Pre-season friendly Tuesday 10 July 2007 - Twerton Park - kick off 7.45pm

Just ten days into July City began their pre-season campaign with a tough opening encounter against Coca-Cola League 1 side Cheltenham Town. Having only returned to training a week earlier it was always going to be a difficult assignment for City and the final scoreline was a fair reflection of the gap between the sides. City’s starting XI was largely comprised of familiar faces with just goalkeeper Tony Malessa – providing cover for regular no.1 Paul Evans who is yet to return from his native South Africa – and new signing Dave Gilroy not at Twerton Park last season. There were three trialists on the bench in the shape of Paul Keddle, Jason Wood and Ben Davies.

Malessa was called into action after just three minutes, reacting sharply to deny Connor after he was put clear by Gillespie’s pass. Only another seven minutes had elapsed when Lindegaard broke away down the right and crossed for an unmarked Connor to head home. At times City passed the ball around neatly but they rarely looked like finding a way through the Robin’s rearguard. Connor, Bird and Gillespie all spurned chances to increase the visitors lead but right on the stroke of half-time a excellent passing move involving Ridley, Yao and Gillespie ended with a simple tap-in for Lindegaard at the far post.

The interval saw City make four changes with Keddle introduced to the action in place of Mike Green alongside members of last season championship winning team Chris Holland, Adie Harris and Phil Walsh. They were then forced into a further changed on 48 minutes when Lewis Hogg turned his ankle to be replaced by Craig Davidge. The league side also made a number of changes, including bringing on former City youth team goalkeeper Will Puddy. These changes did little to help the pattern of the game but unsurprisingly it was Cheltenham who settled first and after 64 minutes moved further ahead from the penalty spot. Finnegan was bundled over by Davies and he confidently fired the spot-kick past Malessa. Nine minutes later the Robins completed the scoring with the pick of their goals – Ben Gill planting a fire header into the net from Bird’s perfectly delivered corner. Ledgister almost made it five before City finally created a chance to grab a consolation goal. Davidge produced a typically direct run and his cross looked perfect for Walsh at the far post only for Gallinagh to produce a perfectly timed tackle and clear the ball away for a corner.

Despite the final scoreline it was a very useful first run-out for City ahead of their maiden Blue Square Conference South season with, particularly during the first half, their passing looking sharp and accurate even with the new campaign over a moth away.