Frear strike sees City past Centurions

An Elliott Frear goal and a first pre-season clean sheet saw City overcome Cirencester Town at The Corinium Stadium in this evening’s hastily arranged friendly. The game saw a first summer outing for keeper Ryan Clarke alongside a return to action for Omar Holness, after his injury against Exeter City. With several potential Bristol City loanees also in the starting line-up it took the Romans a while to settle during a fairly frenetic opening to the game. Cody Cooke sliced an early effort wide from close range and the home side gave City’s backline a couple of nervous moments. Both sides continued to produce some neat football on the excellent 3G pitch and on 37 minutes City took the lead. Frear showed great anticipation to intercept a Cirencester pass out of defence before advancing toward goal and unleashing a shot from 25 yards that found the net via the left hand post. Gabriel almost levelled the scores a minute later, heading narrowly wide from six yards out. The second half was a more scrappy affair than the first as both sides made a number of changes, although Alex Fletcher came close to doubling City’s lead with a curling shot shortly after the restart. Tom Smith saw a goalbound header deflected over the bar midway through the half, which was as close as City would come to adding to the scoring but, with their defence keeping the Centurions largely at bay, it meant Frear’s second goal in as many games for City was enough to secure the win.