Bath City 3-1 AFC Hornchurch - Who are ya?!?!

Vs




Venue: Mayday Trust Park (Bath)
Date: Saturday 26th October 2012
Competition: Blue Square Bet South 

My Matchday: 12

Full Time Score - Bath City 3-1 AFC Hornchurch


BCFC Scorers: Chris Allen (19), Joe Burnell (34), Sean Canham (86)
AFCH Scorer: Gray (20)


A very cold Mayday Trust Park saw a very entertaining game in which the hosts overcame the Essex opposition by 3 goals to 1 in the Blue Square Bet South. 

My afternoon started at 1pm on arriving to the ground was met by the chairwoman Manda, who gave my cousin his ticket. I then took up the usual position of selling draw tickets in the Bar until 2:30pm. We then moved into the rather cold ground and purchased something to eat to warm us up. We were then met by George and we walked round to wait for the teams to come out, I also managed to catch a word with a friend I haven't seen for a while who was making his debut to watching City. It was then decided City would be attacking the Bath end first so we positioned ourselves behind the goal and awaited the start of the match.

Starting Line Up:

1. Glyn Garner
2. Dan Ball
3. Aaron Brown
4. Harry Hooman
5. Gethin Jones (C)
6. Joe Burnell
7. Josh Low
8. Adam Connolly
9. Chris Allen
10. Sean Canham
11. Noah Keats

City started brightly and to be honest never looked like losing to a team with a shaky defense and a very dodgy keeper. Josh Low was causing his problems down the right hand side and managed a good cross in on 10 minutes which was finally dealt with by the Upminster based defense. On 19 minutes we learned two things, we were 1-0 up and their keeper was very dodgy. Chris Allen found himself room on the edge of the box and curled one towards goal but it looked to be going straight at the keeper, but their keeper somehow dived over the ball and allowed the ball to find the net making it 1-0 to Bath.

Somehow a minute later we found ourselves level again, I was quite literally stunned as to how they managed to score. A scruffy bit of play, followed by a handball by Gray which took it into the box and then fired home off the post managed to level the scores. The referee was very dodgy with handballs today, in a game that saw quite a few not given. Up until today Joe Burnell had never scored a goal for Bath City, but today was the day he changed this on 34 minutes. A corner whipped in by Aaron Brown found Canham who scuffed his shot but Burnell sidefooted over the keeper and scrambled the ball into the net to restore the lead and give him that goal he wanted so much for Bath City.

More dominance from the home team finally saw the game pretty much die. This then meant the half time whistle in which something special had to be said from the visitors coach to turn this around. The second half was rather scruffier but more dominant for Bath. We passed the ball around as if we were mocking the visitors who could only muster up chances once our breaks broke down and we still managed to deal calmly with them. I was fairly impressed however with Hornchurch's number 2, he must of looked about 15/16 but still got on with things when they were shouting at him and played well to be fair to him.

The game was certainly finished off in the 86th minute. Sean Canham yet again on the score sheet as he kept level with play and fired home the cross as it came in from Josh Low and almost broke the roof of the net. The final whistle went and we got another solid 3 points for our tally. 

Today's official man of the match was our number 6 Joe Burnell, and I'm not going to change this for my blog as he played out of his skin in both attack and defense and is certainly something we've lacked this season. Two other players impressed me greatly again today, Chris Allen is just getting better and better as well as Josh Low causing many problems to the defense. I walked home through the cold thoroughly impressed with the performance today.

Next up for me on my travel is Eastleigh this coming Tuesday! I will be visiting the Siverlake stadium for yet another Blue Square South clash and hopefully some more points on the road!

As always, if we have a game coming up in your area or are coming to Bath for a game, get in contact through the usual routes and let me know! 

Peace!

@mannojunior

Bath City V AFC Hornchurch - Matchday 12

Bath City Vs AFC Hornchurch :: Preview



Vs




Venue: Mayday Trust Park (Bath)
Date: Saturday 26th October 2012
Competition: Blue Square Bet South 

My Matchday: 12


After a very entertaining and inspiring game at Tonbridge Angels last Saturday, League action continues for Bath City as they entertain AFC Hornchurch at home tomorrow. Lee Howells Bath have moved up to 13th now in the table whilst AFC Hornchurch sit 2 places below in 15th. Tomorrow marks game 13 in the Blue Square South for Bath City and game 14 for Hornchuch. Signs are looking good for the home side who won their first on the road last week whilst Hornchurch have lost their last 2 league games in a row.

Good news on the signing front as Midfielders Chris Allen and Noah Keats have both signed long term deals here at Bath, and both have been influential in games this season. City have also registered Aaron Hopkinson on to cover squad injuries. There are no fresh injury blows for both sides but Bath are still without the injured Sekani Simpson and could still be missing Charlie Griffin who is top scorer at the club thus far. 

Tomorrow is feeling positive for me, hopefully we can capitalise on our good form from the last game and on Hornchurch's poor form of late. Recent games have seen Sean Canham, Chris Allen and Josh Low all come to light and hopefully they can all carry on the good form tomorrow. 

Below is my predicted line up for tomorrow, providing all injury news stays the same:

1. Glyn Garner (GK)
2. Luke Cummings (LB)
3. Danny Ball (CB)
4. Harry Hooman (CB)
5. Gethin Jones (RB)
6. Joe Burnell (CM)
7. Aaron Brown (LM)
8. Adam Connolly (CM)
9. Noah Keats (RM)
10. Chris Allen (ST/CM)
11. Sean Canham (ST)

Tomorrow also see's my 8 year old cousin from Bolton, who holds a Bolton season ticket come to his first Bath City game and here is to hoping the game is entertaining for him. Tomorrow also see's Andy at another Open day for Uni's who will be missed in the terraces.

If you are coming down from Hornchurch and wish to meet up then do get in contact with my via the usual routes of twitter or FB or Email.

Up the City!

@mannojunior

Tonbridge Angels 3-4 Bath City :: Who lost track of time?

Tonbridge Angels Football Club

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Bath City Football Club

Final Score:: Tonbridge 3 - 4 Bath

Venue :: Longmead Stadium

Date :: Saturday 20th October 2012 (15:00)

Tonbridge Goal scorers:: Collin '69, Elphick 90+3', Gayle 90+8'

Bath Goal Scorers:: Sean Canham 11' 72', Chris Allen 39' 56' (Pen)

It was an early start for me from the other side of the country. It was a west country to east country trek today but one that turned out to be a very pleasant one. As always I alighted the supporters coach at Twerton Park at around 09:45 and we were then on our way. All 27 on the coach. After listening to my ipod and playing some Sudoku to kill time we arrived at Clacket Lane services, we had a 30 minute stop and made the 20 minute journey onwards to Longmead Stadium. Our journey time was in total 3 hours and 5 minutes on the way. 

When arriving at the ground it was evident that there wasn't much to do, we were dropped right outside the ground which happened to be inside a council park with fields and council houses around it. After taking a few pictures of outside it was time to enter the ground at around 13:15. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to use my student ID to get in and parted with £6. I then managed to pick up a programme for £2 which was a good read for a Blue Square South side. With time to kill until kick off I moved my way round to the very nice club shop, which I would recommend visiting if you are at the ground. I went in and picked out a few programmes for 20p each, spending £1.60 in total. I then saw they were selling their kit shorts for £2.50 which I took advantage of and bought some, they are very nice. 

I then decided to grab something to eat after deciding not to cough up the ridiculous prices at the service stations. There was a fair deal on offer, but prices were quite high so in the end I settled for a portion of chips costing me £1.80 and a bottle of coke costing me £1.30. The chips were very nice indeed and maybe weren't worth the £1.80 they were charging but filled me up for the day. This left near enough an hour to kill until kick-off, so I got the camera out once again and wandered around the ground taking pictures of the unusual style ground. The ground itself is a very nice one but odd to people who aren't used to non-league grounds. Along the far side of the ground is a single stand that runs the whole stretch of the pitch seating around 200-300 fans under its cover. This was £1 extra to the admission fee for seating. On the near side there is plenty of space but nothing really in the way of areas to watch it from. A bar surrounding the pitch was where most people watched from on that side. The Press box was also located on this side which was in the form of a tiny stand holding 20 people in a rather random position. At either end was my favorite part of the ground. Both ends have a small terrace where fans can gather, maybe fitting 100 in each end which gives the ground such a good atmosphere. They hosted the away and home fans, who swapped ends for each half as is the usual for non league football.

The main stand running the whole length of the pitch

It was then almost kick off and it took a look at the teamsheet to realise the line-up as the tannoy man didn't have a clue what he was saying half the time. I wasn't bothered with the Tonbridge line-up but City lined up as follows; Garner, Ball, Jones (c), Brown, Hooman, Burnell, Connolly, Low, Allen, Keats, S Canham. Subs were; Rollo, Mellor, Norris, Preece and Cummings.

A fairly strong City side but missing 4 key first teamers in Marc Canham, Charlie Griffin, Sekani Simpson and Kerry Morgan. The game finally kicked off in front of a decent crowd, my guess would be 550 as no figure was announced by the home team. Tonbridge took the upper hand during the first 10 minutes, they were causing trouble down the wings and finding far too much space for my liking. Garner and the defence just about saw this dominance out and the game then switched emphasis. On 11 minutes a Josh Low cross from the right was stopped in its path by a handball from the Tonbridge number 5 and the referee rightly pointed to the spot. Sean Canham stepped up to the mark to take the spot kick, but the keeper guessed right and parried away but Low got there first and fired the ball across goal for Canham to poke home from 6 yards to make up for the miss and we went 1-0 up. The game was then firmly in our grasp with Josh Low running the show on the right hand side, although every time Tonbridge went forward our defence were uneasy with their duties. Our second goal came on 39 minutes. The ball was running out just outside the box for a harmless throw in but the Tonbridge number 2 decided to push over Noah Keats as it did and a free kick was awarded. Josh Low whipped the ball in and the keeper punched it into the path of Allen who struck well through the bodies and past the keeper to make it a deserved 2-0 lead.

We then moved down to the opposite end of the ground from the one pictured above. It took us about 5 minutes to find our feet again but we just got stronger and stronger as it went on. 11 minutes into this, yet again Josh Low cut in from the right hand side and moved into the box he took the ball away from their captain Gary Elphick who then chopped him down resulting in both the penalty being given and a yellow card. Low went off from this collision. Allen stepped up for this penalty and cooly slotted home into the bottom left hand corner as the keeper went the other way and it was 3-0! Am I dreaming I thought at the time. We were bound to concede knowing our defence and we did on 69 minutes as a good cross was headed home by Collin to give Tonbridge slight hope. This was to be wiped away 2 minutes later when Sean Canham lashed home a superb left footed strike across goal and into the bottom corner! This put it to bed realistically. Then came the strangest thing I've ever seen a referee do before. With no board to hold up we didn't know how many minutes would be added on but 90 minutes had come and it was 4-1. Come 102 minutes, 12 minutes of injury time it was 4-3. Elphick 3 minutes into this headed home and Gayle 8 minutes into this headed one in. This left 4 minutes of heart stopping scrambles as Tonbridge came so close to getting a 4th! Thankfully they didn't. Nobody could get away from wondering how on earth 6 substitutions (30 seconds each) and 2 goals constituted to 12 minutes of added time. His watch surely must have stopped there was no way it was, and I've never seen 12 minutes played extra before even with a bad injury, which there were none of!

In the end we got 3 points and moved up to 13th in the table, heading into next Saturday when we face AFC Hornchurch. I then clapped off the players with the rest of our fans then headed to the coach and swiflty returned home for 20:30. I thoroughly enjoyed the day out and would recommend it to any person considering it!

Onto the matchday rating!

• Journey to the ground : 8/10
• Build up to the game : 7/10
• Food and drink available : 6/10
• Ground : 8/10
• Game entertainment : 9/10

Total Rating: 28/40 (Very Good) 

That is it for this post! You can look forward to AFC Hornchurch (27th Oct), Eastleigh Away (30th Oct) which are the next ones!

Please follow me at @mannojunior and give this a tweet! Until next time I will leave you with a few extra pictures!

Tonbridge Angels Vs Bath City :: Preview

Vs

Bath City Football Club

Venue: Longmead Stadium
Date: Saturday 20th October 2012

My Matchday: 10


Match Preview


Saturdays game makes it match number 13 for the home side this season in the Blue Square Bet South, whilst visting side Bath City make it their match day 12. Both of the sides are going into the game with poor form under the belt over the past weeks. Bath City have won just 1 of their past 9 games, which came to lower league opposition Buckland Athletic from the Western League Premier in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round. Tonbridge lost their last league game 4-1 away at a strong Farnborough outfit. Bath also lost their last game 3-2 at home to Hayes and Yeading United. 

Both of the teams are going into the game with players injured. Tonbridge will be without Mikel Suarez after he was knocked out at Farnborough. Bath City are still without long standing defender Sekani Simpson who has been out for the majority of the first 11 games for Bath. Charlie Griffin and Josh Low are set to return to full fitness for the game with Griffin being top scorer thus far with 6 goals this campaign. Both teams also have recent signing news as Tonbridge welcome both Gary Elphick and Aaron Gayle into their ranks. Bath will also feature Harry Hooman (Cheltenham) and Sean Canham (Hereford) who have recently joined the club on loan deals. 

We've (Bath) recently made managerial changes to our club and longstanding manager and club servant Adie Britton has stepped down from his manager role and has moved upstairs to director of football. Former Assistand Lee Howells is now in charge and Tonbridge will be his 2nd full game in charge of the club. 

As for myself, this will be my 10th game of the season and I am looking very much forward to visiting Kent and Tonbridge Angels Football club. I look forward to using the club shop, grabbing something to eat at the ground and taking in all that there is for non league football. 

If you'd like to meet up with myself on any matchday please contact me via my twitter account: @mannojunior and I'd be very happy to have a chat with you. 

I look forward to visiting Kent!

Louis


Please follow me on twitter @mannojunior and give the blog a tweet!