Christmas comes but once a year but for a change this year Santa was smiling on Huish Park to give Glovers fans not only three points but some scintillating football as well.
Three points was obviously the order of the day but it was how they were produced that was the most significant thing for Yeovil.
Gary Johnson stuck with the same side that started at Leyton Orient but the first ten to fifteen minutes didn't really give us any idea of what was to come as again Yeovil started badly.
Yeovil looked somewhat disjointed early on with only a few Kevin Gall runs to show for their efforts.
On 16 minutes though Cheltenham scored when Devaney capitalised on some poor Yeovil defending and suddenly all those ghosts of Christmas past started to gather and the much needed lift of the first goal was going to the opposition not Yeovil.
But we needn't have worried as Yeovil started piling into the visitors with some absolutely superb passing play.
No matter how hard you looked you couldn't find a player playing badly from Paul Terry at the back right through to Bartosz up front.
Within five minutes the big Pole had a header cleared off the line and on 24 minutes another superb run from Kevin Gall ended with his cross going too close to Higgs in the Cheltenham goal.
The pressure was building though and on 29 minutes Yeovil scored a deserved equaliser when Cheltenham failed to clear the ball and Gall blasted home from a tight angle to make it 1-1.
Up front Bartosz and Jevons were absolutely on fire and every Yeovil attack seemed like it had a goal on the end of it with most of the ammunition coming from the splendid Mr. Gall.
It really was a virtuoso performance from the Welshman and the goal had obviously boosted his confidence and he should have made it 2-1 with a volley just wide of the post.
Two minutes from half time Yeovil did go in front though when a Darren Way cross was headed in by Phil Jevons for his 15th. goal of the season.
Yeovil were rampant and could easily have been further in front were it not for Higgs in The Robins goal.
Half Time: Yeovil Town 2 Cheltenham Town 1
Yeovil carried on just the same way in the second half, and if anything the quality of the football was even better. Make no mistake, when Yeovil play the ball around like this, they can take on anybody and Cheltenham, who had a great defensive record, were getting cut to pieces.
The flow of great balls from Johnson and Way in midfield just continued to open them up and more goals were sure to follow.
On the hour the third goal nearly came when a great cross from Michael Rose saw Bartosz Tarachulski stoop to head home but the ball just caught the post.
A minute later a chance from Jevons was again saved by Higgs, but then just to show they weren't completely out of the game, a shot from Guinan nearly caught Weale out as it hit the bar.
With all the Christmas games to think about Gary Johnson took Jevons off on 68 mins for Arron Davies to be introduced to Huish Park.
He immediately made an impact when a fine run saw his cross wasted as no one took up the offer of a shot on goal.
Every so often though Cheltenham did break and in the 77th. minute Vincent went close with a diving header and a third goal was needed to really kill of The Robins.
Three minutes later Yeovil had another shot cleared off the line as the pressure for that third goal intensified and sure enough Welshman Davies made it a great day for South Wales when again Tarachulski got the ball to him and he blasted home his second goal in as many matches to make the margin of the expected victory a lot safer.
Andy Lindegaard came on in the 81st. to add further pace and a great run and cross from him saw Gall blast over the bar again.
With the game almost over though Yeovil sealed a great victory when Arron Davies rolled the ball into the path of Paul Terry for him to cheekily lob the ball over Higgs, for Yeovil's 4th. goal.
If only every Christmas could be like this the Yeovil fans must have been thinking, but as they queued to leave the Stadium it must have been the manner of victory as much as the scoreline that will have warmed so many hearts this Boxing Day
Final score: Yeovil Town 4 Cheltenham Town 1
Sun 26th Dec 2004, 3pm kick-off.
Conditions: Cold but dry
Pitch: Good
Scorers: Martin Devaney (16), Kevin Gall (30), Phil Jevons (44), Arron Davies (80), Paul Terry (86)
Attendance: 7,320
Referee: Mick Russell (Hertfordshire)
Assistants: Ian Harris (Cornwall), Brendan Malone (Wiltshire)
Bookings:
Yeovil: Colin Miles (8, foul)
Cheltenham: Shane Duff (56, foul)
Yeovil Town : (4-4-2)
1. Chris Weale 7. Paul Terry 4. Terry Skiverton 5. Colin Miles 3. Michael Rose 9. Kevin Gall 6. Darren Way 8. Lee Johnson 27. Andrejs Stolcers 11. Phil Jevons 18. Bartosz Tarachulski
Subs: 10. Adrian Caceres 13. Steven Collis (GK) 16. Andy Lindegaard (80, for Stolcers) 17. Scott Guyett (88, for Tarachulski) 25. Arron Davies (68, for Jevons)
Cheltenham : (4-5-1)
1. Shane Higgs 15. Jeremy Gill 4. Shane Duff 23. Gavin Caines 3. Jamie Victory 2. Brian Wilson 8. John Finnigan 11. Grant McCann 22. John Melligan 7. Martin Devaney 9. Stephen Guinan
Subs: 10. Damian Spencer (63, for Guinan) 12. Scott Brown (GK) 14. David Bird 17. Kayode Odejayi (81, for Wilson) 18. Ashley Vincent (64, for Melligan)
