Derby Day

In bucolic West Wiltshire, there is a fierce rivalry that dare not speak its name. A mere 3 miles separates two proud, and fiercely independent towns. The rivalry is between the two towns of Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon. As cover previously in this blog, Bradford was a town based on wool, and in its preindustrial heyday was an important centre for wool in the South West, while the towns industry has declined, it has been left with some gems, including a fine Tithe Barn, one of only three bridges left in the country with a chapel on the bridge, and the finest Saxon church in England.

Trowbridge, on the other hand, has suffered much more harshly at the hands of history. Like Bradford, the town sits on the Kennet and Avon canal, although unlike Bradford it is not the Avon which flows through the town, rather the Biss.


The town of Trowbridge is every bit as ancient as its near neighbour, with evidence of settlement over 3,000 years ago, and like Bradford, Trowbridge is mentioned in the Doomsday book.

Trowbridge, like Bradford made its money from the wool trade, but was much larger, and more prosperous than Bradford. There are relics of the old wool mills dotted around the town, and apparently in the scale of wool production in the early 1820s earned Trowbridge the title “The Manchester of the West”.


The inevitable decline of the wool industry, closed much of the industry within the town, but Trowbridge still had many things to be proud of, there was the Bowyers factory, founded in 1805 and disgracefully closed in 2008. Even worse though, was the fate of the Ushers (spelt officially without the ‘s “ brewery. The brewery still has impacts all across the West Country, you can be walking as far away as Land’s End and still see the ceramic badge picking out “Ushers of Trowbridge” on many a pub. As was sadly the case during the period 1960-2000 Ushers was involved in many brewing mergers, and despite the fact the company was still profitable, the brewery was closed in 2000 and the equipment sold to North Korea.


You would think that would be enough destruction for one small town, but Trowbridge Town FC also got royally screwed. Founded in 1880, they played in a variety of local leagues (Wiltshire up to Western usual) but got promoted to the Southern League, they then amazingly got promoted to the Conference in 1981 and stayed there for 3 years. However, there Frome Road ground was in a prime location, and investors were circling, with assurances from the council that they would find them a new ground, Trowbridge sold Frome Road and moved out (briefly playing at Twerton Park). This was the beginning of the end, and quickly debts mounted and the original Trowbridge folded in 1998.

Having received all these body blows, Trowbridge is a slightly depressing place, as it lacks in any civic pride, and seems to drift along without a purpose now it has been shorn of all its identity. Nevertheless, there must have been a spark of pride in some that refused to be put out, and they reformed Trowbridge Town FC who now ply their trade in the Wiltshire League (as in 1880).

Bradford meanwhile are flying this season, they currently sit atop the Western League Division 1, and are scoring for fun. Star forward Sam Jordan has almost 50 goals (by November!) and was approached by both Paulton and Bath City, but chose to stay with his hometown team, for reasons known only to himself, but subject to much speculation and gossip.


We alighted at Trowbridge at 12:30, for my first trip to Trowbridge in easily a year; we headed straight to the Rose & Crown opposite the station, and entered to find it full of Bradfordians, top stuff. We sunk a few, before getting a taxi to the Woodmarsh ground for the 2pm kick off (dictated by the lack of floodlights).


Given the disparity in current form and league positions, this Wiltshire Senior Cup clash, always looked like it would be a tall ask for Trowbridge, however, they actually had two golden opportunities at nil nil to take the lead. Sadly for the Tigers, both of the chances were snatched at and the shots sailed wide and over respectively.


Soon after the second chance Bradford scored, and the floodgates threatened to open, as with each attack Bradford came close. A penalty for a blatant trip was then awarded, and duly dispatch. Two more flew in and at half time it was 0-4 Bradford.


The Woodmarsh, is located on the edge Trowbridge, towards the village of North Bradley, so at the half time whistle we wandered to the Mash Tun pub, which is a weird one to be honest, as it appears to be a circa 1970 Barretts home, that has been converted to a pub. It was actually, a quite nice, friendly pub, so fair play to them, but definitely a weird exterior.


In the second half, Bradford eased off completely, but we had our fun, as out of nowhere a smoke bomb was produced, which promptly failed to light! This led to the brandisher of the flare looking like a smurf, as the blue powder came out of the tube. A second smoke bomb was pulled out of Papa Smurfs pocket, and this one did light, leading to the slightly surreal scenes of blue smoke billowing out of the stand, under and leaden grey sky, at a Wiltshire Senior Cup tie!

Bradfordian Sam Jordan came off of the bench, and scored a beautifully deft flick, knocking the ball into the net from behind his leg, in a goal which if scored by a Zola/Henry etc., would be replayed for years. 5-0 and that was how the game finished.



We returned to Trowbridge town centre for a few beers, glowing with the contentment that can only come from Bradford beating Trowbridge. All in all, a good day out, and hopefully Trowbridge Town can begin to rebuild, get the ground they deserve and start to build towards a more positive future, who knows in a decade maybe the stripes will once again be playing Trowbridge Town FC.

WHAT.A.GAME

Every so often there comes a game of football that reminds you why you fell in love with the game in the first place. Now this blog is often a diary of despair, of one man howling into the wind at the shear tedium that can be brought on by a game (although I hasten to add, not in recent weeks where performances have been excellent) but Tuesday night was the game that truly did remind you why you continually turn up.


Tuesday night games are always a thing of beauty, a bright beacon in the darkness of the working week. They often a respite from the drudgery of the routine of early starts and hours of tedium, the hope of a chat, some beers and perhaps, maybe some wonderful entertainment under a floodlit landscape.


Sutton United have continued from where they left of last season (finishing with 9 winning games in a row, including the final day demolition of City) and are currently riding high in 4th place, they have thrown some money around, and included in their ranks Charlie Clough, ex Roman, and apparently a bit of an arsehole given how he treated Dorchester Town this season.






Sutton’s obvious qualities were there for all to see, as when they got the ball they could knock it around easily and I don’t remember a single bad touch being taken, however, the Romans swarmed around the yellow clad visitors all night, and rarely let them settle into any kind of rhythm.


The stripes appeared to be really up for the game, and from the very off were pressing and harrying Sutton, while attacking with pace and purpose whenever they got the ball. City started the brighter, and Stearn had an early shot deflected, before an exquisite turn by Andy Watkins allowed him to fire in a shot on goal which was pushed away by the ‘keeper.


Despite City’s early thrust, Sutton should have opened the scoring on the quarter hour, when the ball was cut back to Ali Fuseini who was unmarked 18 yards from goal, his shot along the ground was somehow cleared by Andy Gallinagh and the stripes survived. Sadly, City couldn’t hold out until half time, and despite a few more efforts by City, Sutton took the lead on 37 minutes, with a stooping header, quite why the forward was so unmarked I am not sure, but 0-1 Sutton.


This goal seemed to inspire Sutton, and they almost went into the break with an undeserved 2-0 lead when a shot slapped against Mellor’s crossbar with the keeper well beaten.


City though, have been made of stern stuff in recent weeks, and came back after the break determined to restore parity, Adam Connolly hit an early rising shot which unfortunately cleared the bar. Again though, despite City’s superiority, Sutton increased their lead when Jamie Slabber executed a turn as adept as Watkins and unfortunately for City Slabber hit a perfect shot that went into the top corner and the back of the net via the underside of the bar.


Again though, City were not downhearted, they continued to press and harry and attempt to get forward. A quick goal was what was needed, and a quick goal is what arrived. Ross Stearn whipped in a cross, and Dave Pratt got the goal his industry in the last few weeks has deserved and headed home.


The stripes seemed to grow in stature and confidence, 50/50 that would normally be lost were won, they swarmed forward in waves, Dan Bowman yet again impressing with his willingness to attack, and his solidity at the back.


Pratt blazed over when in an offside position, Keats flashed a shot wide of the post, before Stearn hit what I assume was an over hit cross rather than a shot, but whatever it was, it floated agonisingly over the bar.


Soon after this came a moment that made me chuckle, the ball was cleared into the Popular Side, the ball ricochet around the stand making it hard for a young lad to get to the ball, he eventually returned the ball to Stearn, who delivered a volley of abuse of the time it had taken to return it to him. It was clearly a heat of the moment thing, as when the ball went out of play for a corner, the wideman apologised profusely to the young gentleman.


The Romans were firmly in control at this point, and Stearn playing like a non league Maradona picked up the ball and drove at the defence, you can tell he is full of confidence, as he turned the defence inside and out, I feared he had over done it and should have passed, but no sooner had the words “Pass it you greedy shit” that Stearn rocketed a powerful shot that beat the keeper at his near post, a brilliant goal, by a wonderful little footballer.


Unbelievably City almost nicked it at the death, Pratt was felled, by a centre back who should have received his second yellow (to be fair, I think Sutton were lucky to keep a few players on the pitch, such was their gamesmanship and general shitty behaviour) and a penalty was awarded. Stearn stepped up, but sadly his brilliant performance was not to be awarded with the winning goal as Lovelock dived to his left and pushed the penalty around the post, fair play to the keeper for celebrating the save as well.


Sutton almost snatched it at the death, when the ball fell into the box, and a school playground style goalmouth scramble ensued, somehow, miraculously City hoofed the ball clear, that fell to Watkins, his one on one resulted in another save by Lovelock and that was all she wrote. 2-2 at the end of a truly enthralling game.


The true barometer of how high quality the game, and City’s performance his how many people stayed on the Popular Side applauding for minutes after the game, rather than the usual final whistle slouch out of the ground. Truly a game to set the pulses racing, and after the last few weeks no one can find any reason to complain about how the stripes are playing. Up the City!

Dorchester Away

What with Bath City plying their trade in the Conference South, you would imagine there would be plenty of games that involve minimal travel, however, due to the undue influence London exerts on the whole country, the increased population density of the South East, means that the Conference South is effectively a London and its suburbs league, with a few outposts.


Thankfully, Saturday meant a trip to Dorset and Dorchester Town, much closer than the usual away days (WsM aside) and easy to get to as there are direct trains from Bath to the Dorset’s county town. A reasonable timed train of 10:03 and the wonder of group 4 savers, and 8 stripes were on their way all for the price of £8.25 return, happy days.

A year after trying we finally made it in

We alighted at Dorchester at midday and headed to The Blue Raddle pub, having had disastrous attempts to find a decent pub last season (The Blue Raddle shuts on Mondays, regardless of them being Bank Holidays or not) the fact that one year later we made it in was a definite bonus. The pub is a beauty, 5 hand pumps on, and walls filled with sheep related items, including “Know you sheep” series, and an enjoyable few pre-match hours were whiled away in there. Briefly a section of the group went around the corner to a different pub, and quickly returned having annoyed the landlord by swearing (and declaring their hatred for rugby, after he’d declared his love).

Master Reed Esq. enjoying the surroundings

We arrived at The Avenue ground 5 minutes or so before kick off, and were treated to the pre-match entertainment of watching Kyle get pushed/pulled through Dorchester’s (admittedly narrow) turnstyles.

Sorry Kyle!

 Having stopped laughing at that, we moved around to the covered terrace at the Dorchester end of the ground. Having done so well last season (including beating Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup), largely due to Charlie Clough, Ben Watson and Kieffer Moore, Dorchester Town are having a nightmare this season. Despite being under community ownership, they have had to dramatically slash the playing budget this season, leading to the departure of many key players, Clough, Watson and Moore are at Sutton United, Truro and Yeovil respectively, meaning the magpies prop up the league.



An immaculately observed minutes silence was held as the Saturday was the closest to Remembrance Sunday, and it always surprises me how moving those fleeting moments of silence can be.


As seems to often be the case, the end we had chosen to stand at wasn’t the end City were to attack, so off we set around the ground, somehow managing to take 3 minutes to walk 100 yards, it was at this position nearing the corner flag that we saw David Pratt send a looping cross into the box, Dan Ball leapt like a salmon and connected with the ball and powered his header home. City were one up within 5 minutes.


Finally settled into our position behind the goal for the first half, the City faithful were in fine voice, and the lovely low roof of The Avenue amplified the sound the away following was making (an away following which almost outnumbered the home fans, so how they got to a farcical attendance figure of 516 I do not know) while on the pitch the Romans were in complete control.


City soon doubled their lead, a free kick from Stearn was put into the box and Dan Ball leapt highest again, with the same result. 2-0 City, all within 15 minutes. Noah Keats could have added to the score but his long range shot drifted slightly wide.


Dorchester started to get a slight foothold in the game and Simpson had to be alert to clear a chance off of the line, while Mellor was called into action a few times. Nevertheless, the threats were minimal and City were in complete control.


The half time whistle blew with City still two goals ahead. The boys from Somerset started brightly in the second half, and went in search of the third goal, the game changed massively though on 58 minutes, Ross Stearn broke with the ball at his feet, he had Watkins and Pratt as
options, but opted instead to take on all 41 years (41!) of Ashley Vickers. Vickers hacked Stearn down, and potentially was last man. There was a little tangle as they were on the floor, but both players got up and shook hands. The referee called Vickers over, and the centre half was lucky as he only received a caution, but then the linesman was talking to the referee and ridiculously, scandalously a red card was brandished for Stearn.


At the time we were aghast, how he could be fouled and sent off we didn’t understand. Apparently Stearn was sent off for double footing the player, this is a farce, but we are unlikely to appeal as at the lower levels nothing gets over turned.

The sending off changed the complexion of the game, and Dorchester proceeded to have much more possession, however, City dealt admirably with any threat posed, and the game really petered out as a contest.


The final whistle blew, with the score still 2-0 and the stripes had won 3 on the bounce and 2 away games on the trot. After the game I briefly popped to the toilet, on leaving said connivances I heard a shout, looking up I saw the City boys had found Dorchy the dolphin from last year (yes we’ve named him) the poor dolphin had lain neglected in the bushes for another year, but was now proudly held aloft by victorious stripes, Dorchy was paraded around a little, before being put back into the hedges, which included a brilliant moment of Paul Hill falling into the bush while pushing Dorchy simultaneously getting slapped by the dolphins tail while pushing the front, comedy gold.

Dorchy the dolphin is freed!

The stripes bid adieu to Kyle at Dorchester South, before boarding our own train at Dorchester West, a most enjoyable away day, that with Dorchester’s impending relegation sadly means will not happen next season, and potentially not for a while after.

An update and Havant and Waterlooville

It’s been a while since this was updated, so quickly trying to recap. After losing so poorly to Dover, City continued to struggle in the league, losing 2-0 away at Chelmsford, before beating a painfully poor Bridgwater Town. Bridgwater were appalling, and City didn’t need to get out of second gear to beat them, but if you believe the Bridgwater players/fans they deserved to win and we were the worst team they’d played all year. 

The Romans battled to a 2-2 away draw at Whitehawk, which after giving them a two goal lead showed something of a fight back. 

The FA Cup run was brought to an end though, with a home loss to Salisbury City, an expected defeat but with positives in the performance of Dan Bowman, this continued into the Tuesday night away at Farnborough where City grabbed a stunning 4-2 win, leading the stripes entering the home game with Havant and Waterlooville with some confidence.  

Being my first game since Bridgwater away, I was chomping at the bit to get down to Twerton Park, and given the time of the year it wasn’t bitingly cold as could be expected. A painfully low crowd of 451 turned out though, although given recent home performances I am not surprised either.  

The stripes lined up in the 5-3-2/3-5-2 formation that was used to great affect at Farnborough, with Andy Watkins now fully fit and Ross Stearn in a floating role. The game actually commenced 20 minutes later than the usual 3pm kick off, this was due to Havant making a meal of the journey up from the South Coast and demanding an hour warm up time.  

The additional warm up time didn’t do H&W any good as the Romans started brightly and Watkins had a good chance within the first 10 minutes, Ross Stearn then fired in a long range effort which the keeper Scott Bevan (ex Bristol Rovers I think) pushed away. However, Stearn was not to be denied and scored just after the quarter hour mark with a free kick that Bevan should have done much better with, the giant keeper being beaten at the post he was meant to be guarding. 

The Hawks offered very little threat, and it was City that looked the more likely to score and increase their lead. Stearn had another chance off a Watkins cross, but the half finished 1-0. 

Almost immediately after the restart H&W scored with what was almost their only chance of the game. A cross from the right being bundled home by Kabba. While this was going on the linesman had managed to injure himself, leading to one of those wonderful things at non league games, a call over the tannoy for a qualified referee to step forward, City fan Michael Clayton was that man, and he did a sterling job. 

The delay in the game though, did add up and would lead to an eventual 17 minutes of injury time being played. Dan Bowman was flying forward from his right wingback position, desperately trying to restore the advantage, and his performance was widely praised, and rightly so, for a young lad of 18 to come in and play so well.  

City regained the lead they deserved on 71 minutes, Andy Watkins jinking past a couple of defenders before squaring to Stearn who hammered the ball into the roof of the net, giving Bevan no chance.  

On 75 minutes, City completed the victory, Stearn was felled inside the area, and the diminutive wingman picked himself up to slot home the penalty and complete his hat trick, City scored another through Pratt but it was (correctly) disallowed by stand in lino Michael Clayton.  

The Romans closed the game out, and it finally finished well past 5 o’clock, an most unusual time for the game to finish. City now have a Bath derby against Larkhall Athletic, before travelling away to Dorchester in the league next Saturday. If City play the way they have in the last two games, Ross Stearn continues his great form and the burgeoning partnership between Watkins and Pratt develops further, there is hope that City will rise away from the relegation spots.