Southern League Premier Division Saturday 18 February 2005 - Corinium Stadium - kick off 3.00pm

Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

City had the first attack of the day, when Tony Bird fired wide from a Scott Partridge flick-on, but it was all Cirencester for the rest of the half. Lee Smith had already gone close with one shot when Scott Griffin somehow managed to chip the ball straight into Paul Evans' hands from six yards out with all the goal to aim for. The warning signs were there for City as Cirencester harassed and chased down every 50-50 ball and Smith should have done better again after racing clean through only to be foiled by the diving Evans. They finally got the goal their dominance deserved when Evans brought down Smith in the area and Neil Arndale tucked away the resulting penalty. It was a debatable foul anyway but made all the more galling for City by the fact that Smith appeared to be two yards offside when he collected the original through-ball. Unlucky maybe, but City deserved to be a goal behind and were frankly fortunate to go in at half-time with the scoreline still so close as Cirencester continued to dominate possession for the rest of the half.

City looked much brighter after the break, although they could hardly have been worse, and Bird set the tone with an attempted chip that was only just turned away by the clutching Paul Thompson. Some nice twists and turns from Andy Sandell led to Partridge skewing a shot just wide from the edge of the area and, minutes later, Partridge's persistence paid off when he was brought down inside the box for a penalty. City have hardly had the best of luck from the spot though, with Sandell and Partridge both missing attempts this season, but Bird stepped up and rifled the ball home, despite Thompson getting a touch. Marc Richards almost broke through for Cirencester but was denied by a brave diving save from Evans and, when the referee bafflingly overuled his linesman's offside flag to award Cirencester a free-kick, it led to a succession of three corners that City barely managed to deal with. At that stage, the visitors would have been happy with a point but a full-blooded challenge from Adie Harris saw the ball fall to Partridge and City's top goalscorer took one touch before chipping the keeper from 20 yards to make it 2-1. The goal deflated Cirencester and the home side's first-half exertions suddenly seemed to take their toll. A tired looking defence, which had struggled to contain a much-improved Phillip Walsh all afternoon, were faced with a very different problem in the form of pacy substitute Craig Davidge and City were suddenly in the ascendency. Davidge almost made it 3-1 after latching on to Partridge's unselfish, but poor, pull back and the young winger had the crowd on their feet again with a 50-yard run that brought back memories of City's final goal on Tuesday night. Cirencester threatened on the break but City always looked the more likely to score and Partridge wasted two good opportunities near the end to wrap the game up.