Next Match – Truro City (H)
Bath City complete their home sequence of fixtures on Tuesday when they face Truro City in Jerry Gill’s 300th match in charge.
It will be City’s fifth game in a row at Twerton Park, while Truro haven’t even played a home game in their own county since October 2020. Their current base is Taunton Town’s Wordsworth Drive, some 125 miles away. To put into perspective, the equivalent would be Bath City travelling to St Albans for a home match.
A few weeks ago, Truro ended their three-year stay at Bolitho Park, home of Plymouth Parkway, a 105-mile round trip. Several postponements was a factor, which has made their new venue a head-scratcher for outsiders, with Taunton historically losing games to wet weather including last Tuesday’s meeting with Torquay. Truro’s first planned fixture at Wordsworth Drive with Eastbourne was postponed 24 hours in advance too, which leaves them with 12 home games to cram in by 20 April. Taunton have eight. Positive news for the new planned site in Langarth was released in week to supporters’ relief – their average gate of 238 is comfortably the lowest in the division this term, which is wholly understandable. They should be back in Cornwall by August.
With all this uncertainty, Paul Wotton has done an incredible job for the White Tigers. Promotion via the play-offs last season saw momentum carried through to the opening day when they were 5-1 up at half-time against Welling United. It’s not quite reached those heights since, but heading into tonight’s games they’re six points clear of the drop zone. They’ll know realistically they’re only a couple of wins from safety, with 18 matches to find them. That said, no wins in five will be a touch concerning, their latest defeat was on Saturday at Farnborough thanks to Hady Ghandour’s 89th minute winner. Truro should avoid becoming the first club to be relegated three times from Conference/National League South after previous demotions in 2013 and 2019.
Like City, they’ve been reliant on a tight knit squad. A league low 24 players have featured for the Cornishmen this term. Five of their current side are ex-Bath with Tyler Harvey the most standout. The forward netted nine goals in 18 appearances for City over three spells and has scored in the last three meetings between the two sides, which have all ended 1-1. Jerry Gill has overseen four draws from four against this opposition City.
Gill’s team narrowly missed out on a stunning sixth clean sheet in a row at the weekend, but four league wins in a row has pushed them up to fifth with games in hand. With him certain to celebrate a milestone, one of his first signings, Tom Smith, could follow. Smith will make his 200th league appearance if he features and he’s also one from 50 goals in all competitions. Scott Wilson also recorded his 100th outing at the weekend as a substitute.
Come along to Twerton Park for Tuesday night under the lights and see if Romans can tame the White Tigers! Discounted tickets are available here until 23.45 on Monday 19 February.
