Saturday 1 January 2005 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm Southern League Premier Division

Despite two weeks having passed since their last outing, after the postponement of Holiday Monday’s meeting with Chippenham Town, City were still without Bobby Ford due to the rib injury he suffered in the defeat against Rugby United. They also lost striker Scott Partridge due an ear infection which meant Reinier Moor and Ben Cleverley were drafted into the starting XI. One further change saw first choice keeper Paul Evans return in place of Justin Shuttlewood having spent ten weeks sidelined with a foot injury. The conditions seemed to give both sides problems in the opening exchanges as they failed to come to terms with the strong wide and squally rain. Although both sides are better known for trying to playing attractive football this was turning out to be impossible and Team Bath seemed to realise this and began to use a more direct approach to loan striker Kamara-Taylor. With wingers Prince and Lewis supporting him well this method soon began to give the ‘home’ side the upper hand. Former City star Prince headed one early opening straight at Evans and then turned provider for Lewis, but again Evans was equal to the final shot. On the half-hour a mistake by Evans almost gifted Team Bath the lead. He failed to claim Maye’s cross which allowed Prince to knock the ball back to Heiniger. He lifted it back toward goal with Evans out of position but to the relief of the vast majority in the 1000+ crowd the ball dropped wide. With the crowd made up of almost all ‘away’ fans the atmosphere was matching the deteriorating conditions and it dropped even lower when Team Bath went ahead after 34 minutes. An error by Jim Rollo – his attempted pass to Sam Bailey going nowhere near the centre-back – sent Lewis racing clear. His shot was blocked by Evans but the ball fell perfectly into the path of Wojciechowski and he rolled it home from six yards out. Stung by this City finally managed to muster their first effort on goal just before the interval when Gary Owers sent in a dipping 25-yard shot that Pecora turned over the bar.

This was a sign of things to come as almost straight from the second half kick-off City looked more determined and began to press Team Bath back. And it only took nine minutes for them to draw level, although not without a little assistance from their opponents. The build-up to the goal began with City returning possession to Team Bath after it had been knocked into touch to allow Richardson to receive treatment. Cleverley’s attempt to play it back to Pecora saw it curl into touch but City stood off to let the keeper receive the throw-in only to see him inexplicably pick up the ball. The referee had no option but to award City an indirect free-kick which Cleverley lifted toward Owers and his header was turned home by John Williams from close range. The strengthening wide was at City’s back and they were soon taking full advantage of this as Team Bath continually struggled to clear their lines. One such ball forward on 63 minutes saw Pecora needlessly come to the edge of his box and only succeed in knocking it to Alex Sykes who lifted a perfect volley over the stranded keeper into the net. City were now well and truly on top, Sykes forcing a smart block out of Pecora and Cleverley slicing a good chance well wide. Williams also headed a Russell Milton corner over before ten minutes from time City grabbed their third goal. Jimmy Benefield, who was City most impressive player in the second half, collected possession from a Williams flick, cut between two defenders before firing a low shot past Pecora. There was still time for City to score a fourth and it was another finish of the highest quality. Loan signing Luke Corbett had replaced the disappointing Moor just before the hour mark and he marked his debut with a wonderful 45-yard strike that flew over Pecora after Otto’s mis-hit clearance had dropped perfectly to him. This completed the turnaround and left City hoping they could repeat this sort of result the next time they take to the Twerton Park pitch as the home team.