Proud boss despite loss
Gill chuffed with City display at Torquay
Former boss Gary Owers came back to haunt Jerry Gill’s Bath City by the slenderest of margins at an atmospheric Plainmoor. Liam Davis’ 80th minute drive separated the sides, but the Romans will feel mightily unfortunate to leave Devon with nothing having more than matched their full-time opponents. Torquay nearly got off to a dream start. Jack Batten’s miscontrol in defence was seized upon by Jamie Reid, who squared to Brett Williams, but the Gulls captain blazed over with just Ryan Clarke to beat. It helped awaken City as they frustrated United, who made mistakes aplenty much to the chagrin of their supporters. A sliced clearance from Jean-yves Koue Niate fell kindly to John Mills, but the frontman, recalled in place of Ryan Brunt, dragged his shot wide. Williams sent a header onto the top of Clarke’s bar after Asa Hall’s hanging cross in a half of few chances. City came flying out of the traps in the second period and enjoyed their best spell. On 49 minutes, Adam Mann’s corner saw Shaun Macdonald punch the ball back towards his own goal, but Mills somehow missed from a yard out. Torquay were pegged back, relying on Jakub Sokolik’s intervention to prevent Sean Rigg’s slaloming run through the hosts’ midfield, before Watkins went a step closer. Ross Stearn’s driven cross from the left was met by the head of the Cornishman, but he sent the ball crashing against the bar with Macdonald beaten. Not opening the scoring in this period proved costly as Torquay forced a few set-pieces, leaving City to endure some nervy moments. Niate failed to fully connect with Ryan Dickson’s dangerous delivery, and Sokolik nudged wide after another teasing Dickson cross. On the counter, Mills’ hesitation proved costly when he sprung the offside trap, but Ben Wynter’s timely intervention snuffed him out. It was another defender who had the last laugh. Keating drove a cross in and despite the efforts of Joe Raynes and Frankie Artus, Davis thrashed the ball into the corner, his first goal for almost five years. It killed the game, as for all their efforts, an equaliser seemed unlikely. Having kept a clean sheet at Chelmsford on Saturday to earn a point, Owers’ back five again proved vital to leave Gill, and his players, dejected at the outcome. Jerry Gill was left mystified how his side failed to pick up any points at Plainmoor on Tuesday night. Only one goal separated the teams come full-time in Devon, despite a strong performance from the Romans up against a full-time outfit. And though Liam Davis’ 80th minute winner was the difference between the sides come full-time, Gill was full of praise for his team. He said: “That’s the best performance since I’ve been at the football club. Period. “That tonight is an outstanding performance from our football team. I’m proud to be Bath City manager tonight and proud of my boys, proud of the team, proud of the way we played. “I thought we controlled the game. We dominated possession, we were bright, we created chances. “I’m not over-egging it – we dominated that game. We were by far the better team. The difference was they scored one chance they had and we didn’t take ours. “I’m not kidding myself – I’m very honest in my appraisal. I think I was on Saturday with the players and yourselves. “I’m an honest guy, and I think Torquay got very lucky to win that game of football.” City’s only change going into their first league meeting at Torquay for over 90 years was John Mills for Ryan Brunt, an alteration explained by the Romans chief. “I said on Saturday I was going to pick a team that I think will win any game, or try to,” Gill said. “We didn’t come here to draw. We were the team on the front foot. “I wanted to freshen it up up top, it’s nothing more than that. I thought Ryan did okay on Saturday, but I wanted to draw out their back three. “I knew what they were about – I came down here and watched them, there was only one change from the team I watched when I came down. “I thought Millsy did fine. He’s obviously still finding his way a little bit. “He looked bright, worked ever so hard, got himself into some goalscoring opportunities, it’s just unfortunate he didn’t take them. “He’s disappointed that he didn’t score in his one-v-ones, Watto [Andy Watkins] has hit the crossbar where he should score as well.” Following on from Saturday’s opening day loss to Dartford, the contrast in performances was noted by Gill, who presided over back-to-back league defeats for only the second time since replacing now-torquay boss Gary Owers last October. “The second half on Saturday wasn’t good enough, we didn’t look like a Bath City team,” he said. “Anyone that’s watched that – tell me the full-time team and the team that deserved to win that game. I think they’ll feel relieved that they’ve managed to get that win. “I enjoyed watching that – I didn’t enjoy the second half Saturday – but I thoroughly enjoyed watching my football team tonight. “I’m proud of them. I’m proud of the way they went about their business, and I’m proud of the fact that they represent the football club in the right way.” It’s the first time in the club’s history that three successive campaigns have started with back-toback defeats, although few could draw comparisons to last season and this, when City’s second outing was a humiliating 5-2 defeat at home to Chippenham, leaving them with eight goals conceded in two games. The competitive nature of the division has been proven by the fact, after Tuesday’s matches, Bath are the only side to lose two from two, with Dulwich Hamlet and East
I’m proud of my boys, proud of the team, and proud of the way we played
Thurrock, both pointless after one meeting, scheduled to face each other last night. “We need to get some points on the board, but there’s no panic in our dressing room,” Gill added. “We’ll continue to play the way we play. “I said to the boys, ‘I’ve got nothing more to say to you, really’ other than I felt gutted that they haven’t got any points out of it. “Play like that and we’ll be right up there this season, I’m pretty convinced of that. “People might go away and say ‘well, you’re saying it, you haven’t got any points,’ but it’s early in the season and if you put in displays like that week in, week out, I’m telling you now, we’ll be right up there amongst it. “The bravery of people on the ball was terrific at times, but obviously we’re saddened that we haven’t got any points.” The attendance, 2,151 with 125 away fans, was the second highest Bath City have played in front of in National League South, beaten only by 3,043 at AFC Wimbledon in February 2009. Having played in the Football League for 85 years, the set-up at Plainmoor, staging National League South football for the first time, was appreciated by the Romans boss, but he held no fear about other away matches where pitches may differ from the pristine Torquay surface. “We can play on any surface,” he said. “It’s a league club, isn’t it? Our boys would love to play on this every week. “We go to Hampton on Saturday and it’s no different.” Gill confirmed that Kevin Amankwaah is nearing a return having taken part in the past two warm-ups and has been monitored by Kit Barnes, the club’s sports scientist.