April 29, 2023
Oxford City entered the final round of the regular season in National League One in third place, knowing that if they could match the result of Chelmsford City at home to Taunton Town, they would be assured of finishing third, giving them a home match in the play-off semi-final and avoid having one extra play-off match to negotiate.
Arriving at the ground 50 minutes before kick-off the Twerton Park car park was full and the steward advised there was an overflow car-park nearby, but the instructions of how to find it were vague so I ended up parking in the nearby residential estate, no doubt to the annoyance of the locals who live in that street. There is nothing on the Bath City website on where to park close to ground, only how to get to Twerton Park, so they really ought to do something to advise visitors in advance what to do.
Entrance was £15, with a very good programme available for £3. Once inside Twerton Park, it is one of the most impressive non-league grounds I have been to ( excluding former Football League clubs who have been relegated ). There are two stands on one side, with a large covered terrace opposite and behind both goals are uncovered terraces.
There are two huts in opposite corners of the ground selling alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, respectively named “Roman Bar” and “Stripes Bar” and there were food and drink outlets on either side of the ground. Tea or coffee was £1.20, burgers ranged between £4 to £5 and chips were £3. Beers were also between £4 to £5. A significant number of home supporters were gathered close to Stripes Bar, regardless of the end their side was attacking !
The pitch has a distinct slope, going downhill and from right to left looking from the Bristol end towards the City end. This was my first visit to Twerton Park but I had previously seen Bath on one occasion, when they visited Thame United’s Windmill Road Stadium for a third qualifying round FA Cup tie in October 2003 but crashed to a 0-3 defeat against a side two levels lower in the pyramid, and the margin could easily have been much greater.
Bath started the day in 12th place. They had begun the season well but had suffered a number of injuries, including the traumatic accident to top scorer Alex Fletcher, who crashed into a pitch side wall and was in intensive care for an extended period, but is thankfully now out of hospital.
When the two sides met at Oxford back in September, they played out an entertaining 3-3 draw, and in a quirk of fixture scheduling, the last meeting at Twerton Park was also the last game of last season, which also ended in a 3-3 draw. A high scoring encounter looked on the cards today.
Bath’s average crowd this season was 1,083, with 2,080 present for the Boxing day derby against Chippenham Town.
The temperature at the 15.00 kick-off time was 17 degrees with sunny spells. A punkish song with a chant “Go Bath City Go !” was played just before kick-off, and although quite novel, it was actually pretty awful !
Bath were playing in black and white stripes, black shorts and white socks, whilst Oxford City were in their change kit of day-glo orange, white shorts and orange socks. The red numbers on the back of the Bath shirts were virtually impossible to make out, to the extent of them being pointless, and although they had numbers on the front of their shorts, this only helped if the player was close by. In several cases I was unable to identify the Bath City player involved in the action and unable to give due credit………..
Oxford City were playing up the slope and nearly opened the scoring with just over one minute played. Williams-Bushell was found in space and although his shot was blocked, the rebound fell to Alfie Potter. His shot was not hit properly but it looked to be bouncing into the corner of the net until Bath keeper Max Harris, who is on loan from Cheltenham Town and made 4 loan appearances for Oxford City in 2020, stuck out an arm and managed to claw the ball away for a corner.
The Hoops were looking the sharper side and were winning the 50/50 challenges and winning the key tackles. They seemed to be more up for the occasion, and after 10 minutes McEachran had a 20-yard effort pushed around the post for a corner.
When Bath looked to be making a break into the Oxford City half, Lewis Coyle brought down Spokes for the first yellow card of the game, but Oxford City were soon pressing again. After robbing Bath centre-back Batten of possession Potter played in Josh Parker, but the Antiguan international striker slipped inside the Bath area and the danger was cleared.
Potter’s aggression in the tackle again won possession, this time taking the ball away from left-back Parselle, and after getting close to the by-line his cross beyond the far post was met by Coyle, whose volley bounced across goal and agonizingly for the 50 or so Hoops fans behind the goal, inches wide.
Another flowing Oxford City move in the 19th minute involving McEachran and Parker gave Ashby the chance to go for goal, but his effort lacked power and was straight at Harris.
Parker was having a good battle with Batten, and after getting the better of a challenge near half-way he was unceremoniously chopped down, and Batten received the obvious yellow card.
Oxford City were still searching for the opening goal their strong start merited but a pile-driver from McEachran in the 26th minute was bravely headed off the line by Spokes with Harris beaten. The chance had arising from an Ashby corner, laid back into McEachran’s path by Canice Carroll.
McEachran tried his luck again two minutes later but after a good move involving Burley and Potter, the shot was straight at Harris, who made a comfortable save.
In a rare incursion into the Oxford City half, Bath chipped the ball over the visitors’ back line but keeper Haigh was quickly off his line to gather before Scott Wilson could get on the end of it.
Potter looked to be getting away from Dyer down the left-hand side but the Bath defender rugby tackled him to become the latest player to enter the referees note book.
Parselle, who featured in these diaries last season in the colours of Chippenham, delivered a decent looking cross from the left wing but the Oxford City keeper confidently made the catch and quickly put his side back on the attack. The ball reached Parker just outside the Romans’ area where he was sent crashing to the floor by Dyer. Although Parker made a bit of a meal of his fall, it was another pretty obvious foul and yellow card, and with his second yellow in 2 minutes Dyer had to leave the field after seeing red.
Bath reorganised by moving Parselle to central defence and Frear dropped back to fill in at left-back. Williams-Bushell soon enjoyed the space on the right, but his fizzing ball across the 6-yard box just evaded Parker.
The opening goal finally arrived in the 41st minute. Potter was again influential in midfield and released Williams-Bushell, whose centre reached Parker. His first effort on goal was blocked, but the rebound returned to Parker, who lashed the ball into the roof of the net from 10 yards to make it 1-0 to Oxford City.
The home side looked to respond but a free-kick was headed over by Parselle.
As the whistle for half-time blew shortly afterwards, The Hoops headed to the dressing room with just a one goal to show for their dominance, but with Bath a man down, and Chelmsford losing 0-1 at home to Taunton, it looked pretty likely that they would go on to comfortably take third place in the table.
Perhaps, they became a little complacent and Bath made a substitution at the start of the second period, bringing on Ghanian midfielder Opi Edwards. Immediately there seemed to be more energy to the home side’s play and after being anonymous in the first half, ex-Macclesfield, Oldham and Notts County striker Wilson started to look pacy.
The first goal effort in the half though came from Oxford City. McEachran was allowed to run over 50 yards from just outside his own area, but his shot went a fraction wide of the post. However, Wilson then made a great run down the left-hand channel and crossed into the visitors’ area. Fleet's sliding attempt to intercept the ball only succeeded in diverting it straight to the unmarked Edwards, who had a simple finish at the far post for an unexpected equaliser.
Spurred on by the goal The Romans pressed again, and after another good run from Wilson, Smith saw his shot deflected for a corner. The set-piece was headed clear and the visitors looked to set off on a counter attack, but the referee had seen an infringement and awarded a penalty to Bath. I have no idea what the offence was, but Wilson confident stepped up to send Haigh the wrong way, and in a remarkable turn around the 10 men now had a 2-1 lead with around 35 minutes still to play.
The rest of the match was basically attack versus defence, as Bath understandably decided to hold on to what they possessed, with just the occasional burst from Wilson to relieve the pressure.
Parker headed a cross from Davies just over the bar, Harris saved at the feet of Potter after a ricochet looked to fallen kindly to him, and Ashby shot straight at the keeper after some good build-up work.
The equaliser should have been scored in the 66 minute. McEachran must have beaten 5 or 6 defenders as he waltzed inside the area towards the by-line and his pass across the face of the goal found Potter. With the goal at his mercy, the ex-Oxford United star was slightly off-balance and his goalward stab was blocked on the line and cleared.
McEachran was teed up by a chest lay-off by Parker, but Smith poked the ball away as the shot was being lined up. Ashby then played a cute chip over the left-back for Parker to spin and shoot, but the ball hit the top of the side netting.
As the visitors became increasingly desperate, substitute Iaciofano then made a laughable attempt to dive and win a penalty that was rightly ignored by the referee.
The pressure was relentless, and a smart pass from Parker behind the left-back put substitute Wilson in space, but his blast from a narrow angle was met by two firsts from the Bath shot-stopper at the expense of a corner.
With 10 minutes to play there was a blatant foul on Oxford City’s Wilson, but remarkably as just about all the players stopped, the referee waved play on. Bath’s Wilson got ahead of Carroll, but was forced to go wide in his attempt to go around the keeper and his shot from the angle was blocked by the knees of Haigh for a corner.
Oxford City immediately responded with another flowing passing move involving Fleet and Ashby but Iaciofano had his shot cleared off the line by Batten.
As the game entered its final 5 minutes the referee started to make several puzzling decisions. Bath’s Hayfield went down near the touchline holding his leg, and for a short while play continued. However, despite this clearly not being a head injury, and Hayfield quite capable of making his way off the pitch if he wished to do so, the referee stopped play to allow treatment to the Bath player. When Iaciofano forcefully pointed out to the referee this should not have been done as it was not in the laws of the game, he was shown the yellow card for his troubles.
As the game moved into added on time, another thunderbolt from McEachran was bravely headed away by right-back Joe Raynes, who fell to the floor after the impact. The referee took a couple of seconds to assess the situation, and with the ball in Oxford City’s possession near the half-way line he quite rightly stopped play for the stricken Raynes to receive attention. The comedy then started when he decided to restart play with possession for the Bath keeper, even though Oxford City had the ball, and then ordered Raynes to go off the pitch before being allowed back on after play resumed. The groggy Bath defender slowly made his way off the field, but rather than simply add on extra seconds to the game, the confused Haynes was shown the yellow card !
There was still time for Oxford City to miss one last chance. A ball towards Parker was controlled off his stomach and then prodded in the direction of Fleet, but the sweetly struck curling effort drifted just wide of the post. A final corner was well claimed by Harris, and the referee blew his whistle to end the match.
Although the defeat may have meant Oxford City had
relinquished their third-place spot, news came in that Chelmsford had lost 1-2
at home to Taunton. Consequently, thanks to their better goal difference over Worthing and Chelmsford City, The Hoops do have a home semi-final play-off
next Sunday against either Worthing or Braintree, to look forward to. Whatever happens, it will still be their best ever season since the non-league pyramid was introduced.
The match was an odd one to analyse. For much of the game Oxford City had looked in a different class to Bath, and leading by a goal and with a player advantage they really ought to have gone on to a comfortable victory. On a different day it may indeed have been a landslide. However, credit to Bath for their half-time change of personnel and tactics, grabbing the initiative to turn the game around, and then defending with a lot more determination that they had shown in the first half. Ultimately, Oxford City can’t have any complaints over the result.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcQKuuEOiuc
Bath City : Harris – Raynes, Dyer, Batten, Parselle – Spokes ( Edwards ), Morton, Smith, Hayfield, Frear – Wilson
Oxford City : Haigh – Burley, Carroll, Davies ( Miccio )– Williams-Bushell ( Wilson ), Fleet, Ashby, McEachran, Coyle – Potter ( Iaciofano ), Parker
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