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Football
British Gas Business League
Bath City 2 – 2 Gloucester City
TUPNews returned last night from a wonderful weekend in the West, where I watched Bath City FC draw 2-2 with Gloucester City in a West Country derby.
My beloved City are currently sitting pretty at the top of the British Gas Business League, three points clear but with three games in hand over second-placed rivals Team Bath, a taxpayer-funded farce that has no business occupying space in the football pyramid. Crowds have swelled in response to this strong run; this, combined with fine spring weather, made for a perfect footballing day out.
We arrived five minutes after kick-off, thanks to a laggard lunching companion. Before I’d even had time to get the teas in, City were 1-0 up from an own goal in the ninth minute – cracking! But straight from the restart, Gloucester equalised with a hopeful punt from forty yards: one-all. Five minutes later, City were back ahead courtesy of a headed goal (pictured) from Craig “the Whippet” Davidge, a promising young super-sub now apparently given a first-team break due to a mysterious neck injury suffered by star striker “Super” Scotty Partidge.
After this flurry of goals I was reluctant to turn my back on the action, so my laggard friend was dispatched to the tea bar. A sensible move on my part, as a defensive howler saw Gloucester equalise on 25 minutes. The rest of the half was up-tempo, with several City chances.
Despite shipping two fairly weak goals, my City-supporting companions were bullish at the break. My mate John predicted a final result of 5-2, I stuck with a more conservative 4-2. News from elsewhere was also positive: Team Taxpayer were 2-0 down at Yate Town (they would eventually lose 3-0). The neutrals among us predicted a closer affair, a view that proved justified.
The second half was a nerve-shredding (for me at least) series of missed opportunities for the City boys. The build-up play was composed, the width was used well, but the shots simply weren’t on target. Worst of all, for every three City forays forward, there would be one terrifying Gloucester counterattack.
I was a mess; I had simply forgotten what it is like to watch a tense game of football in the flesh. During my maiden season as a City fan we were locked in a relegation dogfight from about November onwards, narrowly avoiding the drop thanks to a 1-0 away win on the last day of the season. I attended every home game, averaging around twenty B&H per match, the majority of which were smoked in the last ten minutes as City desperately tried to claw back a goal, or two, or three. It was absolute torture.
Since moving to London I only get down to about five or six matches a season – this was my fourth of this year’s campaign. The first was an August Bank Holiday 2-1 victory over the students; we were one-nil down at half-time, which provided a modicum of worry, but was too early in the season to have more than symbolic import. The second was a jolly day out to Sittingbourne to watch an entertaining, if goalless draw in the basically meaningless FA Trophy. The third was a 5-0 Boxing Day pasting of the students that was pretty much sewn up by the 20th minute, so no drama there either. But now, top of the league in mid-March and deadlocked at two goals apiece, each cross into the box brought sharp intakes of breath and hurried deals with the divine. By injury time, I was quite happy to take the draw, and I was onto my third post-match bottle of Westons Organic before the nerves finally faded.
British Gas Business League
Bath City 2 – 2 Gloucester City
TUPNews returned last night from a wonderful weekend in the West, where I watched Bath City FC draw 2-2 with Gloucester City in a West Country derby.
My beloved City are currently sitting pretty at the top of the British Gas Business League, three points clear but with three games in hand over second-placed rivals Team Bath, a taxpayer-funded farce that has no business occupying space in the football pyramid. Crowds have swelled in response to this strong run; this, combined with fine spring weather, made for a perfect footballing day out.
We arrived five minutes after kick-off, thanks to a laggard lunching companion. Before I’d even had time to get the teas in, City were 1-0 up from an own goal in the ninth minute – cracking! But straight from the restart, Gloucester equalised with a hopeful punt from forty yards: one-all. Five minutes later, City were back ahead courtesy of a headed goal (pictured) from Craig “the Whippet” Davidge, a promising young super-sub now apparently given a first-team break due to a mysterious neck injury suffered by star striker “Super” Scotty Partidge.
After this flurry of goals I was reluctant to turn my back on the action, so my laggard friend was dispatched to the tea bar. A sensible move on my part, as a defensive howler saw Gloucester equalise on 25 minutes. The rest of the half was up-tempo, with several City chances.
Despite shipping two fairly weak goals, my City-supporting companions were bullish at the break. My mate John predicted a final result of 5-2, I stuck with a more conservative 4-2. News from elsewhere was also positive: Team Taxpayer were 2-0 down at Yate Town (they would eventually lose 3-0). The neutrals among us predicted a closer affair, a view that proved justified.
The second half was a nerve-shredding (for me at least) series of missed opportunities for the City boys. The build-up play was composed, the width was used well, but the shots simply weren’t on target. Worst of all, for every three City forays forward, there would be one terrifying Gloucester counterattack.
I was a mess; I had simply forgotten what it is like to watch a tense game of football in the flesh. During my maiden season as a City fan we were locked in a relegation dogfight from about November onwards, narrowly avoiding the drop thanks to a 1-0 away win on the last day of the season. I attended every home game, averaging around twenty B&H per match, the majority of which were smoked in the last ten minutes as City desperately tried to claw back a goal, or two, or three. It was absolute torture.
Since moving to London I only get down to about five or six matches a season – this was my fourth of this year’s campaign. The first was an August Bank Holiday 2-1 victory over the students; we were one-nil down at half-time, which provided a modicum of worry, but was too early in the season to have more than symbolic import. The second was a jolly day out to Sittingbourne to watch an entertaining, if goalless draw in the basically meaningless FA Trophy. The third was a 5-0 Boxing Day pasting of the students that was pretty much sewn up by the 20th minute, so no drama there either. But now, top of the league in mid-March and deadlocked at two goals apiece, each cross into the box brought sharp intakes of breath and hurried deals with the divine. By injury time, I was quite happy to take the draw, and I was onto my third post-match bottle of Westons Organic before the nerves finally faded.
posted by oliver at Monday, March 12, 2007
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