more he played and Dean Bowditch showed that he can find the back of the net regularly at this level providing he can stay fit. I was generally impressed with Sam Williams but he needs to up his scoring rate if he wants to play regularly at this level. Andy Welsh and Gavin Tomlin both performed well in the main but tended to fade in and out of games. The major disappointments to me were the obvious ones - Scott Murray never lived up to his billing and Danny Hutchins wasted all the potential he had shown at the tail end of the previous season. A real shame.

There were no surprises in Skivo's release list. I felt sorry for Aidan Downes, but his injury record and lack of football was always going to count against him. Scott Murray and Andre McCollin leaving were no-brainers, and Richard Martin never came close to breaking into the first team. Six players out-of-contract were offered new deals and have until June 15th to respond. Of those six, Terrell Forbes has rejected Yeovil's offer and joined up with Russell Slade at his new club, Leyton Orient. Good luck to Terrell, he plainly wanted to leave last summer but found no takers and stayed on in Somerset to have a fine season. He'll be hard to replace, but not impossible. The remaining five offered contracts are Dean Bowditch, Nathan Smith, JP Kalala, Gavin Tomlin and Kieran Murtagh. The rumour-mill suggests that Bowditch and Smith in particular may well be looking elsewhere, which again would be a shame. But at this level no-one is irreplaceable and there have never been so many decent players looking for contracts as there are this summer. A contract offer - any contract offer - might be worth its weight in gold to any player looking to play professional football next season.

We've signed two new players so far, both on permanent deals. Highly-rated Luke Ayling spent the final month of the season on loan at Huish Park from Arsenal and it was something of a surprise to many observers when the North London outfit released him on a free at the end of the season. The 18-year-old has spent most of his career as a central defender but Skivo has so far played him as a defensive midfielder, so it will be interesting to see in which position he ends up plying his trade. Andy Williams is a 23-year-old striker/winger who chose the Glovers over a renewed offer from former club Bristol Rovers. I'm really pleased with this signing. I've been following his career with some interest ever since I noticed this kid called Williams scoring goals for Hereford a few years ago. It didn't surprise me that the Gas were willing to pay £100k for him, what did surprise me was that he didn't really kick on at the Mem. Whenever I've seen him play he's impressed me with his trickery and directness and if he can regain his Hereford form then he could be a cracking signing. Here's hoping, anyway.

Off the pitch and the board have sprung something of a surprise with the news that they are intending to form a new company - Yeovil Town Holdings Limited - and will invite shareholders in the main company - Yeovil Football And Athletic Club Limited - to exchange their shares in YF&ACL for an equal number of shares in the new holding company. Why would shareholders want to do this? I have no idea. Let's ask chairman John Fry: "Our aim is to create a Yeovil Town holding company which will enable the directors to focus specifically on the development of our football and Huish Park assets and facilitate the enhancement of our brand. The recent and current economic climate has made it considerably more challenging to secure the necessary interest in any potential club developments, and the professional advice received has indicated that it will be significantly easier to attract the appropriate investment if our property assets are separated from the football club." Fryspeak at it's best.

There's been much discussion on the Achieve by Unity Forum as to what all this actually means in practice. The obvious worry for supporters is the mooted separation of the club's 'property assets' - in other words the stadium and grounds - from the club's control. Some people have speculated that this could mean that the board are planning to sell the 'property assets' to outside investors to raise money for whatever purpose - perhaps to invest in the team (highly unlikely IMO), perhaps to build a new stadium elsewhere free of the strangling covenants that hinder any kind of improvement to facilities at Huish Park, perhaps for other reasons not yet clear. It's also been suggested that it would be somehow advantageous to the club for tax reasons. What we can say for sure is that the example of other clubs going down the same route in the past has not been encouraging. What have the likes of Stockport County, Crystal Palace, AFC Bournemouth, Luton Town, Rotherham United and (last and definitely least) Weymouth all got in common? The answer is that all have gone down the road of selling their stadiums to outside investors, and all, eventually, have ended up in administration. Now in practice the board can do what it likes. 90% of shares in YF&ACL are held by two men - club chairman John Fry and owner Norman Hayward. We know and trust that they have the best interests of YTFC at heart. It will be fascinating to see how they intend to proceed over the next few months and if they are intending to sell the stadium to outside investors (and we don't yet know for certain that this is their intention) how they plan to keep YTFC from following the bad examples of the clubs mentioned above. All will presumably become clear in time. Good luck to them, and us.

Many thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes after I revealed I was getting married in my last blog. In the event the day couldn't have gone better. The weather was kind, my bride was beautiful and even I managed to scrub up reasonably well. We had a fantastic honeymoon on the English riviera (never let it be said that I don't know how to treat Mrs Taff Glover) and are now happily ensconced in marital bliss. In other words I'm doing as I'm told, well, most of the time. Seriously, we're both very grateful for all your kind words. Cheers!