Friday 8 October 2004 - Twerton Park - kick off 7.45pm Southern League Premier Division

With Darren Hawkins and Gary Owers still on the injured list City started with the same XI which overcame Havant & Waterlooville the previous Saturday, although the bench saw the return of Justin Shuttlewood after five weeks out with a rib injury and Sam Bailey continued his rehabilitation after the AWOL incident with a substitute berth. The game began with City looking bright. Russell Milton’s long-range volley was comfortably gathered by keeper Wilmot and McCulloch’s last ditch tackle denied John Williams a shooting chance. Then Bobby Ford’s 14th minute through ball gave Scott Partridge his first opening of the evening but his effort was directed straight at Wilmot. The Canaries had shown little as an attacking force up to then but on 20 minutes they almost took the lead. Matt Coupe fouled Bridge on the edge of the box. McMenamin’s free-kick took a wicked deflection of the wall only for Evans to recover and parry the ball away superbly. This save became even more important when two minutes later City went ahead. Jimmy Benefield collected Alex Sykes’ crossfield pass and as he set himself to shoot he was felled by Kidd’s clumsy challenge. The left-back was shown a red card by the referee and Partridge confidently sent Wilmot the wrong way from the spot. City failed to build on this advantage although their cause was not helped by Ford limping off four minutes after the goal. He was replaced by Steve Jones with Jim Rollo moving into the centre of midfield. Partridge did have a shot deflected wide and Benefield fired over but the Hertfordshire side should have gone into the break level after a dreadful error by Mike Trought on 40 minutes. He completely missed Wilmot’s long clearance leaving Sozzo clear on goal. It looked a simple task of beating Evans but the big keeper spread himself wonderfully and blocked his effort.

With memories of their failure to beat ten-man opposition in their last home outing against Hednesford still fresh in the mind City positively pushed Sykes up alongside Partridge and Williams to try to stretch their man-short opponents. Sozzo did force another save from Williams and Cavill shot wide but this attacking intent was beginning to pay dividends and on the hour mark they struck again. Rollo was the provider as his cross was headed home by Williams to register his ninth goal of the season. With the comfort of a two-goal lead City began to produce their best football of the season. Milton was at the heart of nearly all City’s good work and with fifteen minutes remaining his pass gave Partridge a shooting chance. Wilmot managed to parry the effort only for it to loop up into the path of Benefield to head home from a couple of yards out. The game won Partridge was taken off three minutes later and his replacement, Steve Tweddle, made an immediate impact. Jones’ long ball forward picked him out and after cutting inside a defender he unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that flew past Wilmot. City continued to look threatening in the closing ten minutes and, although they couldn’t add to their tally, could reflect on a good nights work at the final whistle.