Errea Cup 4th Round
Tuesday 23 January 2007 - Ladymead - kick off 7.45pm
half-time: 0-1 result: L1-3 attendance: 211
team: Quelch, Holloway (Hogg 74), Simpson, Coupe (c), Holland (Partridge 45), Clarke, Green, Harris, Walsh, Paul (Edwards 71), McKeever. sub not used: Rogers
man of the match: Mark McKeever
scorers: McKeever (52)
bookings: Edwards (77), Coupe (89)
officials: not known
league position: n/a form: WWWWWL next match: Hemel (H)
Report taken from by Stephen Ware

With the dream of lifting the British Gas Business Premier Division title becoming a distinct possibility, Bath City can be forgiven for not giving the errea Cup their full attention as they were eliminated from the competition at Tiverton last night. John Relish made a raft of changes to the side that hammered Gloucester on Saturday, even handing cameo appearances to former favourites Martin Paul and Jon Holloway and, though competitive, City lacked the enthusiasm and determination of their hosts. Mark McKeever cancelled out Chris Bale's first-half opener early in the second period, but a Carl Cliff-Brown double in the last half-hour saw Tivvy through.

On a freezing night, Tiverton were first to show and Mike Booth nearly opened the scoring after two minutes when he latched on to a long ball forward before ms-directing a volley across goal. Bale and Booth both put dangerous crosses into the City box, but it was the visitors who came closest to scoring when Chris Vinnicombe headed a Phillip Walsh effort off the line after 11 minutes. Holloway emulated that feat three minutes later when he repelled an Andrew Thomas header that looked to be going just inside the post. Bale spooned an effort over the bar when well-placed on 21 minutes before Jamie Skinner skied another attempt moments later. Tiverton were looking the stronger side and took the lead on 27 minutes when Vinnicombe's deep cross was lashed home by Bale from the edge of the area. And Bale should have doubled the lead on 41 minutes when he beat the offside trap but, unchallenged, struck his shot against novice keeper Eddie Quelch. City almost levelled on the stroke of half-time when Walsh's centre caused chaos in the home defence before keeper Kevin Readings pounced on the loose ball.

Vinnicombe hit a swerving shot that had Quelch scrambling to his right two minutes after the break before Cliff-Brown had a better chance to double Tivvy's advantage when he wastefully ballooned over. In a lively opening to the second period, City were level against the run of play on 52 minutes when the home defence parted, allowing McKeever space to drill left-footed into the far corner. The hosts regained the lead ten minutes later when Quelch could only parry Bale's shot into the path of Cliff-Brown, who made no mistake from six yards. City fought their way back into the game and Martin Paul headed just over. As the game see-sawed from one end to the other, Cliff-Brown might have given his side some breathing space had he been able to extend his leg and prod home Bale's cross. But the lanky striker did secure his brace and Tiverton's place in the quarter- finals with nine minutes remaining when he turned in a Vinnicombe corner.