| City's first home game of the season was against league new boys Team Bath. Both sides had been beaten by a single goal on the saturday, City at Rugby and the students at home to Solihull. Whilst we were poor in the Midlands, a Bath fan suggested that his lot had been 'kicked off the park' in the home defeat to the Birmingham side. One thing was for sure, there was to be more than a 1-0 scoreline tonight! |
| Team Bath themselves are quite an oddity and maybe unfairly have been accused of being a professional football club funded by the taxpayer. With their squad being made up by players released from league clubs it's not easy to judge whether this level of the pyramid is suited to their capabilities. |
| One of their players was ex-City winger Luke Prince, a player sure to want to make his mark on the game. City kept the same team that started at Rugby on saturday with just Neil Mustoe coming in for Karl Bayliss on the bench. |
| The game swung into action straight away in front of an above average crowd at Meadow Park, not bad considering there couldn't have been more than twenty Team Bath fans in the crowd. This was a game that I was rather apprehensive about considering the amount of talent at their disposal, that together with the fact that we'd lost on saturday mean't that tonight was really a 'must win' game. So it was no surprise when the visitors took the lead on their first attack! |
The ball was played wide out on the left and the attacker had enough time and space to control the ball and play it to the feet of the advancing Tom Stocco. The huge number nine hit the ball straight away and it went in off the underside of Matt Bath's crossbar. Bloody great start!
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| To make matters worse, Matt Lewis on the right wing seemed to find space running at the 'experienced' Keith Knight and squeezed in a shot which Matt Bath had to save to prevent the students taking an early two goal lead. Stunned by the early onslaught City did their best to get back into the game and had a good chance to equalise through Tom Webb. Jimmy Cox had brought the ball forward and cut into the box but his low cross was poor, but then so was the clearance. It bounced in front of Webby who hit it on the half volley but could only find the arms of the goalkeeper. |
| City were putting the 'tax dodgers' under pressure and got their just reward after twenty-six minutes through a rasping shot from Andy Hoskins. A City corner was partially cleared as far as Chris Thompson, he looped a high ball back into the void between the advancing defence and the goalkeeper. For once both City forwards had retreated with the opposition (although there looked to be one player offside but not interfeering with play), Hoskins spun on his heel, controlled the ball from the high pass and in one sweeping movement volleyed the ball straight into the back of the net. The goalkeeper could do nothing and Hosk will be delighted with such a clean strike, one which was almost as good as the one against Banbury in the Trophy. |
Jimmy Cox, now more interested in scoring than roughing up his marker, was unlucky when his shot hit the post. Keith Knight, in one of his few moments of note played a short pass to Cox inside the box and Cox curled a shot around the keeper. Sadly it struck the foot of the post and bounced wide to Lee Smith, he crossed it back in and an off balance Hosky could only hit it high, wide and handsomely over the bar. Of course, it would be unfair to suggest that it was 'all City', but Bath could only manage sporadic attacks which were comfortably swept up by the Tigers defence.
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| Cox was to have his moment of glory though. On forty one minutes Jimmy got onto the end of a long pass by Chris Burns and did enough to hold off the defender and slot the ball past the advancing keeper. He could've had another goal in similar fashion moments later but the ref saw fit to blow up for a foul as the same defender dallied on the ball. |
| As the game was coming to half time Bath had to go and spoil the occasion for City. A corner for the opponents was played short but cleared back to the original taker. He made no mistake in picking out former Bristol Rovers and QPR defender Andy Tillson on the far post. Matt Bath had no answer to his pinpoint header. |
| The second half started minus the influence of Burnsy. He'd been replaced Will Steadman, whether that was through injury or a tactical move remains to be seen. Chris had been fantastic in the tackle but some of his passing had been poor to say the least. |
Like the first half, Team Bath came out and played as though their asses were on fire. They could've taken a lead when a deflected shot saw Matt Bath scramble across the width of his goal to push the ball out for a corner. City came back strongly and pretty much had all of the play for the next ten minutes or so. The best chance from the period came when Thommo, on a rare attack had forced a corner. Knight swung one into the near post where a mass of bodies gathered and how the ball stayed out is a mystery to me!
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| Jimmy Cox then had a good chance to put City ahead but Wilko, on a surging run, delayed his pass and caught Jim offside. Coxy did put the ball in the net for good effect and to raise a cheer from the T-End, but the goal didn't count. Then the students answered with a good low shot which needed the best of Matty's ability to stop them scoring. |
| On sixty-five minutes Adam Hemming replaced Keith Knight and for the second time in two games went on eclipse anything that Knight had done in the previous hour. City were now a real threat on both sides. Hemming on the left and Lee Smith on the right. It was on one of Lee's runs that City scored their third goal. Smithy had actually taken on a man too many as he advanced into the box and lost the ball, but it rolled to Jimmy Cox on the edge of the box and he hit a low hard shot inside the post and over the keepers despairing dive. |
| Just as we'd got our breath back Adam Hemming gave us a two goal advantage. He played a couple of nice passes with Tom Webb from a short throw and then burst along the edge of the penalty box and had room to cross. Whether it was mean't or not I don't know but he fired a low cross/shot into the far corner. It's hard to tell who was more surprised out of the keeper or the City fans. It doesn't matter much though cos we were happy! |
Tom Webb, who'd hurt himself in the first half then made way for Neil Mustoe to get some much needed match practice on his return from injury. It could've been 5-2 soon after as Andy Hoskins won a header on the penalty spot and glanced the ball in. The referee ruled that he'd been holding the defender when all Hosky had done was tied him up with ninety feet of rope and set his feet in a concrete base. Whats wrong with that???
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| The students the piled on the pressure and it was little surprise when they beat Matty Bath for a third time. Their number eight found himself in acres of space in the City penalty area and calmly slotted the ball home to make the score 4-3. It also turned what would've been an easy victory into an anxious final few minutes. |
| To make matters worse, after being pulled back and awarded a free kick Lee Jeffries threw his arm back into the face of his assailant and gave the referee no option but to send him off. This ban added to the one incurred for the red card (also for an elbow) at Bishops Cleeve will leave City's new signing on the sidelines for a long time. |
| City did hold out to record their first win, all front of an impressive home crowd of 383. Now we really have the chance to show the Gloucester public what we're capable of with the visit of league whipping boys Atherstone (already!) on saturday. |
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