The Next Match – Dorking Wanderers Away
After another enforced break due to the postponement of the Welling fixture, City make the trip to Surrey this coming Saturday to face Dorking Wanderers, hoping to open our account on the road.
Remarkably this is the third date selected for this fixture which was originally scheduled for Tuesday 10th November, but of course the squad’s Covid isolation put paid to that. A new date of Tuesday 15th December was then announced before the FA decided that the delayed Trophy 2nd Round will be played that evening instead of 5th December when the 1st Round will be squeezed in. So the two clubs opted to move our delayed fixture to the vacant Saturday saving City a long midweek trip.
Of course the match will be the first meeting between the two clubs since the play-off eliminator back in July. An 80th minute penalty converted by Ryan Brunt was City’s only response that day to first-half goals by McShane and Prior for Dorking who went on to lose at Weymouth a week later. Our opponents on Tuesday will find a very different City team facing them as 11 players named in the matchday squad that day are no longer at the Club.
The Wanderers had given warning of their defensive strengths in the two league encounters during the season proper, losing to a solitary Adam Mann goal here at Twerton and playing out a goalless draw when we visited Meadowbank in February. They eventually finished 7th in the adjusted table, 15.6 points behind City.
The current season didn’t get off to the best of starts when Dorking were knocked out of the FA Cup by Eastbourne, but seven wins from nine league encounters see them currently in second place in the league table with the prolific Jason Prior having already netted eleven goals. Their four home fixtures have seen wins over Slough, Tonbridge and Oxford and, despite the postponement of Ebbsfleet’s visit on Saturday, Wanderers are due to host Maidstone four days before City’s visit.
Last season’s three meetings were the first between the clubs as Dorking started life in the Crawley and District League as recently as 1999. Amongst the founders was present chairman and team manager Marc White and he has helped the club to a remarkable eleven promotions in just twenty years.
The ground has seen many improvements to facilitate this rise up through the pyramid and the neat venue has again been changed since our visit nine months ago, with the addition of some covered accommodation behind one goal.
With the new Government guidelines state that away fans should not travel, City supporters will be able to follow the match as usual via the Bath City Internet Radio commentary or visit the Dorking website for details of the live stream.
