FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round
Saturday 30 September 2006 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm
half-time: 0-0 result: D0-0 attendance: 645
team: Evans, Rollo (c), S Jones, Holloway, Holland (G Jones 57), Rogers, Davidge, Hogg, Partridge, Pepperell (Pritchard 82), McKeever (Green 57). subs not used: York, Walsh.
man of the match: Jon Holloway
scorers: none
bookings: Rollo (9), Holloway (66)
dismissal: Rollo (90)
officials: to follow
league position: n/a form: WDdWDd next match: merthyr (FAC) (A)
Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

The home jinx runs on for another week but at least there was more to talk about this time, despite more than three hours of FA Cup football at Twerton Park without a goal.Amazingly, City have failed to record any kind of home victory, be it cup or league, since April 1, but another midweek away fixture tomorrow night is no laughing matter for John Relish's injury-plagued side, even if they do raise their game considerably on their travels. In fairness, a draw against an unbeaten Merthyr side is not too bad a result and, with form in mind, a Welsh win was arguably the more likely result.

After a first half an hour in which neither keeper had a save to make though, the prospect of another goalless draw loomed large. It was still a surprisingly entertaining opening half. City were much the better side for most of it, but failed to carve out any clear chances despite getting the ball in some dangerous areas. Scott Partridge did have the ball in the net after 18 minutes after controlling a Jim Rollo cross and lobbing the keeper from the edge of the area, but the effort was rightly ruled out for handball. City upped the tempo with half an hour gone, backing their style with some substance. Partridge's scuffed cross-shot forced visiting keeper Ashley Morris into the first save of the afternoon on 35 minutes and then a deflected Steve Jones shot seemed to bounce off two players in the six-yard box before being played out of danger. The half was all but over when keeper Paul Evans was finally called into serious action. Garry Shephard and Paul Keddle had both blasted half-chances wide when the City stopper managed to get a leg to an acute shot across goal from Craig Steins near the byline.

Merthyr's upward curve continued after the break. Shephard came within inches of breaking the deadlock when his first-time effort crashed against the bar from ten yards out and went out for goal-kick. Lewis Hogg and Scott Rogers both saw shots go wide as City responded, but it was the visitors in the ascendency. Evans pulled off a finger-tip save to keep out Steins' curling effort on 67 minutes and Shephard smacked his header against the bar from the corner. A tired-looking City weathered the storm and regained some of the initiative as the game started to open up. A quick throw from Hogg released Partridge on the left and his eight-yard shot from a difficult angle forced Morris into an acrobatic tip over. With an unwanted replay beckoning, both sides pushed on and the best chance fell for City when a Hogg shot was spilled by Morris to Justin Pritchard on the left. The striker fired a shot which flew right across the face of goal, but no-one was close enough to stab it home. Rollo was rightly red-carded for a second bookable offence following a needless, late hack with the game almost over, but there was no time for Merthyr to exploit the extra man as the referee blew just three minutes later.