Yeovil had good reason to be confident going into the games in Italy in June. The competition was organised such that the top English team meets the top Italian team in the final at the ground of the latter. In the 1975/76 tournament, Wimbledon made the final with just seven points, and Yeovil already had six, topping the table on goal difference.

Balanced against this was the poor overall record of the English teams in Italy. In the previous tournament, no English team won an away game, and only two got draws.

The Teramo match was seen as Yeovil's best chance, as the other game was against the excellent Parma side. However, in spite of a great performance in this first game, the result was a 3-1 defeat. Player/manager Stan Harland said: "This is the one we have to win."

Yeovil were well organised, going into the game well-trained and well-set. Other teams had taken time off at the end of the domestic season, but Yeovil kept working. Bath, in contrast, were so unorganised that they didn't even take a ball with them to Italy.

When Doug Hickton out-jumped three Teramo defenders to head a fine 55th minute equaliser, there seemed every chance that Yeovil would go on to win the game, but as Brian Thompson said afterwards: "they had all the breaks." The Gazette's John Lukins claimed that: "Never has my heart bled so much for Yeovil Town. I had seen them work so hard for this match, and for long spells they looked the better side. But Teramo had all the luck going, and they were aided by some dubious refereeing".

The Italian teams would make similar claims about the refereeing in the matches in England, I'm sure; in each country, officials were taken from the native league lists.

Yeovil had claimed two penalties, when Kevin Leigh has his shirt pulled, then when John Clancy crashed to the ground. The rain had produced English-like conditions, which should have suited the Glovers.

After weathering early pressure, Yeovil took control of the game only to go behind on 37 minutes. A ball near the left corner looked to be going to safety, but the fast Izzo pulled it back for Minozzi to blast home. Hickton's headed equaliser was well-deserved, but Teramo went on to claim victory.

They brought on sub striker Spina, and his hard shot was blocked by Mike Franklin, only for the rebound to fall kindly to the Italian, 1-2. Similarly on 86 mins another rebound was knocked home by Minozzi for 1-3.

With Bath City getting a good win against Parma, Yeovil seemed to be on the way out of the tournament. At least, until part-way through the Parma match...

Team: Franklin, Thompson, Cottle, Jones, Harland, Harrison, McMahon, Annalls, Hickton, Leigh, Clancy. Sub Cotton.

Parma report