Southern League Premier Division Saturday 18 March 2006 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm

Report taken from by Andrew Kerslake

The writing was on the wall for the visitors from the sixth minute. Northwood's defence were made to pay for not clearing the ball effectively from a Scott Partridge strike after the ball fell to Alex Sykes on the edge of the 18-yard box. His mis-timed shot came back to Partridge, whose goalbound effort was again parried by keeper Rob Bullivant. This time, the ball trickled agonisingly along the goalline before the returning Adie Harris got to it first to stab it home. From then on, City were rampant, eagerly encouraged from midfield by the excellent Harris, who looked like he had never been away, let alone had an operation. First, Andy Sandell completed one of his trademark runs down the left, going past the lumbering O'Connor before cutting inside and shooting narrowly wide of the far post. Then, Phillip Walsh was brought down on the edge of the penalty area and Sykes put the resulting free-kick narrowly over the crossbar. Sandell went even closer with a dead-ball strike, shaving the post from 25 yards. With Northwood doing everything they could to slow the match down, it looked as though City might go in at the interval frustrated that for all their fine attacking play, they would show no further gain. However, Northwood keeper Bullivant had other ideas. He simply picked up a ball that trundled towards him and was then shocked to see the referee award a free-kick for what was judged as a back pass. While Bullivant continued to protest his innocence to referee Eaton, Sandell took a quick free-kick and Partridge fired home with the help of the crossbar. At that moment, it looked as though City could catch up their league goal difference deficit in one game, but after the interval, they somewhat lost their way.

With Harris tiring in midfield, their competitive edge was slightly blunted. Now playing into the wind and with Northwood re-invigorated - two shots off-target compared to none in the first half - City began to struggle. When the third, and final, goal arrived it was no surprise that again it was achieved through a mixture of effort and good fortune. The effort came from Partridge, who, overlapping well with substitute Craig Davidge, put in a defence-splitting cross. Walsh failed to get his head to it but another poor clearance from the Northwood back-line saw the ball fall to Sandell. His shot looked to be going wide until O'Connor thrust out a leg to help the ball into the back of his own net. City should have made it 4-0 with nine minutes to go through Davidge. The pacy winger picked up the ball just inside the Northwood half, zipped past one defender, round the keeper and, with an empty goalmouth in front of him, inexplicably fired wide. Davidge thumped the ground in frustration and the goliaths of the Northwood defence shivered in relief that further disaster had been averted.