Bath City (1) 2 Tonbridge Angels (0) 0 – Saturday 15 March 2025 – Vanarama National League South – Twerton Park
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Brad Ash and Mitch Beardmore were on target as Bath City’s recent revival continued, easing to success over Tonbridge Angels.
The visitors also ended with 10 men with Ethan Sutcliffe’s initial yellow card for a foul on Luke Russe upgraded to a red, which forced City to introduce goalkeeper coach Martin Horsell as a striker late in added time.
Coupled with defeats for Welling United and St Albans City, Darren Way’s side are now 15 points clear of the bottom four and are near certain to avoid the drop.
A 16th clean sheet of the season, and third in a row, means only teams in the top seven have a better defensive record than the Romans.
The back four was untested in a forgettable opening half hour, before City suffered a blow in losing Scott Wilson to a muscular injury with Beardmore on in his place.
While it was a change they wouldn’t have been keen to make so early, it livened them up and they opened the scoring on 33 minutes.
Jordan Alves weaved in between two players on the right, teed up Ash in the box and his shot took a wicked deflection off the shoulder of Jamie Fielding, looping over the helpless Matt Rowley.
Ash, who had scored four in his previous four against Tonbridge for Weymouth and Torquay, nearly extended that sequence in first half added time.
Russe brilliantly robbed Sutcliffe, leapt to his feet and played the striker through, but Rowley just did enough to dive left and glove it onto the outside of the post and behind.
The keeper was powerless to prevent a second just 54 seconds after the restart.
Jordan Tillson’s lofted ball forward was misjudged by Sutcliffe, leaving Beardmore to comprehensively lash home from 12 yards for his first City goal.
City could have added a third on the counter five minutes later.
Alves got the better of Bailey Akehurst and attempted to play Ash through, but the pass was too soft and allowed Angels to get back, concluding with Ash curling harmlessly over.
Beardmore was withdrawn for Jack Batten having impressed in a 34 minute cameo. An added defender meant Tonbridge offered even less going forward in one of Jay Saunders’ final games in charge, having announced his departure a week previous.
Harvey Wiles-Richards’ only save saw him bat away Ronny Nelson’s near post flick from Sean Shields’ corner before Gianluna Botti slid wide from Taylor Maloney’s through ball.
Christie Ward curled wide, failing to add to his goal at Twerton in October from Weymouth, before a quiet conclusion suddenly sparked into life.
Rowley put Sutcliffe in trouble with a poor clearance, and as the defender raised his leg to clear, he caught the face of the brave Russe, who attempted to nod the ball to Ash.
The defender was initially shown a yellow card but referee Will Briers changed his mind a minute later and sent him off, perhaps taking into account Russe’s condition with a nasty cut on his head.
Having used all their outfield subs, 38-year-old goalkeeper Horsell was used as an outfield player for the first time in his 20-year career, a surreal way to make his City debut and first outing for anyone for nearly two years.
He found himself well placed when Alves stormed into the area, pulled the ball back but Nwabueze beat him to it and spooned over into the Bristol End.
It prevented a heaviest league of the season for Tonbridge but they were well beaten by Way’s charges, who can head into the final seven matches in a more relaxed mode following just one defeat in six.
Att: 1073
City’s Line-Up: Wiles-Richards, Raynes, Greenslade (Frear 85), Parselle (c), Wilson (Beardmore 30 (Batten 65)), Fisher (Nwabueze 81), Tillson, Russe (Horsell 90+6), Alves, Tomlinson, Ash.
Scorers: City – Ash (33), Beardmore (46); Tonbridge – none
City Bookings: Parselle (23), Fisher (70), Raynes (73), Russe (89)
Officials: W Briers, B Walker, B Wootten, C Waller (4th)
