Bromley (H)

Saturday brought the visit of table topping Bromley FC to Twerton, which once again showed the brilliance of the slope, with sod all chance of the game being called off, but an early morning pitch inspection was arranged just in case, and as expected the pitch passed with flying colours.


Bromley are surprise leaders at the top of the table, leading high spending Eastleigh by 11 points (although Eastleigh have 4 games in hand) and travelled to Somerset on the back of 6 away wins.

Unsurprisingly given their lofty position, there was a good away following on Saturday, and they brought a decent array of flags and helped get to a bumper crowd of 755, however, and with the benefit of hindsight this was a forewarning of what their team would be like, on entering the ground I walked through a group of Bromley fans, as one of them piped up “and number 1, is a cunt, and number 1 is a cunt, and number 1 is a cunt” to the tune of Yellow Submarine, all aimed at Jason Mellor in the City goal. While I am someone who is no stranger to swearing, that seemed unnecessarily crude, and completely unwarranted given the game hadn’t started, so why the abuse of a keeper who couldn’t yet have done anything to annoy him?


Neither side started particularly well, but one thing was clear, that Bromley’s giant number 5 and captain was awful. Time and time again the ball cannoned off his legs, passes went array and in one memorable moment when attempting a simple back pass he managed to club it out of play for a corner. Sadly, though, being the giant he was, he was very good in the air, and annoyingly the stripes seemed to try and pick him out with high balls, rather than run at him which would have caused him no end of trouble.


Pratt was slipped through one on one, but just as the front man was getting the ball under control to fire a shot at goal, a Bromley defender had brilliantly made up the ground and got the tackle in. Shortly after this on 16 minutes, a freekick was lofted into the box, and a City player allegedly made contact with an attacker who fell to the ground and a soft penalty was awarded. Honestly, from my position I couldn’t see what had happened but the referee indicated it was for a push to a gobsmacked Mark Preece, and Brad Goldberg slotted the ball home to give Bromley the lead.


The Romans rallied at the point, and had a few chances of their own, and it was during one of these scrambles that Adam Connolly attempted an acrobatic volley, the ball struck the arm of a Bromley defender, and another very soft penalty was awarded. At this point Notman muttered “keep the ball down” and the Nostradamus of the footballing world was right to sagely offer that advice, as Ross Stearn fired his penalty high and wide, meaning the wideman has missed the last two penalties we have been awarded.


Shortly after this, the ball was again fed to Stearn who was wide on the left, he cut inside and eventually got a shot away, the ball bobbled around the area, and Noah Keats managed to brilliantly smuggle the ball home with a pirouette and back heeled finish.


Half time came with the score still at 1-1, and City could rightly feel proud of their first half efforts.

The second half began under leaden skies, and the opening of the half matched the greyness off the sky, with very little of note occurring. This changed when City won a corner, Aaron Brown crossed Andy Watkins directed a lovely little flick that was destined for the top corner, before somehow a defender on the line managed to head away under his own bar. Watkins is rapidly becoming the most unlucky striker, as he has played so well, but hasn’t got the goals his play has deserved.


Minutes later City gave away a free kick by the byline, and true to bloody form, Bromley lofted the ball into the box, and as day follows night, a opposition forward attacked the ball heading
home. City concede these goals time and again, and there is the sense of doom whenever a free kick is given in these areas as we’ve all seen it before.


At this point Bromley’s gamesmanship started to grate quite a lot. Whenever a City player went near to them, they were hitting the deck while all screaming at the linesman or referee demanding the man in black and white was punished. The goalkeeper in particular was a massive tart, as he rolled around on a few occasions, each time making a miraculous recovery. The only time the referee did anything about this was when Bromley’s number 4 feigned injury, and the referee made him walk off the pitch, even though he’d refused treatment.


There was one last effort, where a diving header from Keats was again cleared off the line, and you sensed it was not to be City’s day. That was the case, as the whistle blew, at which point the left back celebrated rather too forcefully, earning himself a Popular Side rebuke, despite his realisation and attempted clapping of the fans.


We retired to the Crown, after what was an enjoyable game, that City probably deserved something from, at which point Scottish Bri produced with a flourish, printed song sheets. Yep, PRINTED song sheets, a glorious scene straight from the 1970s was played out, as Bri attempted to teach his song to the stripey hoards, and we hope to give it an airing on Feb 1st against Bishops Stortford. Up the City!

Someone filmed the game as well! See below

A belated update

What with Christmas, buying my first house and general life, the pages of drink up ye cider have been a bit neglected (more than a bit, I last updated this in November, it’s now mid January ffs!) and it’s about time I got this sorted and updated the blog. 

The last game I wrote about for City was the cracking home draw against Sutton United, while I watched Bradford Town away at Trowbridge, come this weekend I was watching Bradford Town again while City were away at Basingstoke. 

Since the Sutton game, City’s fine form has continued, and the Romans are now flirting massively with the play offs, which given how at the end of October the stripes were down at the wrong end of the table, is a remarkable turn around in form.  

On Boxing Day, City beat Weston-super-Mare with Ross Stearn returning from suspension to haunt his old side, scoring from a diving header, to give City the win. As sure as night follows day, the return game on New Years Day was postponed, at least this year we didn’t have to get to Weston to find that out.  

On the 28th, in that awful post Christmas – Pre New Year lull, when you are running out of things to do, an away trip to Eastleigh arrived. There was a good contingent of stripes, a couple of group 4’s and 3’s from Bath, and then a plethora of Isle of Wight Romans met us at Southampton. A few (not completely welcomed) pints were sank in Southampton, before getting the train to Southampton Parkway, before a taxi to the Silverlake Stadium, reiterating my yearly lament at how crap the ground is and how inaccessible it is to anyone who doesn’t want to drive to a game.  

The stripes played very well against high spending, promotion chasing Eastleigh, and arguably should have got a draw or even nicked the points, Andy Watkins in particular had a few golden opportunities, and was denied what appeared nailed on penalty (see video), the loss of three points wasn’t the only penalty City were to suffer, as Dan Ball broke his collar bone and faces many weeks/months on the sidelines, a huge blow as Dan has been a superb performer since joining from Bristol City. 

Somehow, City contrived to draw at home to Staines Town, despite again having the better chances, the unfortunate Watkins hitting the woodwork twice from distance, a late Dave Pratt goal wasn’t enough to give City a win, as an even later, last gasp freekick was headed home, somewhat taking the gloss of what should have been a good day for the stripes.  

In off field matters, Chairperson, Manda Rigby stepped down, in circumstances that are still clouded in misinformation and intrigue. Not knowing the full details, I don’t want to comment myself, other than for some she was seen as the person responsible for all of City’s ills (she wasn’t) while to others she was the greatest thing ever (again she wasn’t) like much of life, the answer is probably more towards the middle, but she was replaced by Paul Williams, who everyone can agree is an all round good egg. 

Finally, with the stripes away at Basingstoke (a nil nil draw keeping City in 7th) I decided to go home to Bradford, to watch Bradford Town take on Corsham Town. Given how far ahead in the Western League Div 1 Bradford are, it was to be assumed that the game would be a home win.  

In what was a lovely, crisp, bright blue January day, the two teams played out a brilliant first half. Corsham took the lead, before being pegged back, before the Corsham right winger scored a beautiful goal, cutting inside off the flanks, taking on a few defenders before lashing a shot past the stranded Bradford keeper. Bradford then pulled it back to 2-2, before top goal scorer in all of English football Sam Jordan put the home side 3-2 up. 

The game was played out in front of a crowd of 119, and given that there were 3 more 100+ crowds across the Western Leagues, which lets remember are levels 9 & 10 of the English pyramid, shows how deep the love of football goes in this country still.  

With Bradford leading at half time, the assumption was that they would put their foot on the accelerator and score a few more. However, Corsham had been playing very well, and it was they who were to inflict the first league loss of the season, on the leaders. Corsham scored three second half goals, to win the game 3-5, and it is to be hoped that the result is a kick in the arse to Bradford to not get complacent, and not assume promotion is already sown up. 

City’s league fixtures continue with a home game against leaders Bromley, which will be a challenge for the men in black and white, and could go a long way to showing whether this flirting with the play offs can be sustained or not.