| Romans conquer conditions to beat Magpies again (08.12.07) |
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BATH CITY 2 (1) |
MAIDENHEAD UNITED 0 |
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A goal at the start of either half gave Bath
City their fifth successive victory over Maidenhead on Saturday.
With heavy rain claiming many games in the area, the Bath pitch
although heavy was surprisingly good in the circumstances and the
match went ahead without an inspection. With Johnson Hippolyte
afforded the luxury of fielding an unchanged winning team for the
second weekend in a row hopes were high that United could take
something from their opponents for the first time, and even an early
goal in Bath's favour did not dispel this faith given the advantage
the home team had kicking towards the Bath end. This advantage
consisted of a slope and a strong wind which was literally blowing
Chico Ramos' kicks back into his own half. With Maidenhead's task
akin to wading through treacle, they played some good football but
lacked the cutting edge up front to equalise Darren Edwards' 4th
minute opening goal. Indeed perhaps Bath manager John Relish was
even ruing the fact at half time that his team did not hammer home
their advantage further, Mark Nisbet making a good block to deny a
Chris Holland header, Ronayne Benjamin clearing a Dave Gilroy header
off the line, Ramos making a great save from Scott Partridge, and
Paul Keddle missing a sitter, all before the break. With Bath also being forced to make two substitutions there seemed a good chance that United would be able to rescue the game in the second half but this disappeared within ten minutes of the restart when Dave Gilroy doubled the lead. Bath then fought like Trojans to lock out the game showing great commitment in the awful conditions to prevent United even coming close to scoring, John Hastings going closest with fifteen minutes remaining when his shot was deflected wide. |
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Magpies: Ramos, Nisbet, Benjamin, Lee, (65 Telemaque), Sterling (90 Fyfield), Kersey, Brown Da, Daly, Williams, Makofo (86 Smith). Unused subs: Cooper, Wells.
Caution: Sterling 47. Crowd: 646.
Goals: Edwards 4, Gilroy 54. Cautions: Edwards 47, Harris 78. |