Trophy draw pairs City with last season’s runner-up Canvey Island (29/11/04)
City have been handed a tough draw in the 3rd Round of the FA Trophy with a home tie against last season’s losing finalists Canvey Island. The Essex side surprisingly lost 3-2 to City’s Southern League rivals Hednesford Town in the final at Villa Park back in May. They have a mixed start to this season and currently lie in 16th place in the Conference having won five and lost six, including a 1-0 defeat at home to City’s FA Cup victims Barnet, of their opening 18 games. The meeting will take place on Saturday 15 January 2005 (ko 3pm).
Rare Twerton Park outing crowns City as comeback kings (27/11/04)
City overcame a 2-0 deficit this afternoon to run out 4-2 winners over Carshalton Athletic and book a place in the 3rd Round of the FA Trophy. The Conference South side looked to have the game sewn up as Syrus headed home after 18 minutes and a Saunders free-kick from wide right eluded everyone to find the corner of the net just before the half hour. Only several excellent saves by Steve Perrin plus some dreadful finishing from the Robins prevented them going further ahead and Sam Bailey headed City back into the game a minute before the interval. On the hour mark Scott Partridge evaded Carshalton’s offside trap to slot home the equaliser and after that there was only one winner. Twelve minutes later a stunning 25-yard strike from Alex Sykes put City in front and he completed the comeback ten minutes from time taking advantage of hesitation between keeper Searle and a defender. The victory sees City bank another £3000 and take their FA Cup and Trophy winnings to over £40,000 this season.
The draw for the 3rd Round of the Southern League Cup has paired City with Merthyr Tydfil. The match will take place at Twerton Park on Tuesday 18 January 2005 (ko 7.45pm).
City add a touch of Maine Road history to Twerton Park (26/11/04)
As part of the recent deal to allow Team Bath to play at Twerton Park, City have obtained 400 new seats that they are to install in the Main Stand to replace a number of broken or damaged ones. The seats come from Manchester City’s former ground Maine Road after they were bought by Team Bath’s director of sport, and Citizens fan, Ged Roddy but never used at their University home. The seats are (obviously!) sky blue in colour and will be installed in a block rather than dotted amongst the existing black and white seats.
The meeting between the two Southern League sides to have reached the FA Cup 2nd Round, City and Histon, has been rearranged for Tuesday 15 February 2005 (ko 7.45). Ironically the sides were due to meet on 4 December, the date they will be facing Peterborough United and Yeovil Town respectively for a place in the 3rd Round of the competition.
Sit down if you love City! (21/11/04)
City’s FA Cup 2nd Round clash with Peterborough United in two weeks time will be a sit down affair for all travelling fans after the club was allocated nearly 900 seats but no terrace space at London Road. All away fans will therefore be housed in the North (Main) Stand rather than on the Moyes End terrace as they were 19 years ago. Ticket prices for the game are £16 for adults and £8 concessions.
The supporters club have already filled two coaches for the trip and are now taking bookings for a third. To book a seat see the away travel page or contact Martin Powell on 01373 301143.
Unambitious Stamford leave City frustrated in return to league action (20/11/04)
Stamford showed why they had drawn six of their eight home league games this season as they smothered the life out of City in this afternoon’s goalless draw at a freezing cold Newflame Stadium. Playing five at the back and with little inclination to commit numbers forward the Daniels played more like an away side and City failed to take advantage of the handful of chances that did come their way. Scott Partridge fired narrowly wide in the opening minutes but this was as close as they got in the first half. On a dreadful pitch – although it was great in comparison to the appalling ground – City struggled to produce their usual neat passing game and had to be thankful to Steve Perrin for a smart block just before the interval. The second half saw Reinier Moor and Jimmy Benefield shoot straight at keeper Watts. Gary Owers did get the ball in the net only for the referee to rule out the effort for a foul and he also headed another effort against the top of the bar, but in the end City had to settle for a point and look toward another 17 day break from league action.
Paulton look to become new Chippenham by snapping up Tweddle (19/11/04)
Paulton Rovers took another step to taking over from Chippenham Town as the home of all former City players by snapping up out of favour striker Steve Tweddle for an undisclosed fee. Since the return to fitness of Scott Partridge the 34-year old found himself confined to the bench and has choosen to move to the Southern League Division 1 West in a search for first team football. He will join ex-City stars Dan Cleverley, Josh Jeffries, Ian Hedges, Mark Harrington, Jason Drysdale, Lea James, Gary Powell Andrew Catley and Nick Bunyard.
There will be an auction at The Old Crown in Twerton High Street tomorrow night (Saturday 20 November) at 8pm with all proceeds going toward City’s Youth team.
Men against boys brings Somerset Premier Cup run to abrupt halt (17/11/04)
City crashed out of this season’s Somerset Premier Cup last night as a side comprising almost entirely youth team players lost 5-0 at Western League Brislington. Only Ricky Hulbert, Yan Klukowski and Mark Branton had previously played in the first team and then only had 14 substitute appearances between them. By contrast the experienced home side included former City players Gary Kemp, Chris Honor and Steve Bridges in their line-up and they were three goals ahead within 13 minutes of the start. Turner opened the scoring on seven minutes before two goals in a minute from Rowlands and Cornwall made it 3-0. To their credit City’s youngsters did not crumble and had the better of the rest of the half but failed to capitalise on this. Rowlands grabbed a second at the start of the second half before a last minute goal from Morrisey completed the scoring.
City have rearranged another of the recently postponed games due to their FA Cup exploits. The home match against Grantham Town will take place on Tuesday 8 March (ko 7.45pm). They have also brought forward the trip to Chippenham Town by 24 hours to avoid clashing with England’s World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland. The local rivals will now meet on Good Friday 25 March (ko 3pm).
Loan hero keeper Perrin pays tribute to incredible City support (15/11/04)
One of City’s twelve FA Cup hero’s has paid tribute to the incredible support the team received during Saturday’s memorable 2-1 win over Barnet. Keeper Steve Perrin, on loan from Conference strugglers Forest Green Rovers, said, “The support we had was incredible and in all the years I’ve played non league football, I don’t think I’ve ever seen support like that away from home. They were absolutely fantastic and they played a massive part in that win.” Over 300 fans made the trip up the M4 to London Village (© Mark & Lard) and sung non-stop from start to finish and at the final whistle many ran on to the pitch to celebrate with the players.
City will travel to Banbury United on Tuesday 7 December (ko 7.45pm) to play their rearranged Southern League match.
FA Cup 2nd Round draw hands City chance to end 19 years of hurt (14/11/04)
The draw for the 2nd Round of the FA Cup has handed City a trip to Peterborough United in a repeat of the tie back in 1985 at the same stage of the competition. City lost that game 1-0 but will travel to a Posh side struggling toward the foot of Coca-Cola League 1. They currently lie 20th in the old Second Division just one point off the relegation zone, having won just four and lost eight of their seventeen matches so far this season. They are managed by former Barnet boss Barry Fry. Good omen? The match will take place on Saturday 4 December.
Super Scotty double leaves Bees stung and City in FA Cup dreamland (14/11/04)
City reached the 2nd Round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1993 when they came from a goal down to beat Conference leaders Barnet 2-1 at Underhill yesterday. The goalscoring hero was Scott Partridge, as he grabbed both goals including the 90th minute winner, but it was an excellent team performance that allowed City to turn a game around that looked to be heading away from them when Hatch fired the Bees ahead three minutes into the second half. This was deserved after the home side had dominated the first half, although only occasionally showing glimpses of why they lead the Conference. In contrast City had shown little but as soon as they fell behind they suddenly lifted their game. Alex Sykes and Jimmy Benefield both fired good chances over but on 65 minutes keeper Tynan failed to hold a swerving shot from Sykes and Partridge was first to the loose ball to stab it home. John Williams then came agonisingly close to putting City ahead but as time slowly ticked away it looked as if City would have to settle for a highly commendable draw. However, this all changed in the 90th minute when a long ball forward sent Partridge racing toward goal. He held off a defender and, although Tynan blocked his first effort, he slotted home the rebound to send the 300 City fans into raptures. Four minutes of stoppage time followed and one almighty goalmouth scramble gave City a heart-stopping moment before the final whistle set-off delirious scenes and a minor pitch invasion.
The draw for the 2nd Round takes place at approximately 4pm on BBC1 after the Thurrock v Oldham match this afternoon and City are ball no.11.
City duo miss Bangkok trip to sample the less obvious delights of Barnet (11/11/04)
The FA have agreed to withdraw City’s midfield duo of Alex Sykes and Russell Milton from the England Futsal trip to Thailand so they are available for Saturday’s FA Cup 1st Round clash with Barnet. The pair were named in the squad to face Thailand and Egypt in the tournament that gets underway today but following consultation between City and the FA it was agreed that both players would not be made to travel. Sykes recently missed the 5-1 defeat at Histon whilst playing Futsal for England in Belgium.
The supporters club have filled two coaches for Saturday’s match at Barnet and have asked any supporters who have booked but are unable to travel to ensure they advise Martin Powell on 01373 301143 immediately as there is a standby list of fans after places.
Late Power play not quite enough to see City to Hednesford win (10/11/04)
City came within the width of the post to beating Hednesford Town last night when Graeme Power’s stunning late shot crashed against the inside of the upright but, in the end, had to settle for a point in the 1-1 draw at a cold and wet Keys Park. In truth, this was a fair outcome as both sides had chances to win the game played out before a sparse crowd of 373, including around 30 from Bath. And they were celebrating on 54 minutes when Alex Sykes’ close range finish from Jim Rollo’s cross gave City the lead. However, nine minutes later the home side levelled through Bell and, despite narrow escapes for both teams, that was how it finished.
Barnet voucher system revealed for the young and old City fans alike (9/11/04)
For all over-60 or under-18 City fans wishing to stand in the away enclosure and obtain the usual concession at Underhill on Saturday, Barnet operate an unnecessarily complicated voucher system. Rather than just entering through a different turnstile like every other ground seems to be able to cope with supporters will need to obtain a voucher in one of three ways. In person at the club office at Twerton Park, if travelling on a Supporters Club coach, they will be distributed during the journey or a Supporters Club representative will be outside the turnstiles until 2.45pm. There are two sections of the ground where City fans can enter and obtain a concession without needing a voucher, the Family Stand or North Terrace, as clearly home fans don’t have to suffer this nonsense.
Tiverton Trophy success rewarded by home draw in second round (8/11/04)
The draw for the 2nd Round of the FA Trophy has given City a home tie against Conference South side Carshalton Athletic. The Surrey-based team currently lie in 13th place in that division, one spot below Havant & Waterlooville who City knocked out of the FA Cup a month ago, having reached this stage with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Heybridge Swifts. The game is scheduled to take place on Saturday 27 November, however with Team Bath also receiving a home draw this is subject to confirmation. The league match with Cirencester Town due to be played on that date will now be rearranged.
Moor cup success for City as striker breaks duck in Trophy victory (6/11/04)
Reinier Moor was the FA Trophy hero for City as he came off the bench to score one and make one in City’s 2-0 win over Tiverton Town this afternoon. After an hour in which both sides appeared to have minds on their FA Cup exploits next week, Moor, who had turned out for Tiverton pre-season, finally opened his account for City by taking advantage of a mix-up between Ovendale and ex-City star Rob Cousins to roll the ball into the net. Eight minutes later he turned provider when his low cross was fired home at the near post by Jimmy Benefield and City had secured their place in the 2nd Round.
Team Bath given green light to begin Twerton Park groundshare (5/11/04)
Team Bath will be the fourth team to groundshare Twerton Park after the arrangement was given the go ahead by the Southern League. Following in the footsteps of Bristol Rovers, Trowbridge Town and Larkhall Athletic the Bath University based team will begin to use Twerton Park with immediate effect after signing a five-year agreement, with a break clause after three years. In addition to an annual rent City will also gain full access to the state of the art training facilities at the University’s Claverton Down campus. Team Bath’s first league game at the ground will be on Saturday 20 November against Hitchin Town, although they will face the same opposition there tomorrow in an FA Trophy tie having already confirmed the switch with the FA.
Mystery of missing Jones forces Owers to look for new assistant (2/11/04)
Gary Owers is to begin the search for a new assistant as the mystery of what has happened to Vaughan Jones continues. Jones has not been seen at Twerton Park since the Hitchin Town match on 8 October, and despite attempts by Owers and club officials they have not been able to contact the former Bristol Rovers defender. A posting on this web site’s forum claiming to be from Jones said he had resigned but there was no proof whether this was genuine or not. Jones joined Owers in November 2003 having played 18 games in two spells for City during the 1990’s.
On the pitch City have allowed midfielder Darren Hawkins to return to Bristol City after the end of his second month spent on loan at Twerton Park. The 20-year old, who made nine appearances and scored five goals during this second loan period with City, trained with Conference side Tamworth last week.