Black History Month

October has been Black History Month and this provided a great opportunity for us as a club to recognise the outstanding contributions that people of African and Caribbean descent have made to the rich history, achievements and success of Bath City FC.

The all-time top ten appearance holders for City include Keith Brown in eighth place, who made 394 starts and was rewarded for his loyalty with a testimonial against Crystal Palace in 1993 and the ever popular Sekani Simpson who was voted Player of the Season back in 2012. Remarkably for a defender, Sekani collected just six yellow cards in 383 appearances.

While others played far fewer times for the Club they are remembered for making key contributions, especially Kaid Mohamed whose goals against Chelmsford and Woking in the 2010 playoffs won promotion. And who will ever forget the celebrations following Nick McCootie’s incredible strike in that Trophy semi-final against North Ferriby?

Some of these players achieved cult status amongst the Twerton faithful. Adie Mings was a regular for City back in the 1990s and proved to be one of the strongest players to ever appear for us, as many of the defenders who got in his way will surely agree. Although he later became manager at Chippenham, Adie is always a welcome visitor back at Twerton Park and is of course the proud father of England international Tyrone Mings.

Deion Vernon was a team mate of Jerry Gill during this same period and was famous for his lightening pace and spectacular start at the Club having joined from Bristol City. He introduced himself to Twerton Park from the bench against Farnborough and, having run them ragged with two goals, earnt a standing ovation while just seven days later his thrilling finish at Cardiff earnt the City a famous Cup win at Cardiff. Although this sensational start to his time here couldn’t be maintained he later prompted wild celebrations with the winner in a pulsating Trophy replay down at Huish over our old rivals.

Some were attracted to the Club after achieving much success earlier in their careers at various clubs, including ‘Prince’ David Adekola and Kevin Amankwaah, the latter once being purchased by Swansea for £250k and making over 100 appearances for Swindon before helping Sutton to a 5th round Cup tie with Arsenal.

And there were others whose achievements at Bath City paved the way for success elsewhere including Manny Monthe who helped win promotion to the League with Forest Green Rovers before a transfer to Tranmere. Miles Welch-Hayes made such a vital contribution three years ago that he was named in the National South’s team of the season which prompted a move to Macclesfield where he made sixty appearances before signing for Colchester.

And while Sam Allison only achieved moderate success here he has made a name for himself as a match official and made headlines recently on becoming the first black referee in the top four divisions since 2009.

But perhaps the most famous of all was Bobby Zamora who had a short period on loan from Bristol Rovers in which he scored eight goals in six appearances. He was later signed by Brighton before being bought by Spurs for £1.5m and played twice for England.

And coming right up to date we were recently reacquainted with Anthony Straker, our former captain, when he appeared here in the Cup for Havant & Waterlooville. We’ll forgive Strakes for the result!

In line with our core value of being a welcoming club to all parts of our community, we celebrate the achievements of the above City players alongside so many others from the BAME community who have contributed so much over the years.