Bath 0-2 Gloucester by Charles Dickens and the Dickensian Dozen
In this tale of two cities, it was Gloucester that came out on top with an excellent all-round display at Odd Down’s excellent facility, situated in one of the many pleasant areas of Aqua Sulis, with not a bleak house in sight.
In a game played over four twenty-minute periods, the Gloucester midfield held the edge throughout, Liggett, Jones and the excellent Chamberlain competitive and creative in the centre, while Wilkes and Clifford in particular were in fine form down the flanks. Smith, reminiscent of the Artful Dodger was attempting to pick the home side’s pocket at every opportunity, while Lynam, Blackburn, Lawson and Mclean were Scrooge-like in restricting Bath to a handful of half chances throughout the eighty minutes.
Three excellent interceptions from the Blackburn-Lynam combination cut out a bevy of potentially dangerous Bath attacks, while at the other end Wilkes twice tested the keeper and Blackburn, switching to offensive mode, fizzed a free kick just over.
On fifty minutes Gloucester took the lead with a goal conceived, created and converted in Longlevens. Jones found Clifford on the left and the subsequent cross was well finished by Chamberlain to put a bit of a dampener on Bath’s great expectations of the morning. The hosts did fashion a half chance almost immediately afterwards, but Mr Micawber Mclean threw body and soul in the way to extinguish the opportunity at source.
The final twenty minutes saw the visitors continue in similar fashion with Liggett Oliver Twisting and turning in the middle as he tried to play in the rampaging Blacker for what would be the decisive score. In addition the city playmaker twice fired in dangerous right wing crosses that the keeper did well to hold and the keeper was also confident in taking another Blackburn free kick.
With four minutes remaining however, Liggett’s pass gave Blacker a run on the last defender for the centre forward to muscle his way clear to score at the second attempt after his first effort had struck the post. A great celebration for the third week running ensued and if there’d been enough time before the restart, we might even have heard a Christmas carol or two.
A late Bath rally saw Moroney, after remaining incognito for seventy eight minutes emerge in true David Copperfield fashion to deny Kiely with a fine save, the resulting clean sheet only adding to the visitors’ victory glee.
Hot dogs were happily consumed in the old curiosity shop of the on-site cafe, photographs featuring ex-GPSFA players adorning the well-thought out sporting walls. Bath’s head coach, Tiny Tim, is away on a month’s sabbatical coaching at Borussia Dortmund, but even though the Gloucester staff have to make do with Oxstalls and Millbrook, it was a happy front seat on the journey home.
The Citizen will be reading the match report soon and contriving a headline to match the performance. ‘Gloucester pull the plug on Bath’, ‘Bath sunk by (rampant) Gloucester’, ‘Hard Times for Bath’, ‘Gloucester throw the kitchen sink at Bath’ (well, not quite) and ‘Chamberlain’s Eureka Moment’ were all suggested. Eventually though, there was a unanimous winner. ‘Basford absence inspires clean sheet victory’ came out on top by fourteen votes to nil. If only Brexit had been that obvious.
Gloucester: Moroney; Lynam, Jones, Blackburn; Wilkes, Chamberlain, Liggett, Clifford; Smith. Subs: Blacker, Lawson, Mclean.
In a game played over four twenty-minute periods, the Gloucester midfield held the edge throughout, Liggett, Jones and the excellent Chamberlain competitive and creative in the centre, while Wilkes and Clifford in particular were in fine form down the flanks. Smith, reminiscent of the Artful Dodger was attempting to pick the home side’s pocket at every opportunity, while Lynam, Blackburn, Lawson and Mclean were Scrooge-like in restricting Bath to a handful of half chances throughout the eighty minutes.
Three excellent interceptions from the Blackburn-Lynam combination cut out a bevy of potentially dangerous Bath attacks, while at the other end Wilkes twice tested the keeper and Blackburn, switching to offensive mode, fizzed a free kick just over.
On fifty minutes Gloucester took the lead with a goal conceived, created and converted in Longlevens. Jones found Clifford on the left and the subsequent cross was well finished by Chamberlain to put a bit of a dampener on Bath’s great expectations of the morning. The hosts did fashion a half chance almost immediately afterwards, but Mr Micawber Mclean threw body and soul in the way to extinguish the opportunity at source.
The final twenty minutes saw the visitors continue in similar fashion with Liggett Oliver Twisting and turning in the middle as he tried to play in the rampaging Blacker for what would be the decisive score. In addition the city playmaker twice fired in dangerous right wing crosses that the keeper did well to hold and the keeper was also confident in taking another Blackburn free kick.
With four minutes remaining however, Liggett’s pass gave Blacker a run on the last defender for the centre forward to muscle his way clear to score at the second attempt after his first effort had struck the post. A great celebration for the third week running ensued and if there’d been enough time before the restart, we might even have heard a Christmas carol or two.
A late Bath rally saw Moroney, after remaining incognito for seventy eight minutes emerge in true David Copperfield fashion to deny Kiely with a fine save, the resulting clean sheet only adding to the visitors’ victory glee.
Hot dogs were happily consumed in the old curiosity shop of the on-site cafe, photographs featuring ex-GPSFA players adorning the well-thought out sporting walls. Bath’s head coach, Tiny Tim, is away on a month’s sabbatical coaching at Borussia Dortmund, but even though the Gloucester staff have to make do with Oxstalls and Millbrook, it was a happy front seat on the journey home.
The Citizen will be reading the match report soon and contriving a headline to match the performance. ‘Gloucester pull the plug on Bath’, ‘Bath sunk by (rampant) Gloucester’, ‘Hard Times for Bath’, ‘Gloucester throw the kitchen sink at Bath’ (well, not quite) and ‘Chamberlain’s Eureka Moment’ were all suggested. Eventually though, there was a unanimous winner. ‘Basford absence inspires clean sheet victory’ came out on top by fourteen votes to nil. If only Brexit had been that obvious.
Gloucester: Moroney; Lynam, Jones, Blackburn; Wilkes, Chamberlain, Liggett, Clifford; Smith. Subs: Blacker, Lawson, Mclean.
