Tuesday 23 August 2005 - Lodge Road - kick off 7.45pm Southern League Premier Division

Partridge could have got City off to a perfect start when he was sent racing clear after an exchange of passes with Phil Walsh after just four minutes. He choose to try to take the ball around Court but the keeper did well to get a hand on it and the danger was cleared. Walsh then shot narrowly over the bar and Andy Sandell fired a free-kick straight at Court, as the game looked to be going to script for table-topping City against rock-bottom Yate. Of course, at this early stage of the season such positions can be misleading and after this bright start City began to find themselves pushed back by Town. On several occasions dangerous balls into the area were cleared with difficulty by City and their attacking efforts became a series of hopeful punts forward that were comfortably dealt with the host’s backline. After 21 minutes Steve Jones was forced into blocking former City player Mike Wyatt, after possession had carelessly been given away, and was lucky to escape with just a caution. Four minutes later Yate captain Jefferies was not so fortunate as he received a straight red card for an off the ball incident whilst the players waited for a corner. This was the third time already this season that City had seen the opposition reduced to ten men but in contrast to the matches against Grantham and Tiverton this seemed to fire up Yate and they rarely looked like a team a player down. Just past the half hour mark Paul Evans produced a save at full stretch from another ex-City star Dave Elsey’s rising shot. With the City support comprising the vast majority of the 575 crowd there was an increasingly frustrated atmosphere in the basic but picturesque Lodge Road ground although this was nearly lifted three minutes before the interval when Adie Harris headed a Jim Rollo cross too close to Court. It looked as if City would reach the break level but a minute into stoppage time Matt Coupe’s poor first touch saw him concede an unnecessary free-kick. Elsey lifted it into the box where Pritchard planted a firm header past the despairing dive of Evans.

Straight from the second half kick off it was clear that City were making an attempt to get the ball on the floor and make use of the excellent wide pitch, with Sandell and Rollo staying out wide. This approach began to pay dividends almost immediately as gaps began to appear in the Yate defence that weren’t there in the first half. City further boosted this approach with the introduction on Gethin Jones for Coupe after 54 minutes. His pace and strength down the right flank began to test the Bristol side with Partridge firing one chance just wide and Walsh heading over the bar. A minute past the hour City levelled. Walsh created the opening, flicking a Gethin Jones pass toward Partridge and he blasted it high past Court. The momentum was now with City but Yate were increasingly using any means possible to stop them. They should have been reduced to nine men for Paul Chenoweth’s – the third former City player in Yate’s side – disgraceful challenge on Gethin Jones on the touchline sixteen minutes from time. A number of times keeper Court’s poor handling almost gifted City a second goal and his painfully slow goal-kicks were increasingly irritating the Romans. City won a series of corners, the closest they came to profiting from them was a Gethin Jones header flew just past the angle of post and crossbar. The largely anonymous Sandell was replaced by Ricky Hulbert with seven minutes remaining but by then the game was petering out for all City’s efforts. The final note of interest was the referee finally booking Court for his antics in stoppage time, although the futility of this with just seconds left proved that he should have done this about forty minutes earlier.