Football: Will Johnson walk through the town with his flock?

TEN years ago tonight on April 28, 2003, and three men who were instrumental in Yeovil Town’s Nationwide Conference title success were being presented with Honorary Citizenship of the Town accolades.

The club’s then majority shareholder Jon Goddard-Watts, club chairman John Fry and manager Gary Johnson received their awards at a civic reception hosted by Yeovil Town Council at the Westland Leisure Complex.

PHOTOS: Yeovil Town chairman John Fry and manager Gary Johnson (above) at the recent ten-year anniversary event of the Glovers' Nationwide Conference title success of 2002-03; and (right) Gary Johnson at Huish Park following the npower League One match with Crewe Alexandra on April 20, 2013.

The then Mayor of Yeovil, Cllr Julian Freke, presented them with the highest honour available locally and praised them for what they had achieved.

The award had only been presented twice before – to cricket legend Ian Botham in 1983 and Polar explorer Ann Daniels in 2000.

The idea behind making the award came from the Yeovil Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

The civic reception marked the end of three days of celebration. Earlier that day the team had enjoyed an open top bus tour through the town where they were greeted by thousands of supporters.

The previous night the club had held a celebration party at Westland Leisure Complex for supporters who mingled with the Conference-winning players.

While on Saturday, April 26, 2003, was one of those ‘magic’ days for all supporters of the Glovers – it was the day when club captain Terry Skiverton was presented with the Nationwide Conference championship trophy following a 1-1 draw with Chester City at Huish Park.

Ten years on and, if everything goes according to plan, who is to say that those celebratory events of 2003 could be outshone with npower League One play-off success.

Ten years ago and Johnson joked that he understood that being given Honorary Citizenship of the Town meant he was able to walk through the town with a flock of sheep.

If he steers Yeovil Town to The Championship later this month – it would be great to see him finally turn that quip into reality with some woolly four-legged friends!

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Yeovil Town FC.