| Despite the omens being set in City's favour, our hosts Bishops Stortford had different ideas and they ended our progress in this seasons FA Cup. The fourth qualifying round has now become a real obstacle in our ambitions to reach the FA Cup proper, with us faltering at the same stage on no less than six different occasions since our mammoth cup run of 1989. |
| Bouyed by almost two hundred travelling supporters, including two coachloads and several cars, City took to the field with their strongest available eleven. Only the injured Steve Jenkins was missing, his place taken by Chris Burns and a reshuffled midfield. Tom Webb had looked very impressive in the aborted game at Bromsgrove despite failing to find his form recently, today's result would depend very much on how he performed. |
| Woodside Park, the home of Bishops Stortford is a poor example of a new ground, it can best be described as like Cirencester's new ground, with ends. Being on the edge of the Hertfordshire town, there was very little there to keep the wind out and the game was spoiled and the supporters were frozen by the blustery conditions. |
| I thought that we'd be put under the cosh from the off as we were last year at Aylesbury, but with the wind at our back we started brightly, albeit without causing too much concern to Desborough in the Stortford goal. They put our back three under pressure though and caused concern when a poor backpass from Lee Jeffries brought the best out of Matt Bath's agility and ball skills. |
It seemed that the referee was a fully signed up member of the Bishops Stortford fan club as he seemed to give every foul their way and nothing to City in a two or three minute spell, even when our players clearly looked to be impeded. With their tails up, the home side came close when a poorly cleared cross fell inviting for one of their players to shoot wide.
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| City then got a favour from the officials as Jimmy Cox's cross was met by a defender instead of Tom Webb, the ball seemed at least a foot from the touchline but the linesman flagged for a corner, from which came our first opportunity as Griff headed straight at the keeper. We had an even better chance moments later as Jimmy Cox robbed Aaron Barnett out wide and crossed for Hosk who headed inches over the bar. |
| Coxy had a decent half chance when he ran onto a bouncing ball on the edge of the area but his flicked shot to the far post was overhit and ended up well wide. Then they broke forward and looked as though they'd won a penalty when Renner went down in the area but the referee surprised us by booking the Stortford forward for diving. |
| In fact pretty much all of our chances in the first half beat the crossbar as the City forwards failed to take the windy conditions into account with their shooting. One shot which did go along the floor was a daisy cutter of a free kick from Chris Burns that didn't really trouble the keeper, this came about after a promising Thommo run was abruptly ended by a crude challenge. |
| At the other end Burnsy was caught for pace and 'fell' on the ball, handling it in the process. He was booked and lucky not to be sent off but his misdemeanor led to Stortford taking the lead. The free kick was acrobatically saved by Matt Bath but the corner was forced home by Renner despite Keith Knight's best efforts at clearing the ball off the line. The offical goal time was 38 minutes, which was something of a relief as the dastardly Davenport had bought 39 while on the phone on the coach trip down! |
In the last few minutes of the half City tried their best to get back on level terms, first a City corner was cleared with more success than the one that Stortford had scored from, then Tom Webb had the ball taken away from him as he was about to shoot. In response, they could've doubled their advantage when their forward headed wide whilst unmarked at the far post. City could easily feel miffed going in a goal down at half time.
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| The ridiculous segregation policy mean't that we had to watch the second period from behind Matt Bath's goal, something which not only annoyed the City fans but surely placed the Tigers keeper under undue pressure. It's hard to say how close City came to scoring but I could do a bang up job of reporting on BS (but I'm not going to!) |
| City had a couple of half chances, Thommo headed an awkwardly bouncing cross wide, when to be fair to him he did all that he could to get a touch to the ball. Coxy had a go too, but his shot from Hosky's cross went high over the bar, much to the joy of the home fans gathered behind the top goal. At our end Jethro did well to block their striker's run with a meaty challenge but paid the price by hurting himself in the process. |
| Lee Smith, having a quiet game, made a good run that beat three or four defenders but it was for nothing as his cross was easily gathered by the goalkeeper. Then the Bishops made the first change of the game then as former Wycombe 'fairytale' striker Roy Essandoh came on for them. |
| Andy Hoskins became the second City player to be booked when he handled the ball just shy of the hour mark. The referee told him that he'd previouly naughty over there, there and there. Then he showed him the yellow card! This was followed by a booking for the home team when Thommo was almost cut in half by a rough tackle as he advanced in from the touchline. |
| City continued to press and Lee Jeffries headed Burns' free kick narrowly over the bar. Thommo was then replaced by Adie Harris as the Tigers tried an alternative approach on the left hand side. Chris looked a little bemused as he walked off, maybe it's time to give him a run in his best position rather than whatever is left when the other ten names are written down. |
Midway through the second half, with the City defence exposed, Stortford counter attacked and Essandoh turned and shot smartly against the post, with luck going against us the ball fell kindly to Barnett who smashed it home from two yards out. It could've been all over straight away as they easily cut through us again but somehow the ball stayed out. As we tried to get at least one goal back, Smith was brought down and their man rightly yellow carded.
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| The Tigers made their second change as Dave Wilkinson was brought on replace Keith Knight. If only it was ethical to fuse Knight's knowhow with Tom Webb's running then we'd have a great midfielder! Wilko came on and did his best but he isn't really a match winner. Then, as if they hadn't learned from the cheating in the first half, a different Stortford striker went to ground again looking for a spot kick, again it wasn't given. |
| Neil Mustoe became the third City player in the book after a nothing challenge, the caution was again illustrated by the referee mimicking the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Muzzie then prevented a third goal as he cleared the ball off the line with Bath beaten, although, I wasn't the only City fan that thought that the ball was well over and was surprised that the linesman hadn't indicated as much. |
| Hosky felt the full force of Stortford defender Grant Coopers illegal challenge as he was fouled from behind, what followed can only be described as argy-bargy followed by a red card for the man in blue. It will mean that he will miss the first round, although there won't be too many tears for him in Gloucester. |
| With a man advantage, Jethro was sent up front to act as a third striker but the closest he came to scoring was a header that went wide with the keeper beaten. City did get the ball in the net when Hosky converted Lee Smith low cross but he was adjudged to have been in an offside position when the ball was kicked. With diving being the order of the day for the home team, Muzzie tried his luck after he shimmied his way into the box. It wasn't given, although it was too late to matter. |
| In the last of the four minutes of injury time Wilko provided us with the entertainment that he'd been brought on for when he challenged the keeper for a fifty-fifty ball. This produced another melee, which was halted by the referee's final whistle and Bishops Stortford's progress into the next round at Mansfield, while we have to settle for the likes of ManGOTsfield! |
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