| It had to go sometime and with the way that we've been playing at Meadow Park lately today Rugby United did the honours by inflicting City's third defeat of the season and ended our ten match unbeaten run. They were also responsible for our opening day loss at Butlin Road so the Warwickshire side have now done the double over us and pushed themselves twelve points ahead of us in the table. |
| As games go, this was previewed as a 'six-pointer' and with the result in mind you can see why. It was always going to be difficult as City were down to the bare bones for the second week running, it had become so bad that three youth teamers signed DML forms just to bolster the squad. That said, Rugby aren't without their problems so it kind of levelled things up a bit. |
| Chris Burns came into the City line up in place of Dan Avery, maybe Dan's inexperience wouldn't be able to cope with a team in the higher echelons as well as he did against Shepshed. Of course Burns is far from fit himself, struggling with an ankle knock. One point to note from his inclusion was that he relinquished the number seven shirt to Neil Mustoe, is that a sign that he's ready to hang up his boots? |
| The rest of the team remained unchanged although the substitutes bench had a more crowded feel to it as we named five instead of the three that sat there on Tuesday night. Included was one of the youth team trio, Karl Palmer, who came on for the last ten minutes up front, although it seems that he's more of a midfielder in the U-18 setup. |
| As important as both team line-up's were, the City fans despaired when they saw that the referee was Harjender Singh of West Bromwich, an official whose visits to Meadow Park always seem to coincide with away wins. |
City were quicker out of the blocks, as you'd expect with the home team. Jimmy Cox raced ahead of the defence only to see his crisp shot pushed aside by Jason Pearcy in the Rugby goal. The ball fell nicely for Lee Smith but his attempt was blocked before it fell for Neil Mustoe to shoot from distance into the arms of the keeper thanks to a slight deflection.
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| The goals are coming thick and fast for Dave Wilkinson lately and it's no stroke of luck, it's because he's getting in good positions. He almost bagged another when he was the recipient of Andy Hoskins' flick on, but his lack of pace showed and the shot was blocked by a last ditch tackle. |
| At the other end Chris Burns committed a needless foul right under the gaze of the linesman and from the ensuing free kick the ball fizzed across the face of the goal. Another set piece for a foul given away in a safe area saw a free header go straight to Bath, a yard either side and Rugby would've scored. |
| A long ball into the Rugby box was cleared but only after protests that Jimmy Cox had been pushed in the back fell on deaf ears. To make matters worse, United's Robbie Beard held the ball up on the halfway line under pressure from Burns and Mr Singh saw the Gaffer's close attention as a foul. Why is a foul in the box never the same as one out of it? |
| On a rare foray forward Chris Thompson got a decent cross into the feet of Cox, but as he turned the ball was prodded into the side netting by the retreating defender. From the corner the ball was only cleared as far as Lee Smith, whose cross found Hosky, who sent a looping header in that needed to be touched over the bar by the keeper. |
| Jimmy Cox then had two chances in quick succesion. His first saw him shoot wide from a narrow angle and then Pearcy was called into action again to see his header over the bar for a corner. |
As half time approached Rugby's pacy striker Justin Marsden weaved into the box before going down, again Mr Singh did nothing but it looked as though the young forward had pushed the ball out of reach and went down looking for a penalty. Still, I've seen them given!
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| The last action of the first period was a booking for Tom Webb when he slid in just a little late on the Rugby player. I don't think our man touched his opponent but it looked like a fair enough caution under the circumstances. |
| City's first chance of the second half epitomised pretty much every attempt that we were going to have in the next forty-five minutes. Thommo found Jimmy Cox with a good pass and after easily fooling the defender he shot straight at the goalkeeper. |
| City had the upper hand now and chances were coming thick and fast. Neil Griffiths headed just wide from a Neil Mustoe free kick after Andy Hoskins had been fouled near the corner of the penalty area. That was followed by a Tom Webb run and shot which took a deflection off of a defender but Mr Singh couldn't have seen it as he gave a goal kick. |
| As the Tigers continued to press, a corner was half cleared and Burnsy's shot was well charged down. Muzzie picked up the loose ball but was roughed up in the process and a free kick was awarded to City, sadly though Keith Knight's set piece didn't get further than the defensive wall. |
| It was then Rugby's chance to turn the screw and they might've scored when the ball looped up and over the bar when Bath made a low save, hearts were in mouths at the City end as the ball dropped goalwards. Chris Thompson then earned his defensive corn when he slid in to block a shot that was heading for the target. |
A little more than an hour had passed when the incident that caused such disdain among the City fans occured. During a midfield ding-dong, there seemed to be one or two heavy challenges ignored by Mr Singh and Wilko was bundled to the floor as he brought the ball forward. Not seeing anything untoward play continued and the ball found it's way to Marsden who cut inside from the right wing before drilling a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to send the Rugby fans into raptures.
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| From the restart Knight made a similar run to the one that had just reaped rewards for Marsden but Pearcy was equal to his shot. As tempers frayed in the aftermath of the Rugby goal, Neil Mustoe was booked for dissent. Knight's run became his last act as he was replaced by Adam Hemming, with Webby filling the central midfield role and Adam going out wide. |
| Top scorer Hoskins was then presented with a golden chance to keep up his goal-a-game ratio when Jimmy Cox crossed from the touchline back towards the penalty spot, but Hosky's header didn't have enough power on it and Pearcy dived low to his right to claim the ball. At the other end Matt Bath prevented Rugby from taking an insurmountable lead when he got down well to stop the ball going inside the near post. |
| Again Jimmy Cox shot at the keeper after good work from Lee Smith but with five minutes to go Pearcy really broke the Tigers hearts when he replicated Bath's earlier save to push Webb's low drive wide. This was followed by Hemming trying his luck from a narrow angle by shooting straight at the keeper and although he couldn't hold the shot, he saw it out for a corner. |
| As a last throw of the dice, youngster Karl Palmer replaced Burns and went up front along side Cox, Smith and Hoskins. He showed a few nice touches but nothing that looked threatening. It was however the other young sub Hemming that gave us more hope when his cross was charged down by the defender, again though Mr Singh ignored shouts for handball. |
| Hosky had the last chance of the game when he snatched at a loose ball and sent his volley well wide, but it wasn't to be and Rugby had proved to be quite a thorn in City's side as they completed the league double. |
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