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.  

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.

Reaching breaking point?

After not updating the blog after the Tonbridge game, due to frustration at not getting the three points City deserved, this is now a update of the moment the wheels seem to have fallen off.

Against Tonbridge the stripes played some good football, attacked at will and generally did enough to win the game, Tonbridge had two shots all game, one in the first minute and one 89 minutes later, and they scored from both. So a draw was snatched from the jaws of victory, and the Romans had every right to feel hard done by. This was compounded on the Tuesday when another 89^th minute goal sunk City (there was also time for an unfairly disallowed goal that would have given City a deserved, or so I am told, draw) So after taking 1 from 6, that should have been 4 from 6, City welcomed stuttering Dover Athletic to Twerton Park.

Dover Athletic are perennial promotion challengers, but arrived at Twerton on the back of a four game losing streak, surely giving City the confidence to right the wrongs of the last week. Somehow though, you just knew it wasn’t going to happen and in conversations with other stripes there was a sense of foreboding about the game, with the prevailing feeling being “Dover are due, and we never seem to beat them” with that being the feeling, I genuinely considered not turning up, and I like the other City fans in the 551 crowd wish I didn’t.

City were clueless, completely and utterly devoid of ideas, invention, ability and even, more damningly desire. The few bright points were Jason Mellor, who manfully kept the score down (that you can lose 2-0 and the keeper still gets MOTM says a lot) Dave Pratt who bless him battles and fights despite being often the only man within 30 yards of the opposition goal, and Ross Stearn who again provided a few highlights with runs and a general narky demeanour which a la Hogg means he does get stuck in.

Other than that there is nothing I can say good about City’s performance, the whole ground was silent as time after time Dover sliced the stripes open, the game could have easily ended 5 or 6 nil to Dover, and City in the few moments they did touch the ball in the first half were utterly pathetic when coming to use it. I honestly cannot put into words how awful City played, while it is harsh to single out any one player, Ben Adelsbury continued his quest to not impress me, I don’t get what he offers that Keats doesn’t, and would rather have played Allen who would have tried to close the gaping chasm between the midfield and the attackers, with Allen offering a bit of subtlety and craft that Connolly, Keats and Adelsbury don’t.

Things did improve in the second half, but not really by anywhere near enough and it was a sweet relief when the referee did bring proceedings to a close. There was a smattering of boos, but mainly everyone drifted away feeling fed up and annoyed with how things went. With the FA Cup game next Saturday against Gosport Borough (potentially the least inspiring cup tie we could have got) now taking on massive importance, for financial and prestige reasons I have so little faith that we’ll be able to do anything that I am genuinely for the first time in years considering not going to a home game, we will see how the mood takes me, but I cannot face another 90 minutes of that dirge.

What a difference a week makes.

After the awfulness of the game against Gosport Borough, and the postponed game against Farnborough (who at the time of writing, have been readmitted to the league, sans their stupid Paddy Power inspired name changing stunt) City reconvened at Twerton Park to take on the second promoted team in a week Concord Rangers.

Concord Rangers are from the Essex, Canvey Island to be precise. I have to admit to being shocked that Canvey Island could support another reasonable sized non league team, given Canvey Island’s FA Cup exploits of a few years ago, and given the population of just under 40,000 I am still surprised by this fact. However, since Canvey Island FC resigned from the Conference in 2006 due to financial difficulties, Concord have become the pre-eminent team for the island.

Concord’s unusual name comes from the beach they used to train by when formed, and contributes to their “Beach Boys” nickname.

City restored Keats to the line up in place of Burnell, while Will Salmon, who has joined on a short term contract, started at full back. Salmon has an uncanny resemblance to Ben Adlesbury, and led to constantly having to explain to people who was actually on the ball.

The Beach Boys started strongly and almost scored within the opening moments when a curling shot was lashed from range which left the post shuddering, thankfully some good vibrations for City (sorry…)

Concord were dominating the early stages of the game, but City slowly started to get into the game, and scored a cracker on 15 minutes. City were awarded a free kick about 20 yards from goal, Ross Stearn lined up the free kick and hammered a dipping shot that crashed against the underside of the bar and bounced into the net before the keeper had even moved. An absolute stunner of a free kick, that Cristiano Ronaldo would have been happy to score.

After this City took firm control of the half, and in reality should have scored again. David Pratt, who was lively all afternoon, robbed the keeper and once he took control of it tried to chip it into the net, unfortunately the keeper back peddled quickly enough to manage to get a clawing hand to the ball, which dropped just wide.

The half time whistle blew with City in the ascendancy and looking good for their lead. So, rather typically after half time the tide turned a bit. Rangers were attacking with a bit more fluency, although their eventual goal had more than an element of farce about it.

Just before the hour, Collin’s collected the ball, and fired off a fairly tame shot that was straight at Jason Mellor, the big keeper went down to collect the ball, and in a scene reminiscent of Massimo Taibi and Matt Le Tissier, Mellor missed the ball completely and it rolled between his legs and into the net. The keeper looked crestfallen, but given his good form since wresting the number 1 shirt from Glyn Garner last year, he was due a cock up!

The stripes though, were not to be denied, and almost immediately regained their lead. Ross Stearn had switched flanks during an attack and found himself wide on the left, the winger moved towards the corner of the box where he received the ball, Stearn took the ball around a few defenders before firing in a shot from the edge of the area. The ball seemed to bounce, and I think the keeper may have got a hand to it but the ball ended up in the back of the net.

This goal seemed to lift the Romans, and City were then in complete control, the lead was increased on 69 minutes when they won a free kick in the corner. The ball was floated  across the box and Will Salmon headed the ball back across goal, Pratt was inches away from connecting and all thought the chance had gone, however, the ball rebounded off a player into the crowd in the six yard box and Mark Preece managed to get his foot up to the ball and put it into the goal. 3-1 and the game was won.

After the appalling performance in the last game, this was a welcome return to form for City, and left everyone leaving the ground with a much greater feeling than the week before. Bizarrely, an American online football show has decided to support Bath City for the season, so I’m sure there will be some cheers from them for the good win by the Romans.

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.