Tuesday 12 November 2002 - Twerton Park - kick off 7.45pm Dr Martens Premier Division

Having lost in a Dr Martens Cup penalty shoot-out to the same opposition a week earlier with a largely second-string line-up City went into their league clash with Tiverton Town confident of building on Saturday's draw at Hednesford with a morale-boosting victory. And for about an hour it looked as if they were capable of doing just that as, despite never playing particularly well, they had largely controlled a scrappy encounter with the Devon side. However, this optimism dissipated on 61 minutes when Paul Milsom was sent off for a second bookable offence. That both cautions were for innocuous challenges that barely warranted free-kicks let alone anything more serious left City fustrated. This fustration soon turned to something approaching bitterness as first Tiverton took full advantage of their numerical advantage by grabbing the lead and then City saw a certain penalty shout turned down by referee Alison Chapman.

The first half had started with little sign of the events to come. City made two changes to the side that held Hednesford - Frankie Bennett replacing Stuart James and Chris Honor coming in for the suspended Iain Harvey - and started brightly. Town keeper Edwards claimed a second minute Bennett cross and then saw his defence block an Andy Williams shot. Jason Eaton almost latched onto a mistake by the lumbering Rudge before his spectacular overhead effort struck the same defender. The first sign that all may not be alright with the referee came after 19 minutes when Milsom went into her book for being fouled by Rudge. The defender was understandably taking full advantage of being allowed to do what he liked to the City striker and Milsom's fustration was becoming more and more evident. City did their best to overcome this disadvantage, Rollo shooting wide after Edwards had failed to claim Bennett's 30th minute corner. A rare Tiverton attack saw Bryant save well from Evertt after 36 minutes. Milsom - ironically lucky to escape another booking for a lunge at Cousins - briefly lost his tormentor to see an effort deflected narrowly wide. From the resultant corner Thorne's flick-on found Eaton only for Winter to clear off the line with his keeper beaten. The final chance of the half fell to the visitors four minutes before the break. Holloway's pass freed Rogers and his shot brought another fine stop out of Bryant.

The second half began in a similar pattern to the first with City on top but with the tempo of the game dropping slightly all they had to show for this upper-hand was a 59th minute shot from Gary Kemp that flew two yards wide. Two minutes later Milsom recieved his red card. Another ariel challenge, this time against Cousins, saw the referee award a harsh free-kick against the City no.9 and immediately compund the error by reaching for her cards. City reorganised - James and Cleverley replacing Honor and Eaton - and for a spell they looked capable of overcoming their disavanatage. However, a Nancekivell shot into the side netting was a sign of Tivvy's threat and on 75 minutes they broke the deadlock. Mudge turned his marker on the edge of the box and fired in a shot that flew past a stunned Bryant. Tiverton were content now to contain City and with the referee's decisions becoming more and more unpredicatble - even occasionly in City's favour as Eaton won a free kick for tripping over his own feet - there looked no way back for the home side. On 81 minutes though they looked to have grabbed a lifeline. Cleverley burst into the Town box only to brought crashing to the deck by a combination of Impey and Cousins. It was as clear a penalty as you could imagine but (I guess, with hindsight) Ms Chapman had clearly lost any sense of reason or logic by this point and waved away City's appeals. The audible laughter from the Tiverton bench showed how inexplicable this decision was and City were left facing defeat that a couple of late corners never looked like adverting.