A truly awful game

After the valiant, but ultimately unsuccessful game again Eastleigh on Tuesday, the stripes welcomed Gosport Borough to Twerton Park. Due to Farnborough’s continuing shithousery, the bank holiday Monday game was cancelled, so this match was to be City’s only encounter of the bank holiday period. The game also gave the Romans a chance to avenge being knocked out of the FA Cup by Gosport when they were a league below last season.

On arriving at the ground, we noticed the players were wearing white shorts and purple socks, and lo and behold, due to the continuing farce with our new home shirt, we were playing in this seasons purple away kit. The confusion continued with the home dugout now electing to sit in what is normally the away dugout, with rumours abounding that it was due to what was perceived to be influencing of the linesman by opposition teams.

Now, with the prematch intrigued etc., done lets get onto the game…what an appalling waste of a Saturday afternoon that turned into. Truly one of the most boring games of football I have watched. City resorted to pumping long balls forwards towards two forwards who are not the tallest, and completely bypassed the midfield, which had its own baffling selection with Burnell playing on the left of it.

Moments of note, Dan Ball caught a nasty kick to the face, which required him to go to the RUH with a suspected broken jaw, thankfully this wasn’t confirmed and it was just sever bruising. Nothing else happened until the 45 minute, for once City realised they were allowed to pass the ball, and Mark Preece (of all people) slid a wonderful, perfectly weighted pass which split the defence and David Pratt tucked the ball away. 1-0.

Less than a minute later Gosport equalised. Then in the second half, the same drudgery was served up. This was only enlivened right at the end, by a red card and a couple of chances.

So concluded an particularly poor day at the office for the men in black and white (or purple) hopefully this will not be a sign of things to come at home this year, as if it is crowds will dwindle rapidly. City host Concord Rangers on Saturday, and given they won 1-0 away at Dover it threatens to be a harder game than could be expected.

Eastleigh (HOME)

Following the encouraging win over Bishop’s Stortford, the first time in 7 years City had won on the opening day, the stripes were to play high spending Eastleigh at Twerton Park. In what must be one of the weirder days in the history of Bath City, the day started for the club with a call from emergency services at 1:30am as someone had set a car alight just in front of the turnstiles.

The burnt out car could have had serious repercussions if it had been parked closer to the main stand, or if the wind had been blowing in a different direction and we could have been looking at a lost main stand a la the Bristol City fans burning it down when Rovers ground shared with us.

The second thing that was unusual in the day was the new kit causing further controversy. I personally do not like the kit, for my tastes the stripes are too narrow, and the all plain black clearly would look to similar to the referee, as many of us pointed out on forums and general chit chats. Bishop’s Stortford’s management team definitely thought so, and so did the referee on Tuesday! Therefore, City took to the field in last years kits, looking resplendent in proper stripes, and we now wonder if we’ve got a one game wonder kit on our hands.

To the game, Eastleigh after losing in the play off semi last year, have continued to invest heavily in their playing squad, no one I know is quite sure where the money is coming from as Eastleigh aren’t well supported, and we haven’t heard of a Dale Vince type pumping money in.

Of their summer acquisitions’ Stuart Fleetwood is the biggest name, having played in the league and dropping down from Luton Town to join Eastleigh. The stripes lined up with the same starting eleven as away at Stortford.

The game started with City attacking the Bristol End, but were quickly on the back foot, when a long ball bypassed the City defence, falling to Fleetwood who saw his shot pushed round the post by Mellor (thankfully recovered from his knee injury on Saturday) City then had a shot via Adlesbury, but the game developed into a midfield stalemate with no real threats on goal from either side. The nearest the first half came to a goal was when Mellor seemed to completely misjudge a shot from distance that cannoned back off the post, the teams entered half time still with the score at 0-0.

The second half continued in the same vein, with Eastleigh having the best of the game, but not really creating too much. Danny Ball was booked when he chased a ball and slid into keeper Ross Flitney, much to the keepers credit he bounced to his feet and pushed away the rest of his animalistic colleagues’ who were gunning for Ball and haranguing the referee Flitney’s intervention probably saved Ball from a completely unnecessary sending off, and for that we were all impressed by the rare show of sportsmanship.

On 68 minutes, the deadlock was broken; a cross from the right was met by Strevens, his poorly hit shot, struck Sekani Simpson and bobbled over the line via the post. Howells reacted instantly by bringing on Ross Stearn for Noah Keats, and the substitution almost instantly reaped dividends when Stearn went past two, before crashing his shot against angle of post and bar with Flitney beaten.

Eastleigh could have scored more, but the final action of the game involved Jason Mellor making it halfway up for a corner that was taken quicker than he could arrive in the box, it was cleared to the left wing area, where the big keeper was back peddling, he pinged a delightful cross field pass that picked Stearn out perfectly, the winger drove in a low cross that Flitney spilled, but managed to gather before the onrushing Roman’s could get there.

The game finished, with City losing, but given that Eastleigh are favourites to go up, the stripes could take some optimism from the game, and if they play like the did (but perhaps add more attacking impetus) then we are in for a good season.

P.S. On a side note, the bank holiday Monday game against Farnborough has been cancelled due to the never ending list of issues that basket case of a club is suffering from, so sadly the bank holiday weekend is down to one game on the Saturday, against Gosport Borough who eliminated City from the FA Cup last season.

New season, new hopes

After the ins and outs of preseason (including the still disputed leaving of Charlie Griffin and the surprising release of Gethin Jones) a couple of friendlies, and for me at least a game spent watching Exeter vs QPR in the League Cup the proper stuff returned with City being sent to an away opening game for the 5^th year in succession.

The stripes were to play away at Bishop’s Stortford, reinstated to the Conference South, after a two year sojourn in the Conference North, making Stortford the happiest of anyone to see Barrow, Stockport County and Telford relegated from the Conference National last year, making their return to the south an inevitability. Given that they are only 30 minutes north of London it seems a fairly sensible league for them to play in.

Having used the opportunity of the first game to visit my London based mates, we departed from Putney (as has become the norm for me in South East games) to London Liverpool Street and onto Bishop’s Stortford, this is where the first pleasant surprise occurred, compared to the usual awful commuter towns/vast sprawling suburbs of London, this town is actually quite pleasant.

We strolled along a wide, tree lined road, flanked by giant (and presumably expensive) houses, before coming to a junction, opposite which stood the Nag’s Head. Again, imagine my shock when instead of finding the usual boring/ugly/generic pub (see Chelmsford/Welling/Tonbridge etc.) I saw a superb art deco style pub, from the sign to the flourishes in the brick work to the writing on the signs, McMullen’s brewery had perfectly continued the style that the original builders must have aimed for. Bravo.

Having sunk a swift pint, we walked to the ground. This is where the dread takes over for what will happen to City when we inevitably leave Twerton Park. The ground, like most new grounds it seems, is no where near the actual town. Having weaved our way through an industrial estate, past a Travis Perkins, and offices, all of which I clearly want before the football, we got to the ground. A chat to the man on the car park as he asked us the prices of beer in Bath (about the same as Bishop’s Stortford) and we were in the ground.

The ground is a standard enough, newish ground, neither offensive nor particularly impressive, although the chips I had before the game were very good. Bishop’s Stortford contained the expected array of pillocks in their squad, the whole back 5 having a collection of dubious hairstyles and tattoos that seem commonplace in the London based footballer.

The stripes were lining up with 3 debutants in Andy Watkins, David Pratt, Ben Adlesbury, and returning hero Andy Gallinagh. Gallinagh was handed the armband, and City lined up in a 4-4-2 with Aaron Brown occupying the left wing. Another point to be made, is that City were wearing their new kit, without getting too involved in the debate it is far from the nicest kits in recent history, with the stripes being relegated to one panel and the whole back being black prompting moaning from the Stortford management team.

The game began at a hectic pace, with Stortford having a chance within the first minute, that Jason Mellor could only watch sail past his post. While City were also creating some chances of their own. Stortford again had a chance which Mellor could only watch, while Gallinagh had to do some defensive work under his own cross bar to ensure parity.

Nevertheless, the Romans began to get a grip on the game, mainly due to two reasons, firstly the front two of Pratt and Watkins, harassed and harried the backline relentlessly and this forced the Stortford players into many mistakes as they were hurried along, secondly, Bishop’s Stortford seemed to have decided to try and become a shitter version of Barcelona. Time and time again, they passed it around the back, which a) invited Watkins and Pratt to chase, b) contributed to them taking bad touches/misplacing passes and c) was a waste of time, as 9 times out of 10, once the ball reached the midfield it was hammered forward.

The stripes were having multiple opportunities from set pieces, Aaron Brown took a free kick that was hit with power, but straight at the goalkeeper, while from a corner Ben Adlesbury was in acres of space and should have scored with a header. Brown also whipped in a cross that Pratt was millimetres away from connecting with.

Just before halftime though, City’s efforts were rewarded, Sekani Simpson received the ball on the right, before laying it off to Adam Connolly, the midfielder was tackled, but showed great tenacity by winning the ball back before looping the ball into the box, Andy Watkins took a touch to control the ball and give himself half a yard, before unleashing a howitzer which flashed past the keeper and went in off of the underside of the bar.

Soon after halftime City applied the finishing blow, Pratt was unnecessarily bundled over in the corner by the Stortford full back, from the resulting freekick Brown’s low, hard cross was met running away from goal by Pratt who guided his header into the opposite corner, it was a brilliant finish and both new frontmen had scored on debut.

City then dominated the next 20 minutes or so, and chances fell to Keats and Pratt, while a Dan Ball effort was cleared off of the line. Then as is so often the case, a couple of substitutions completely changed the game. The very impressive Watkins and Pratt were removed, with Ross Stearn and Josh Low replacing them. Stearn the winger from Weston-super-Mare, buzzed and hassled and had a few efforts, but Josh Low accomplished nothing.

This is not a criticism of Low, he is clearly not a centre forward, but his lack of contribution meant that suddenly the stripes were on the back foot, and the inevitable goal came from a corner with Kyle Assante’s shot crossing the line, despite the acrobatic efforts of Dan Ball to keep it out.

Then came 5 minutes of torture, as City’s previous composure and dominance melted away, and on a couple of occasions Stortford almost snatched the equaliser, the game finished with Mellor collecting the ball and getting hurt, the whistle blew and the big custodian crumpled to the ground.

All in all, it was a good opening day with for the men in black and white (predominately black, sadly) and the impressive performances by the new front two, with a promising cameo from Stearn gives hope for a good season, but with the visit of high spending Eastleigh on Tuesday night, this could all change quickly! Up the City.