‘Almost perfect’ display sees Romans roar back to form
Jerry Gill described last Saturday as ‘almost the perfect performance’ as his Bath City side returned to form.
The Romans were good value for their 3-1 success at Braintree Town, a victory which pushed them up to sixth after six matches.
Marshalled by captain Ben Gerring, City coped with a tricky surface and a bombardment of long throws and corners from the hosts.
“We knew what we were going to come up against,” said Gill. “We saw pre-match that the grass was very long and know they play a certain way.
“It was about putting the tin hats on – defending lots of long throwins in a dangerous area, free-kicks coming in on you as well. We dealt with the second balls as well.
“Ben’s a leader – that’s why I signed him. Just before we went out he told everyone to look around and see that we have a good dressing room with good characters.
“We said we couldn’t get embroiled in their type of game. I thought we defended resolutely and our first pass on winning the ball back was real bravery.”
City created chances to wrap the game up before Alex Fletcher’s 89th minute strike, with substitute Mo Touray adding extra threat on the counter.
Cody Cooke’s double means he’s scored half of Bath’s 10 goals this season – at this stage last season Gill’s men had only mustered four.
“We looked a threat with our front boys,” said Gill. “We know we have some really dangerous players.
“At 2-1 we felt we deserved to be further ahead. Mo came on and made some glorious chances for himself.
“That was a joy today – I could change something off the bench in an attacking sense.”
Gill was forced into a change in goal as Ryan Clarke withdrew late on Friday night with a back injury, giving Will Fuller a first start.
“When you see you have a phonecall from a player late on the night before a game it’s never going to be good news,” said Gill. “Poor Ryan got the wrath of my tongue a bit. I was frustrated as we’ve regularly lost players just before games this season.
“Ryan Harley was injured last week, Mo Touray went out of the team and Callum Wood was struck by Covid. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves – we get on with it.
“It was hard today for Will to come in but I thought he played ever so well – he’s got good distribution, talks really well. I’m pleased for him.”
Bath were awarded two penalties in a match for the first time since April 2018 with Ezra Ikebuasi and Correy Davidson penalised for handballs, two weeks after Chelmsford’s Tom Wraight was fortunate to get away with committing the same offence against the Romans in denying a certain goal.
The win ended City’s run of three successive defeats, but Gill has his feet on the ground.
“I’m not going to get carried away,” he said. “I didn’t after Billericay or Tonbridge.
“We felt like in the last couple of weeks the luck has not been with us. When you lose three in a row it’s difficult. It’s in the back of your mind – you don’t want to go four.
“Second half performance against Dartford was fantastic. The players put a huge effort in this week at training to get this result.”
Saturday sees City travel to Step 5 Shaftesbury, three levels below City, in the FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round.
The Rockies are at this stage of the competition for the first time and have plundered 14 goals in their four cup ties, only Jersey Bulls (19) have more.
“We’ll give Shaftesbury the utmost respect,” said Gill. “There’s an expectation on us because we’re the higher level team.
“They play on 3G which might suit us. Marlee Francois and Elliott Frear love playing on 3G because they’re good ball runners. Alex Fletcher likewise.
“It’s a brand new surface, there will be good speed on the pitch. They’re good on it as well, they move the ball around and have some pace about them.
“I always say if we keep the ball we’ll always be a threat for the opposition.
“Every year I say it – we owe it to the club to get through the first couple of rounds, then it’s about the players. We’ve not had an FA Cup run for a very long time, some players in there haven’t had one.
“We’ll have to have the right mindset going into the game.”
Gill confirmed Callum Wood has returned to work on the treadmill having tested positive for COVID19, leaving him on the sidelines for the last four matches.
Bath City are selling tickets in advance for Saturday’s FA Cup match at Cockrams to assist Shaftesbury in assessing the level of away support.
Tickets will have to be collected from the club office today until 7pm.