Chelmsford City (1) 3 Bath City (0) 0 – Saturday 7 September 2024 – Vanarama National League South – Melbourne Stadium
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Bath City’s poor away form continued as they were well beaten by bogey side Chelmsford City.
Goals from Arthur Penney, Osman Foyo and Freddie Hockey secured the Clarets’ sixth win in seven against Jerry Gill’s outfit.
It consigned City to a fifth away loss in six continuing from last season, and seven conceded in their last two on the road.
The only positive from the game saw Luke Russe return to action after six months on the sidelines.
Chelmsford attacked from the off. Inside a minute Kalvin Kalala escaped a couple of challenges and laid off to Foyo, who curled wastefully over from 15 yards.
Foyo showed better quality soon after when he avoided a challenge of Dan Greenslade and pulled back into the path of Charlie Ruff, but his first-time effort was repelled by Josey Casa-Grande with Ruaridh Donaldson blazing the follow-up over.
The hosts continued to pepper the goal of the stand-in stopper, making his second debut as cover for the suspended Harvey Wiles-Richards.
Kalala curled wide from distance before Osman’s shot on the turn from Kalala’s corner was blocked on the line with Casa-Grande gobbling up Donaldson’s rebound.
A mini respite from this onslaught saw City carve up an opening on 15 minutes. Billy Phillips leapt back to his feet from an initial foul, his pull back saw Sol Wanjau-Smith’s shot blocked by former Maidstone teammate Paul Appiah before Sam Gale got in the way of Ewan Clark’s header.
Greenslade nodded Elliott Frear’s free-kick over before Chelmsford weren’t as wasteful.
A short corner saw Donaldson’s delivery to the back post meet Penney, who rose higher than Joe Raynes to expertly plant a looping header over Casa-Grande for his first goal for Chelmsford.
Jordan Greenidge missed a glorious chance in first half added time. Sam Oguntayo’s drilled ball from the byline was met by the forward, but with the goal gaping he contrived to divert over from a matter of yards.
The dominance from the hosts forced a tactical tweak from the Romans at the break with Louis Sweeten and Alex Fisher on for Frear and Clark.
It made an immediate impact as Latrell Humphrey-Ewers laid off for Wanjau-Smith in the area, but he shanked wide.
Greenidge’s glancing header from Donaldson’s long throw bounced just wide with Casa-Grande in nomansland.
Jordan Tillson was inches away from opening his Bath account, bending just wide when Fisher headed Greenslade’s free-kick across to him, some 20 yards out.
Chelmsford doubled their lead on 72 minutes. Kalala tied Raynes in knots, causing him to injure his ankle in the process, before digging out a cross to Foyo at the far post, whose downward header gave Casa-Grande little chance – a third goal in two games for the Ipswich loanee.
Ted Collins was forced into his first save two minutes later. Phillips’ corner was headed out to Sweeten, whose smart strike was creeping into the bottom right corner before the goalkeeper’s intervention.
Wanjau-Smith blew a decent opening when Raynes’ long ball was flicked back to him from Tillson, but the striker lashed over.
Russe replaced Raynes for his first involvement since picking up a medial ligament injury against Farnborough in early March.
The joy of his return was quickly extinguished as Chelmsford rubber-stamped the win with three minutes remaining.
Jack Batten was dispossessed from Foyo with ease, Oguntayo’s cross on the overlap was headed against the bar by Jake Hyde but fellow substitute Hockey was on hand to slam in his fourth goal in three games against City and cap off a dominant display by Robbie Simpson’s charges.
Att: 877
City’s Line-Up: Casa-Grande, Raynes (Russe 76), Greenslade, Batten, Parselle (c), Wanjau-Smith, Humphrey-Ewers (Alves 64), Clark (Sweeten HT), Frear (Fisher HT), Tillson, Phillips. Sub not used: Sardo.
Scorers: City – none; Chelmsford – Penny (31), Foyo (72), Hockey (88)
City Bookings: none
Officials: I Searle, J Karram, M Stetakovic, T Whay (4th)