Late City fightback can’t deny Gulls

A late fightback couldn’t prevent City slipping to a narrow 2-1 defeat against Torquay United at Twerton Park this evening. Goals from Cooke and Palmer had put the visitors in control of the game before Sol Wanjau-Smith made it 2-1 with eleven minutes left. City threw everything they could at the Gulls after this but couldn’t find an equaliser their overall performance probably deserved.

The opening exchanges were largely uneventful but on 12 minutes a mistake by Nick Grimes gifted possession to Carson and he picked out ex-City striker Cody Cooke to beat Harvey Wiles-Richards from eight yards. Three minutes later another former Roman – Ben Seymour – missed a great chance to double Torquay’s lead, heading Craske’s cross wide. Cooke’s header on 26 minutes was then easily gathered by Wiles-Richards. Three minutes later City responded with Alex Fisher seeing his header from a Ewan Clark free-kick turned over the bar by Harman. A strong run by Wanjau-Smith was ended illegally by Dreyer but Clark saw his free-kick curl just the wrong side of the post. The momentum of the game had shifted to City now and they should have gone into the break level when Scott Wilson did well to bring the ball down on the edge of the six-yard box but failed to get a clean contact on his shot and the danger was cleared.

A double change at half-time – with Reuben Davies and Jordan Alves introduced – saw City continue to enjoy the upper hand. Wanjau-Smith had a strong penalty appeal waved away on 60 minutes then moments later Davies directed a header straight at Harman. So, it was against the run of play when Palmer’s header from yet another former City player – Dan Hayfield – made it 2-0 to Torquay on 64 minutes. With the Gulls content to sit on their two-goal lead, City were largely camped in their half and with 11 minutes left Alves’ goal-bound shot was diverted home by Wanjau-Smith to get them back in the game. It took a number of great tackles and blocks to keep City out after this and it wasn’t until stoppage time that Harman was called into action, tipping Kieran Parselle’s header over the bar. This turned out to be the final chance for City to deny the Devon side the three points.