Friday 25 March 2005 - Hardenhuish Park - kick off 3.00pm Southern League Premier Division

Williams was recalled to the starting line-up in place of the unavailable Martin Paul, with the fit again Alex Sykes and Bobby Ford taking over from Jimmy Benefield and Gary Owers. Facing a side that had not lost in 2005 the last thing City would have wanted was to concede an early goal but this is exactly what they did. The hosts attacked from the kick-off and won a corner that was only half-cleared. This allowed one of the five former City players in the Chippenham side, Mark Badman, to lift the ball back into the area where Constable held off Leigh Henry before shooting past Paul Evans. If City thought this was a bad start three minutes later it got even worse. Badman was again the creator as he combined with Gilroy to free Kirk, who finished easily to send the home fans into raptures. Understandably City were set-back by this double blow and they struggled to produce anything in the way of attacking threat, although their hopes were briefly lifted when Partridge was tripped in the box only for the linesman’s offside flag to deny them a clear-cut penalty. In fact, it could have got even worse on 14 minutes when another ex-City star Gary Thorne headed a Wilmot (also ex-City) corner against the outside of the post. After this Chippenham appeared to be content to sit back on their two-goal advantage, although they did suffer a blow on 30 minutes when Badman limped off to be replaced by disgraced former City defender Sam Bailey. Chris Holland saw a header from a Russell Milton corner fly wide, Williams hooked a shot just past the post and Jimmy Rollo sliced a half-chance well wide just before half-time but there was little indication of the carnage to come in the second half.

Given there lack of penetration in the first half it was no surprise at the break that City abandoned their 4-3-3 formation by replacing Russell Milton with Darren Hawkins and moving Sykes out to the left flank. This change began to pay dividends almost immediately as Sykes and Hawkins started to stretch the Chippenham defence. And it took just eleven minutes for the breakthrough to arrive when Sykes’ cross was flicked home by Williams. Sykes then almost grabbed a goal of his own from a deflected free-kick but on 66 minutes City were level. This time it was Partridge who provided the centre for Williams to powerfully nod past Hervin. The previous four meetings between the sides had finished in a stalemate but this game was only level for only five minutes. Totally dominant now City won a corner which was taken short before being lifted into the box where Holland flicked it on and Williams completed his hat-trick by heading into the roof of the net. Sykes and Rollo then forced Hervin into two excellent saves as City threatened to run riot. Chippenham were clearly shell-shocked but twice they almost found a way back into the game. Both times it was Gilroy who burst clear of the City back-line but he lacked the composure to test Evans, shooting weakly at him the first time then stumbling over the ball the second. So, it was left to Partridge to show poise in front of goal with five minutes remaining. He latched onto Hawkins’ flick before rolling the ball past Hervin into the corner of the net.