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.  

The visit of Truro City

On Saturday City’s schizophrenic nature reared it’s ugly head once again. After the previous fine performance at Twerton, the boys in black and white had made a midweek trip to Eastbourne Borough and had returned with a superb 3-0 away victory.

Therefore, with bottom of the table Truro City being the visitors and with City apparently in fine fettle, hopes were high that the Cornishmen would be swept aside by a rampant Bath City. Alas, if following City has taught me (and everyone else with a love of the Twerton Parkers) it is that you never, ever count your chickens before they hatch, and never expect City to play well or to play badly, they are too unpredictable.

Truro looked to be going out of business when we went to play them in October, with debts mounting after their rise up the leagues. Truro City were founded in 1889, and up until very recently were a very provincial team (like all Cornish teams where the travelling costs curtail thoughts of bigger regional leagues) They were founder members of the South Western League in 1951 and all apart from 3 seasons competed in that league until 2006 when they joined the Western League (with Bradford Town, Odd Down, Larkhall etc) they rapidly progressed through the Western League until the won the Southern League Championship in 2011 promoting them to the Conference South. During this period of success they also won the FA Vase in 2006/07 becoming the most successful Cornish team of all time, by becoming the first to win a national trophy.

However, this meteoric rise was heavily subsidised and when the owner’s company went tits up, Truro City very nearly followed it out of business. They were saved by a £50,000 bond paid to the Conference, but the 10 point deduction and loss of players (although clearly money has been found from somewhere as they have resigned Barry Hayles, so no sympathy if they do go out of business having made the same mistake twice) has left them marooned at the foot of the table.

In team news, Joe Burnell had contracted appendicitis and had been operated on to remove the vestigial organ. Therefore Gethin Jones made an appearance in centre midfield, while once again Charlie Griffin warmed the bench. The guy is by far and away the best player City have, and while he maybe aging a bit, given how he only played the last 10 at Eastbourne it was more than a bit perplexing not to see him start.

Then came 90 minutes of pure unadulterated shite. In the first half the clearest opportunity fell to Morgan, when the ball was played back into his path, but he dragged his shot wide, and that was basically it other than a couple of half chances.

In the second half, there was a clear handball, when Chamberlain shot and it hit the outstretched arms of the Truro defender, this wasn’t given as presumably the referee decided the player couldn’t get out of the way, but I am not convinced, then almost immediately after Chris Allen was felled and more appeals for a penalty were disregarded.

Morgan, Connolly and  Allen were eventually subbed (replaced by Low, Canham and Griffin) , and Kerry Morgan seemed to storm off down the tunnel, which was only a warning of the tempers and arguments that were to follow.

As the game entered injury time it appeared the game was heading to a drab goalless draw which rivalled Boreham Wood for its awfulness. Then an long ball was knocked forward into the City half and somehow it fell to Andrew Watkins, the Truro attacker perfectly connected and as soon as it left his foot you knew it had beaten Mellor. The lob from 25 yards out was a rare moment of skill in the game.

I can only assume it was Mark Preece who missed a header/clearance to allow the ball through as Charlie Griffin proceeded to tear him apart, Preece tried to argue back and this brought even more finger pointing and shouting from Griffin. Preece had actually had a good game up to that point, but such is the risk for centre backs that one mistake can be very costly.

Ridiculously, having gone behind in the 91^st minute City finally started to play. Sekani Simpson whipped a ball into the box that the Truro keeper fumbled, Griffin reacted quickest and knocked the ball towards the goal, however, agonisingly the ball was cleared off of the line.

At this moment, we noticed the almighty argument that appeared to be happening around the dugout, Howells, John Freeguard, Aaron Hopkinson and someone I couldn’t work out were involved in a slanging match with some fans on the main stand terrace. There were wild gesticulations, and God only knows what was said, although reports suggest it was borderline (depending on where you draw your border I guess!) abusive.

While this was going on, City won a throw in deep in Truro’s half, a long Aaron Brown throw was launched into the box Charlie Griffin got a flick to it and the ball fell to Low at the back stick, the wideman leapt high into the air and managed to connect with a cushioned sidefoot into the roof of the net. City had snatched a draw from defeat, the wounded White Tiger’s players slumped while Twerton celebrated.

How City got a draw from that game I will never know, but it once again showed football’s power to corrupt the senses as moments earlier we had been bemoaning the awfulness of the game, before a last little burst at least gave us something to smile about. Hopefully, away at Dover on Saturday the more adventurous City will appear, but before that there is the small (very small really) matter of the Somerset Premier Cup against Odd Down.

Post Script... Since writing this but not posting it, City have played Odd Down. I went and City won 2-0. Joe Lennox played after being released by Plymouth Argyle, and for reasons unknown Charlie Griffin played 90 minutes....hmmmm...

No Angels

So finally, a home Saturday game arrived, having not been to TP on a Saturday since the Eastbourne game on 1^st December this was most welcome. The day had a lovely spring quality to it, and after the harsh cold of the last few games it was a joy not be shivering into multiple layers.

We met at the Horse where spirits weren’t high as we discussed the problems within the team, although I did mention the 4-3 away win, and hoped to at least see some goals from the day.

On arrival, we found out that livewire Kerry Morgan was on from the start, and two forwards were playing in Griffin and Chamberlain. This must be a good omen for an exciting, attacking first half.

Sadly, this was not to be the case, and instead an appallingly bad half of football was played out. Tonbridge had a few opportunities, Chamberlain should have shot, but instead he elected to play a square ball that Griffin was no where near, Charlie also had a chance from a corner cleared off the line, but that was the height of the entertainment for the first 44 minutes.

Morgan was trying his hardest, but as has been the case many times this season it is as though he tries to hard to impress, which came out in two rash challenges, both on the unfortunate Elphick, the first lunging tackle probably warranted a yellow, while the second in the dying seconds of the half gained Kerry a deserved yellow card.

Morgan was involved in the first goal though, he crossed to Noah Keats, whose shot was palmed by keeper Lee Worgan back to Griffin, Charlie’s shot managed to hit the post, roll along the line before unbelievably hitting the opposite post and bouncing into play. Thankfully Keats from an acute angle managed to thrash the ball home. So at half time City went in one up.

The first half was so poor though, that I decided to go to Charlie’s for a half time pint. The clubhouse seemed reasonably busy, and we chatted over a swift pint before heading back into the ground, just as the game kicked off. Gethin had injured himself, so Keats dropped to right back with Allen coming into midfield. As we walked to the Popular Side, we came across a Bradford Town Youth FC team, looking resplendent in their maroon and blue kit and Tim greeted them warmly.

Attacking the Bristol End, City seemed much more up for it and Morgan in particular was attacking at pace, released quite often by a reinvigorated Marc Canham. Tonbridge were continually fouling, niggly fouls all of the pitch, and jumping through Griffin.

Just before the hour mark City extended their lead, Chamberlain picked Morgan out in acres of space on the left, Kerry cut inside the full back before curling a shot past the keeper and into the bottom corner. An immaculate finished and Morgan celebrated with a knee slide towards the Popular Side singers.

Minutes later Morgan was again released down the line, the tricky winger knocked the ball past Schulz and the lumbering centre half scythed Morgan down. The tackle was pretty awful, catching Morgan around the top of the thigh and sending him flying, Kerry perhaps milked the injury, but rightly the Tonbridge player was given his marching orders. As Kerry walked off the pitch he winked not once, but twice at the crowd! The little man had clearly been hamming it up in a performance Alan Richman would be proud of. Nevertheless, it was a clear sending off.

It was clear there was no way back for Tonbridge, and almost immediately Griffin attempted a lob which was easily saved. Moments later though, Chamberlain broke down the right of the area and slid a ball across to Griffin who finished easily, 3-0 and the crowd was enjoying it.

Griffin almost scored again (I thought he had and started celebrating, it was that close!) , before being replaced by Jordan Walker, while Norris came on for Morgan in what was the wideman’s best starting performance so far.

City could, maybe should have won by a cricket score, with Chamberlain having plenty of chances, the referee also inexplicably turned down a nailed on penalty. Walker burst into the box, was fouled (his boot came off!) but somehow the referee didn’t give it. The tackle was so far from the ball I do not know how it wasn’t given.

Brad Norris spurned a glorious opportunity to score his first senior goal, when Chamberlain picked him out, but like Griffin slightly earlier the frontman placed his shot just wide of the post. The whistle sounded and City had won their first home game since November.

The stripes played much better from around 35 minutes, and the crowd was treated to a convincing win, I had almost forgotten how much fun having a sing down Twerton can be. I will not get over excited though, as there is always the chance City’s Jekyll and Hyde nature will show at home to Truro City on Saturday.

Dorchester Town (H)

Having missed the Staines #packthepark game, this was my first return to Twerton Park since the freezing cold Bromley game. The weather was no where near as cold this time, but annoyingly I have picked up a cold, which meant my singing voice had to change to more of a throaty bawl to stop the continual coughing.

Getting home lateish and feeling sorry for myself, I skipped the usual prematch ales, and went straight to the ground, a quick chat with a mate, purchase of a pin badge (bargain at £3.50) I then went to set up the flags.

Normally the flags are put up by Reed/Gibbo etc., but with Gibbo off wearing Glamorgan Uni tracksuits and Reedy on holiday I was asked to do them. Having struggled on my own until Notman arrived like the cavalry to help, I can safely say it is a doff of the cap for the effort involved.

Dorchester Town had made ex-stripe, man mountain Charlie Clough their captain since we played them in the distant days of summer, when we were top of the table and looking good, and fellow old boys Ben Watson and Jason Matthews were also starting. City dropped Adam Connolly for the first time in God knows how long, while starting loanee Elliott Chamberlain and Griffin up top.

City had a chance early on when Chamberlain hit a tame effort towards goal, but Matthews managed to fumble it and we hoped he would continue his usual calamitous performances at home (for the record, I quite like Matthews, and he did have some good games, but Christ he was prone to an error) but he claimed the ball at the second attempt.

City’s current custodian pulled off a save that was blasted straight at him after City failed to clear their lines, and the young keeper pulled off a few more decent saves when his defence deserted him.  

Dorchester were having more of the game at this point, and it was no surprise when the stripes fragile defence wilted like spinach in hot water and Ben Watson knocked home an easy finish, around the 20 minute mark.

City were not out of this though, and echoing his brilliant goal at The Avenue earlier this season, Griffin was tripped around 20 yards out, he picked himself up and magnificently curled his freekick into the bad of the net. 1-1 and Griffin proving again his prowess at set pieces.

City attacked again soon after the restart, and Chamberlain latched onto a threaded throughball which left him clear on goal, Matthews was drawn out of his goal and Chamberlain played the ball back to Griffin, who tapped into the unguarded net. The linesman though decided that Griffin was offside and disallowed the goal, I am not convinced, I was fairly sure the ball was played square, therefore Charlie wasn’t offside, however, I have only seen the incident once and I am wearing my stripey glasses!

The stripes were playing the better football at this point, and it was against the run of play that Dorchester regained the lead, a ball was played in from the left, and symptomatic of an uncharacteristically poor performance from Danny Ball, the young left back completely missed the forward behind him who gratefully capitalised on Ball’s mistake to score a very easy goal.

City equalised within 5 minutes, courtesy of an outrageous finish from Griffin and potentially a classic cock up from Matthews. Joe Burnell lifted the ball over the Dorchester defence who badly mistimed their attempted offside trap, the ball fell to Griffin 30 odd yards out, the bulky frontman didn’t take a touch, but calmly lobbed the ball towards goal over Jason Matthews, (who I assume came out to close the angle but why when he was so far out?) who backpeddled and did manage to get a hand to the ball, but not enough to keep it out of the net.

The half time whistle sounded with the game tied at 2 each. We decided to mix up the standing a bit, and stood at the Bath End during the second half, for the first time for me in at least 3 years, weirdly it is much closer that the usual Popular Side angle so provided some interesting new views.

It was from this position we noted how big Dorchester’s centre back pairing is, Charlie Clough is just a monster, while their number 4 Pugh was even taller (although slighter in build). A Griffin freekick bounced to Simpson who hammered the ball over, but shortly after Griffin limped out of the fray to be replaced by Kerry Morgan.

Despite the diminutive stature of the City boys up front, we still tried far too many crosses which was ridiculous, given the aforementioned size of the centre halves. City were having by far the better of the half, and two chances stand out in my mind. A corner dropped to Gethin Jones who was unmarked, but he showed why he is a centre back by only connecting with his studs and the ball dribbled towards goal, the second involved a similar chance. A ball was crossed to Noah Keats at the back post, he completely missed the ball which then struck his standing leg, the ball though fell kindly to Chamberlain who placed his shot just wide of the post with Matthews stranded.

Despite City having the majority of the game Dorchester scored next, surprisingly enough from a corner. Giant centre half Pugh headed home, although Mellor was screaming loudly for a foul at every official, so I can only assume someone held him and prevented him from claiming it.

The stripes tried to restore parity, but it was not to be and the fourth home defeat in a row followed, it was harsh on City who potentially deserved to nick it, but the form isn’t good enough at the moment.

After the game, I went to take the flags down and while up the step ladder I saw a sight that will haunt my nightmares. The Dorchester team returned to the Twerton pitch to do a warm down before heading home. Charlie Clough emerged shirtless (it was a bit cold, but fair enough) and the proceeded to pin a smaller team mate to the ground, while egged on by the rest of the team. Leaving the homoerotic scene alone, I packed the flag bag, and left Twerton until Saturday when Tonbridge Angels come to town, hopefully a game as good as the 3-4 away win will occur! UTC!

The Cheesemen

With City playing Hayes and Yeading United away at Woking (I know it is ridiculous, and today Worcester City have announced they will be playing at Kidderminster) I decided to eschew the City game, and return to Bradford on Avon for the Western League clash against Cheddar FC.

Cheddar, like City have been struggling due to postponements and this was only their fourth game in two months, while Bradford Town have also had a weather hampered fixture list.

I returned to BoA by train, and disembarked to meet other stripes in The Three Horseshoes, a swift Danish Dynamite wet my whistle, before a quick march to Trowbridge Road (I was running late, the rest had been there a couple of hours!)

Cheddar FC amazingly play in the colour yellow, which we all hope is due to the cheese but who knows! They have been in existence since 1892, originally playing in the Cheddar Valley League (again I hope this is named after the famous luminous orange cider...)  which they won in 1911, their first ever trophy. They continued in local leagues, and in 1952 moved to their current home Bowdens Park, sadly though they are planning to relocate, no doubt to a dismal out of town location.

Last season, for the first time in their history Cheddar achieved promotion to the Western League and that led to today. Trowbridge Road was bathed in a pleasant sunshine and was missing the cold bite of recent weeks, the pitch however, was showing the damage the weather has caused.

Bradford started the game well, as expected from a team on a 6 game winning streak, however, against the run of play, Cheddar broke into the box and a deft chip over the keeper by Jamie Howson, gave the Cheesemen the lead.

This just seemed to sting Town into action, and the men in blue swarmed all over the visitors. Palmer standing behind the goal was questioning the oppositions stature and querying the defensive positioning of his men on the post. Bradford star man Matt Minnis picked up an injury during this period and was substituted.

Not long after the ball broke to a Bradford player about 20 yards from goal, a soft shot was hit along the ground, but the keeper horribly misjudged it and dived over the ball, 1-1 and you couldn't help but feel for the keeper as he buried his head in the turf.

Bradford's number 18 was having a cracking game, linking play well and driving forward with intent, while at full back was Frome Town's Josh Brigham, who to be fair is carrying a little bit of extra timber! But he had a cracking game, and I later learnt he had broke his leg while playing for Frome.

Bradford then scored a goal from a powerful header from a corner and deservedly took a 2-1 lead into half time. At half time we wandered into the old Spencer Moulton social club building, as detailed previously in my blog this has since been closed apart from the football and bowls clubs, and it is still a saddening sight. What isn't depressing is the vast array of bowls pendants from past touring sides and victories Bradford bowls team, I learnt last year was the bowls club centenary year, and if I eventually return to Bradford as a retired man I hope they are still going for me to join!

A nice winter day in West Wiltshire

Bradford were buoyed in the second half, and playing like a team full of confidence. For a Western League side some of the play was superb, and the passes were knocked around, "Brazil, it's just like watching Brazil" was sung by the striped Bradfordians, and truly it was.

Tempers flared near the halfway point of the half, and a Cheddar player crashed into a smaller Bradford attacker, the giant centre half cleaned out the smaller man, who kicked off, both sides rushed in, and it took an age, which included consulting his linesman before the referee sent off the assailant.

After Cheddar were reduced to 10 men there was no chance that they were going to get back into the game and Bradford increased their stranglehold on the game. Bradford scored a wonderful third which involved a jinking, weaving run, a dinked cross a header back across goal and a wonderful finish.

Palmer had been winding up the Cheddar number 4 thoughtout the game (who was a big bastard to be fair!) and at one point after the third Palmer's ribbing had got too much and the big man told Palmer to "Shut up, you cunt" Well that told Palmsy!

The game finished 3-1 and was Bradford's seventh win in a row, and Town currently sit in third with potential promotion on the cards. We wander though town to sink some beers, and in The Plough had a giggle over a 1999 Swindon Town team photo with a very young looking Charlie Grffin (with full head of hair) and a City photo from 2005 which led to some reminiscing.

Sadly City's Tuesday game was called off, so once again another game is added to the too be played file.