Wednesday 30 November 2005 - Ladysmead - kick off 7.45pm Errea Cup 3rd Round

Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

Tiverton capitalised on a sluggish start from City and went on the attack straight from the whistle. Chris Bale had already blasted one shot over from the edge of the box with less than two minutes played when Adam Fowler found himself bearing down on goal with just the keeper to beat after a nice one-two with Richard Pears. Fowler tried to curl his shot into the bottom corner and was only denied by a great save from Shuttlewood. It proved to be a wake-up call for Bath with the tenacious Phil Walsh causing all manner of problems for the Tiverton back line. A powerful Adie Harris effort was deflected wide on 14 minutes and from the resulting corner Harris flicked on to the back post for the on-rushing Scott Partridge to head home. Tiverton responded immediately by throwing on veteran forward Kurt Nogan in place of Sam Croft for a three-man attack but City continued to improve and looked the more likely to score. Partridge thought he had done just that on the half-hour mark when his tap-in from Craig Davidge's cross was ruled out for off-side. With five minutes of the half left, City were holding on comfortably, but, for the second time in five days, Shuttlewood made a mistake that cost his side a goal. A poor kick from a back pass fell straight to James Mudge on the right who ran 30 yards before smashing it past the despairing keeper to level the score at the break.

City responded in style with Partridge combining with Harris to go one-on-one with keeper Mark Ovendale. Ovendale forced Partridge wide but the striker still managed to hit the post from an acute angle. City deservedly re-took the lead when the Partridge-Harris combination proved too good for Tiverton again. A Harris pass sent Partridge through on goal and Ovendale could only parry the striker's shot back to Harris who made no mistake from close range. Shuttlewood made amends for his earlier error with a point-blank save from a Mudge pile-driver. And he pulled off an even better save ten minutes later when Mudge went clean through again only to be denied by the keeper's out-stretched feet. Credit to Town who refused to give up and only a brave diving save from Shuttlewood at the feet of Nogan denied them an equaliser with the 90 minutes almost up.