FIFTY-FIVE years ago today and Yeovil Town became the talk of the football world when their bunch of part-time players knocked the mighty Sunderland out of the FA Cup Fourth Round at a packed sloping pitch of Huish (written by Steve Sowden).

It was a game that made Yeovil forever feared cup-fighters and the names of player-manager Alec Stock, goalkeeping hero Dickie Dyke and match-winner Eric Bryant etched themselves into the annals of Glovers folklore.

Now Yeovil have to rediscover that same fighting spirit of 1949 in order to get their season back on track -- their first in the Football League.

Current boss Gary Johnson has certainly eclipsed the achievements of the renowned Stock by bringing the FA Trophy and the Nationwide Conference title to Huish Park.

But Johnson, himself a master of man-management in a similar fashion to Stock, will have to use every inch of his unquestionable motivational skills to rejuvenate a side that has now fallen to five defeats in the past six matches.

Perhaps there is a link between that Yeovil side of 1949 and today's squad of 2004. Stock's cup giant-killers, who eventually went out 8-0 at Manchester United in the Fifth Round, finished the season in a disappointing eighth spot.

Following on from all the hype -- before and after -- Yeovil's Third Round clash with Liverpool at Huish Park earlier this month it would appear that the Glovers' form has slumped with depressing defeats against Carlisle United and Leyton Orient coming in the past two weeks. Johnson said: "The Liverpool game might have something to do with it.

"But we did everything we could to make sure it didn't effect us and we did win our first game after the Liverpool match (1-0 against Rochdale)."

Johnson has been regrouping his players this week in readiness for Saturday's vitally important clash with lowly Macclesfield at Huish Park.

"The players are chomping at the bit to get going," he said. "They have been disappointed and want to show what they can do.

"We've been working very hard this week. We've been working our proverbials off!"

Johnson could understand why supporters -- some of whom booed his players at half-time last Saturday for a poor performance -- were getting frustrated.

"I can accept that," he said. "We've got to be professional enough to take the flak when we are losing just as well as the adulation we receive when we are winning things."

Master motivator Johnson sometimes, perhaps, needs motivating himself.

But he said: "The football club motivates me because we are all want to go in the same direction. The enthusiasm my staff and players show me on a Monday morning after a bad weekend motivates me."