Melksham Town (0) 0 Bath City (1) 3 – Tuesday 23 July 2024 – Pre-Season Friendly – Oakfield Stadium
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Nick Grimes, a trialist and Louis Sweeten were on target as Bath City eased to a 3-0 win at Melksham Town.
City were seldom troubled by a side plying their trade two divisions below as Jerry Gill’s charges recorded back-to-back wins.
On an evening when Cody Cooke’s departure for Torquay United was announced, the Romans showed they still have plenty of attacking threat.
An accomplished win over a Step 4 side, on a superb playing surface, made it a worthwhile evening in Wiltshire.
The visitors got off to a flying start with Scott Wilson and his strike partner trialist combining to tee up Ewan Clark, but he was robbed by Dion Molyneux at the vital moment.
Shortly afterwards, Wilson turned Robbie James and tried to beat former City Academy stopper Alfie Kelsey at his near post, but the Town keeper stood firm to deny him.
Clark’s cross was met by the head of the head of the trialist but his downward header was superbly kept out by Kelsey – all three chances arriving in the first seven minutes.
Melksham thought they had a penalty on the quarter hour when Jake Brown was clumsily upended by Joe Raynes, but play was brought back for an earlier offside.
From the restart, Wilson’s tremendous first touch left him one-on-one with Kelsey, but in trying to round him the keeper snuffed him out.
Kelsey was nearly left red-faced when he swiped at thin air from Molyneux’s backpass, with the ball creeping behind via the outside of the post.
His reprieve didn’t last long. Jordan Alves’ corner saw Grimes time his run perfectly to head home from 10 yards.
The same two nearly combined on 33 minutes, this time Kelsey out of position as Grimes’ header clipped the top of the bar.
Melksham went to two up front after the break and they caused the first opening when James’ ball over the top was well collected by Caleb Summerfield, who cut inside of Dan Greenslade before hit arrowed strike was batted away by Harvey Wiles-Richards.
The City keeper denied Brown after Henry Sady had pulled back from the byline as the hosts fought gainly before they were punished at the other end on the hour.
Wilson played the ball to Clark on the left, he created space for a cross which was comfortably headed in by City’s trialist striker, in what proved to be his final involvement.
A further change saw Ben Morgan replace Alves as the Romans reverted to three at the back.
It had a near immediate impact as an overload on the left saw Wilson find Latrell Humphrey-Ewers in space.
He approached the penalty area with purpose before rolling across to Sweeten, who poked in from close range to round off the scoring.
Att: n/a
City’s Line-Up: Wiles-Richards, Raynes, Greenslade, Grimes, Parselle (c), Humphrey-Ewers, Clark (Triallist B 87), Smith, Triallist A (Sweeten 61), Wilson, Alves (Morgan 72). Sub not used: Sardo, Batten.
Scorers: City – Grimes (19), Triallist A (60), Sweeten (73); Melksham – none
City Bookings: none
Referee: Daniel Lamport