Well in! (Second pun in a week, I am on fire!)

Every so often there are moments when football treats you, and it appears that this week wants to be one of those occasions (I am sure Saturday at home to Basingstoke will change my opinion!) as after the dramatic, and deserved late equaliser against Chelmsford City, the Romans welcomed top of the table Welling United to Twerton.

Welling provided our first opposition of the season on a ludicrously hot August day, when optimism was still in the air, before the cold winter killed it stone dead. Kurtis Guthrie who scored 6 in 13 for City, returned with the visitors, however, young Kurtis hasn't scored for Welling, and was missing his fantastic hair sporting a shaved head.

Chamberlain, Preece and Low started, meaning that Griffin, Jones and Allen dropped to the bench. The pitch was remarkably in good nick, given how poor it was looking on Saturday a doff of the cap to the people involved in getting it playable.

City started brightly, and swarmed all over Welling, very early on Chamberlain hit a shot wide of the post having worked some space for himself. The same player was released very shortly afterwards, by a beautifully weighted ball, but he was unceremoniously pulled down by Anthony Acheampong, who was clearly the last man, bizarrely the referee decided to only book Acheampong, who despite being a giant fell over (read dived) whenever a stripe went near him, and generally was a cheating, but surprising rubbish nob.

Brown hammered the resulting freekick low, but the shot was well held by Jamie Turner, Welling's reserve and surprisingly tubby goalkeeper. To be fair to the stand in, despite his rotundness his experience shone through during the night, and he pulled off some brilliant saves, including a second half full stretch save from a Connolly volley that was destined for the net.

Despite City's vast superiority Welling should have taken the lead, when on 12 minutes the ball was played to a Welling striker unmarked, less than 12 yards from goal, somehow, miraculously the ball got stuck between the forwards feet and a quick to react Mellor managed to get the ball away.

Welling despite being top of the table, looked devoid of any ideas, or to be honest any real quality, and City always looked the more likely to score. When the goal did arrive, it was a thing of amazement for many reasons! Just after the half hour mark, Chamberlain harried the centre back and goalkeeper, before Noah Keats snuck up on the second centre back who'd received the ball from the keeper, Keats robbed the player, but the chance appeared to have gone, as he was forced wide, the ball was played back to Burnell, who chipped an exquisite ball, than an on rushing Sekani Simpson took in his stride, his first touch rounding the keeper before calmly slotting the ball home with his left!

Unbelievable scenes, as Simpson scored his first league goal since 2008, and apparently first at home since the Southern League days. Simpson celebrated with a brilliant  nonchalant swagger, which seemed to scream "yes I am that good!"

The half time went with City winning 1-0.

Welling made a succession of changes after the half, but very rarely did they threaten City, and the stripes always looked more likely to score again. The giant centre back who should have been sent off earlier continued to trip, and push with no fear.

Eventually though, the red card Welling United seemed intent on receiving happened, there were some crunching tackles in quick succession before Welling substitute Giannoulis Fakinos (what a name!) leapt in, studs showing and connected with Adam Connolly, the red was instantly flashed, and a yellow followed to a Welling player who said too much.

With Welling down to 10 men, the fear of Kurtis Guthrie, who'd come on in the 53rd minute weirdly playing on the wing, scoring to haunt City receded. In fact  City should have scored a second, when in the dying seconds Kerry Morgan was fed by Connolly, but the Welsh winger, scuffed his first time shot tamely into the keepers hands.

It was not to matter though, as the whistle went shortly afterwards, and City had won, producing their best overall performance since the 2011 season when we finished 10th in the Conference. Superb by the men in black and white, and given the fear of getting nothing from the games against two teams from the top of the table has yielded 4 points. Onwards and upwards! Up the City!

All hail breaks loose (awful pun I apologise!)

The first of what is meant to be 3 home games in 8 days (emphasis on meant to be, more on that later) was the visit of Chelmsford City to Twerton. Having not played at home in the league since the last gasp equaliser against Truro, it was nice to be back down Twerton, although a chat in the pub beforehand revealed that we have only won three (3) games at home since August, a depressing stat if ever there was one!

The game was to be notable for a few reasons, in Dover we had met some American girls, who were travelling Europe and had given them a memorable first night in England (look at the post below for photographic proof!) and they had decided to take Palmer up on his charitable offer of hospitality, and visited Bath, and were to experience their first “soccer” game at glorious old Twerton Park.

That was good news, but even better news, was the return of the messiah, the King’s return, the return of Jim Rollo! Yes, City’s stalwart of the previous decade, record appearance holder and all round good chap had returned to the stripes after 10 weeks at Chippenham.

The weather had taken it’s toll on the matches across the Conference South, and our pitch was also looking worse for wear, how they got the game on I do not know.

Chelmsford had lost to Hornchurch in the week, and we feared a reprisal and the Clarets swarmed over the stripes early on. Mellor had to be at his best to repel the early chances, and Chelmsford looked destined to score, so it was more than a bit of a surprise when City took the lead on 9 minutes.

Ryan Charles (recently signed, and on his 7000^th club) was fouled on the edge of the area, Aaron Brown whipped a cross in, there appeared to be multiple touches and flicks, until the ball fell at the feet of Gethin Jones, who bundled the ball home from close range. 1-0, and the goal seemed to spur City into action, with both Connolly and Griffin having chances.

Nevertheless, Chelmsford were still looking very dangerous, and their number 9 in particular had many opportunities. Noah Keats stung the keepers hands, and both Dan Ball and Ryan Charles followed up well.

Ball was having a commanding game at centre half, and he is one I fear we may lose to a bigger team come the summer, if only his more experienced colleagues could play at the level Ball does, then our defence would be water tight. Sadly, this was not to be the case, Burnell misplaced his pass to Justin Miller, and the midfield smashed his shot home from well outside the area, the finish was sublime and gave Mellor no chance, but Miller should never have received the ball in the first place.

City almost immediately regained the lead, when a cross and a scramble led to the ball dropping by Ryan Charles’ his shot however, rolled agonisingly wide of the post with the keeper rooted to the spot. Chelmsford then had a brilliant chance that Dan Ball somehow cleared off the line, the goal was due though, and due to Gethin Jones trying to execute a Cryuff turn and pass in the last moments of the half when he clearly should have just cleared the ball, a unbelievably scruffy goal was scored by Bakare. To add to the annoyance, the ball hit the post before trickling over the line. The half time whistle blew, and the Chelmsford fans celebrated like they had won the game.

Josh Low came on for the shockingly bad Burnell during the interval, and the tall wideman had a brilliant game, injecting some much needed pace and directness to the midfield. The Romans, attacked with purpose throughout the half, Griffin drove a shot narrowly wide, the same player couldn’t quite connect to a Ryan Charles cross deep to the back post, and Charles’ himself couldn’t convert with his head following a Low cross.

With City committing men to attack, there were inevitable gaps at the back, and if Bakare could finish Chelmsford could have been out of sight, as he had many presentable opportunities.

During the half, a hailstorm could be seen making it’s way over from Lansdown, with the hillside and eventually Weston disappearing behind the deluge, when it arrived at Twerton Park it was precipitation on a biblical weather, and the hail began to settle onto the pitch, slowly turning it white and driving the Bath Enders into the Popular Side, this though seemed to increase the atmosphere and a bellow and roar greeted every attack and every chance and it felt like something must happen.

Mellor thwarted a couple of attacks, and then the young keeper was sent up for a corner, joy of joys, one of those rarely seen sights at a game, but always enjoyed. The ball went no where near Mellor and was cleared to Bakare with Mellor deep in the Chelmsford half, Bakare fired the ball towards the unguarded net, but thankfully his aim was array and it drifted harmlessly to the left of the goal.

A Brown drive led to a corner, where Ball connected with a header which was cleared off of the line, I thought Charles’ was pulled down in the ensuing scramble but nothing was given. The stripes would not be denied though and in the 93^rd minute, Josh Low received the ball on the wing, we screamed at him to cross, but Low thought better and cut inside the full back before picking out his cross. A delicate chipped ball alluded the keeper and the defence to be met by Noah Keats at the back post, his header found the net and Twerton Park erupted! For the second home game in succession City had snatched a late, late equaliser. They almost took all three points, when a long throw in the last seconds was cleared away by desperate Chelmsford defenders.

A cracking game, played in bizarre conditions, that proved if the stripes can play and battle like the did in the second half, then talk of relegation will prove to be premature. The weather though has potentially killed off any hopes of the Welling United game on Tuesday being played, as the pitch was ruined which is shown by the picture below. 

If they make this pitch playable I'll be impressed!

Another ridiculous away day - Dover Athletic

As seems to be becoming a bit of a seasonal tradition, a away game a bloody long way away was chosen to be one that would be visited, and combined with an over night stay (two years ago Barrow, last year Gateshead) this season it fell to Dover away to be the overnight stop, given that it coincided with Paul Hill’s birthday meant it worked out particularly well.

There were to be 8 stripes alighting at Bath Spa, and another one would join us in Kent (at Ashford) meaning we had good numbers for a little jolly boys outing. The train from Bath Spa, was 7:17, which meant getting up at 6, wasn’t too bad really, although did have a little rest on the train (see below…) The superbly priced £33 pp group four savers were purchased and away we went.

A quick close of the eyes...

Going into Kent, as the games at Welling and Tonbridge Angels showed that a change from Paddington to Charing Cross is needed. As we all know from previously Charing Cross is right next door to The Harp, my favourite London pub and winner of CAMA pub of the year in 2011.

As it wasn’t even 10am, we piled into a café next door and tucked into varying sizes of breakfast, while Chris Welch ordered the “Country Breakfast” now we all expected a large breakfast to appear, but what actually arrived was a mountain of food that left the hungover Welch seriously considering the choices he had made, he manfully finished over ¾’s of the Solsbury Hill sized plate, but the final quarter had him beaten.

Under Nelson's column prebreakfast

We took the 4 steps into The Harp and were treated to the superb array of ales on offer, a pleasant two hours or so, were spent in the pub, before we headed back to Charing Cross and took the two hour train down to Dover.

From Dover it was two taxi’s to just outside The Crabble, with time for a swift pint in The Cricketers (sadly like the pubs of Dover it was nothing to write home about) ale consumed we started to enter the ground, and I witnessed something I never had before. The entrance to the ground is up a bit of a slope (I do mean a little slope, it’s not on the level of the hill up to The New Lawn, or even Shophouse Lane) but unbelievably the have a golf kart that is used to drive people up and down the hill, how you get use of this I have no idea, but I have never seen anything like it at a ground before!

Seriously the hill wasn't big enough to warrant this!

After a turnstile confusion, where insulting the lady behind the counter didn’t believe me and Tim were under 18, we entered the ground. The Crabble is actually a decent looking ground, with two covered terrace ends, and set within a wooded area. They to have pumped for the Salisbury City style video scoreboards, but these thankfully are not as epilepsy inducing as the ones at The Raymond McEnhill Stadium.

Dover almost scored in the first minute, but after that let off City roared into the game and were playing much the better football. Aaron Brown was playing well down the left, and crossed a ball over that Griffin hit narrowly over the bar. Adam Connolly then had a little burst and hit a longish shot from 20 yards towards goal that hit the angle and rebounded away, then came City’s best of the early chances, Brown galloped down the left and floated over and exquisite cross which Charlie Griffin rose to power home, however, the frontman only managed to  power his header straight at Mitchell Walker who turned the ball over the bar. Griffin should really have done better with his header, but the stripes were playing well, and the songs were flowing as readily as the ale had earlier.

From a corner Dan Ball almost scored, before Mark Preece missed with a header, that like Griffin he should have done better with. So with Dover Athletic rattled and City playing well, it was only a matter of time until City scored, or so we thought, rather typically against the run of play Dover scored.

A freekick was given away in an innocuous position, the ball was floated in and Jason Mellor seemed to come out to collect it, somehow a miscommunication between him and Preece meant that the big centre half got a touch on the ball which knocked it past Mellor, falling to Ben May who tucked the ball home gleefully from short range.

Against the run of play City had conceded, but City continued to play. Again Aaron Brown was involved, his ball was brought down by Griffin and the big centre forward span deftly and fired a curling effort towards goal, me and the stripes around me were convinced it was going in, so when it flashed just wide of the post the strangled celebrations were heartfelt.

The half time whistle blew with the score 1-0, and we wandered around to the other end and put as many flags up as we could fit on the stand. In the second half City were less adventurous as Ricky Modeste had a few chances, and Dover seemed to keep Bath City penned into their own half a bit more.

Then came the knock out blow, from a Dover corner the ball fell to Gethin Jones, the Romans captain hit an attempted clearance that rocketed into the back of his own net, in fact the strike was so crisp and so powerful that I didn’t realise it was an own goal until after the final whistle when an supporter told me it was, and Dave Phillips commentating on mixlr also described it as a cracking shot not realising the finish had been applied by Gethin.

City never wilted and kept pressing, but with the exception of a Griffin volley which hit the side netting, no more efforts of note occurred, however, the stripey faithful continued to sing, and much enjoyment was had out of renditions of Flying Pickets “Only you” and a new song extolling the virtues of a Twerton night out to the tune of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” (although you might know it as you fill up my senses) was sang time and time again, as it is ace!

After the game, we continued to sing as we made our way back to The Cricketers. Afterwards, we headed to our accommodation The Castle, which had a hostel upstairs, and had kindly bought a barrel of ale in especially for the staying City boys. A nice barrel of One Hop, which was soon drank dry. The intention was always to go out into Dover, but getting settled in a warm boozer, that basically let us do what we wanted and had plentiful beer on meant that idea died on its arse, and we ended up getting on it in the Castle.

A clear sign things have got out of hand!

This night truly got out of hand, we met a 18 year old American girl on her first night in England, her mate and a Mexican girl, who were soon welcomed into the West Country fold, and saw a night of which the will probably never see the like again! There was too much male nudity (not by your correspondent I hasten to add), free shots being dished out like water, an impromptu band performance, students dropping like flies (we lost Nino completely, then Will and Kyle at differing points emptied their stomachs) but eventually at 3am, most people retired for the night to sleep off the 15 hours of drinking.

Scene of one of the weirdest nights ever

Dover castle and some hungover stripes

We awoke, still minus Nino, so the local constabulary were rung to see if he had spent his night in the cells, when suddenly he appeared from a room which had previously been locked! How he got in we do not know, but reunited the stripes could think about heading home. The journey was largely uneventful, and we arrived home midafternoon Sunday, the only problem with the journey being a bunch of bellends from Swindon who got on the train (about 16 of them split between men and women) who proceeded to talk in faux Cockney accents and shout about Spurs/Arsenal and Man United. Support your local team ffs! But it didn’t detract from what had been a ridiculously entertaining, out of hand weekend.

*****City have since lost again, away at H&W, which means we have slid a bit dangerously low again, while I don’t fully consider us to be in a relegation battle, the men in black and white need to pick up some quick wins to ensure nerves aren’t frayed.