Saturday 1 March 2003 - New Lodge - kick off 3.00pm Dr Martens Premier Division

City's starting line-up showed one change from the previous Saturday's draw with Hastings - fit-again Frankie Bennett returning in place of Dan Cleverley. With just two minutes gone City carved through the Clarets defence. Jim Rollo's burst from midfield saw him lay the ball off to Stuart James. He cut inside and though his attempted shot was woefully mis-hit the ball fell perfectly to City's top scorer Jason Eaton six yards out. However, Eaton failed to add to his total of 16 strikes, blasting over the bar when it looked easier to score. Within another six minutes the home side had a second (and third) close escape. A James corner was swung in from the left. Debutant keeper Bruce came for it but got nowhere near only for Berkeley to spare his blushes by blocking Gary Kemp's header on the line. The rebound dropped to Bennett only for the same player to throw himself in the way of the goalbound shot. Chelmsford briefly broke City's stranglehold after 17 minutes when Slatter's long range effort brought the best out of Mark Bryant. This was only temporary as City again created another clear opening on 23 minutes. Jamie Gosling produced a typical piece of trickery to leave three defenders trailing on the edge of the Chelmsford box before picking out an unmarked Eaton. As if to prove it wasn't going to be his - or City's - afternoon Eaton's struck the ball two yards wide. Having survived this assault the Essex side were handed the perfect chance to take the lead nine minutes before the interval. An innocuous challenge by Mike Trought on Watkins two yards in the City area was adjudged a foul by the referee and a penalty was the end result. Whether Watkin's concious got the better of him is unlikely but his spot-kick was shockingly poor and Bryant easily blocked it.

Justice done City reasserted their dominance at the start of the second period. The next addition to the near miss column came courtesy of Gosling's 25 yard shot that clipped the top of the bar with Bruce well beaten. Moments later a sweeping move involving Paul Milsom and James ended with Eaton's shot flying narrowly wide. This was as close as City were to come again as after 55 minutes Chelmsford went ahead. All afternoon the referee had been overly fussy and it was no different when Iain Harvey was harshly penalised for a challenge on Berkeley. Slatter struck the free-kick in low which Bryant did well to block under pressure from Samuels. However, the ball fell kindly to Watkins and he showed his former Cheltenham teammate Eaton how to do it, making no mistake from six yards out. Just another seven minutes had passed when the game was taken beyond City with Chelmsford's second goal. Initially Kemp did brilliantly to take away Slatter's cross from the incoming Watkins. The clearance dropped to Berkley some 30-yards out. He tried his luck and his rising shot crashed against the crossbar before rebounding onto the grounded Bryant and rolling into the net. Even a trio of subtitutions for City failed to lift their game and they (understandably?) allowed their fustration to spill over into a number of robust challenges. Twice Eaton was lucky to escape action for sending Wiles crashing into the advertising hoardings while shepherding the ball out of play. Drew Shore, a minute after coming on, and Andy Williams were not so fortunate and received cautions for late challenges on the same player. An incident in the final minute summed up City's afternoon perfectly when Basham clearly controlled the ball with his hand in the Chelmsford box. The referee unexplicably took no action and City were left to curse their luck (and poor finishing).