Yeovil 1987/88, 93/94, 94/95 & 2003/04

When we interviewed Abdelhalim el-Kholti (Abdou), the first black player to represent Yeovil in the Football League, he mentioned that there had been a black player in the Yeovil team the season before him, Demba. We foolishly (and incorrectly) interpreted that to mean that Abdoulai Demba was Yeovil’s first black player, ever. That probably wasn’t what Abdou had meant and it certainly was not the case. In our, partial, defence, we did contact the club to ask who the first black player had been but they did not respond. We are grateful to Yeovil fan, Andrew Preston, for contacting us to set the record straight. We have amended the article about Abdou ^[1]https://footballs-black-pioneers.com/racism-in-football-and-yeovils-1st-black-player-abdelhalim-el-kholti/ and this page is intended to make amends for our mistake.

Andrew mentioned three black players who, to his certain knowledge, played for Yeovil before Demba. They were Neil Cordice, Andy Wallace and Mickey Spencer.

We are not making the bold claim that any of these was definitely Yeovil’s first black player, once bitten and all that, if Yeovil fans are aware of any earlier black players do let us know.

Andy Wallace

Andy Wallace was born on 30th June 1962 in Shropshire. He worked for the Metroplitan Police before becoming an accountant. Andy spent nine seasons with Yeovil, scoring 63 goals in 298 appearances. [http://www.ytfc.digital/players/992]

No doubt there were many outstanding moments in Andy’s career with Yeovil but we focus here on a game on 15th November 1993 in which he played a memorable part.

Yeovil have a reputation as one of the FA Cup’s most feared giant killers. Their David versus Goliath feats can be traced back to a 1949 victory over the mighty Sunderland. Subsequent Football League teams to succumb have included Crystal Palace (1963), Hereford United (1992 [their run that year was ended in the 3rd round by an Ian Wright hat trick for Arsenal]), Northampton Town (1998), Blackpool (2000) and Rotherham United (2005).

In 1993 they were drawn against 2nd Division Fulham ^[2]Equivalent to League One in today’s parlance.

As the report in The Independent put it:

‘A former policeman precipitated a jubilant pitch invasion at Huish Park last night. Andy Wallace, who left the Met to become an accountant, ensured that Fulham became Yeovil’s 17th League victim when he settled this FA Cup first-round tie in injury time.

Ara Bedrossian and Sean Farrell went close for a positive Fulham side and a replay appeared on the cards until Wallace intervened. Playing a quick one-two, with Richard Cooper, he engineered a path through the middle of Fulham’s defence before coolly placing his shot past Jim Stannard to inspire a mass exodus from the terraces when the whistle blew 30 seconds later.

“I’ve taken a lot of stick from the mistakes I’ve made in big matches,” the midfielder said. “Hopefully this will silence my critics.”

Whether it will increase criticism of Mackay remains to be seen although the Fulham chairman, Jimmy Hill, said: “Don is not under any pressure. It’s only people in the press.”‘

The Independent

Mackay was sacked in March.

Looking at the programme more closely it is clear that Yeovil had at least two other black players on their books at the time.

Terry Connor, coming towards the end of a career that had started with Leeds United in 1979 and included over 400 Football League and Cup games for six clubs. Terry, who played a total of 15 games for the Glovers, went on to a career in management, most notably with Wolverhampton Wanderers. 

Paul Nevin, born in Lewisham, Paul played 48 games for Yeovil and scored three goals. He had previously made eight appearances for Carlisle United in the Football League but his career was cut short by injury at the age of 24. He subsequently enjoyed a career as a coach and in 2020 was working with West Ham United’s first team.

In several games in the 1993/94 season Yeovil fielded four black players – Wallace, Spencer, Connor and Nevin – in the same team.

Neil Cordice

According to Neil’s Wikipedia page, he was born in Amersham on 7th April 1960. He played for a number of non-League clubs (in addition to Yeovil, Wycombe Wanderers, Wealdstone, Walton & Hersham, Flackwell Heath and Chesham United are listed, and the English National Football Archives [ENFA] also mentions Tooting & Mitcham). According to ENFA, Neil had two spells with Yeovil, in 1987 and 1993, but there are long gaps in his career on ENFA, a site which doesn’t attempt to cover non-League appearances. So, it is likely Neil played his first game for Yeovil in 1987.

In the second spell for Yeovil Wikipedia says he played fifty games and scored one goal. We are not convinced that’s right and the ytfc.digital site offers a more plausible 191 appearances, spread over 6 seasons with 11 goals scored. ^[4]http://www.ytfc.digital/players/992  

If Wikipedia had been right (it wasn’t) and he had scored just the one goal then it must have been the memorable one, captured on YouTube, a cracking right foot volley from well outside the box, in Yeovil’s last game at the old Huish ground. ^[5]Neil’s goal is at about the 30 second mark of this Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=J0oCzqFsqvI

Mickey Spencer