Gill will have side drilled for Cup test from Lewes
Bath City will be fully prepared for anything lower league Lewes might have to throw at them this weekend. The Romans will be vying for a place in the final qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday, when they welcome the Isthmian League Rooks to Twerton Park. They have already seen off one side from that seventh tier of the English game in their away dispatching of Banbury United almost a fortnight ago. And though there are 15 places in the English league ladders separating the side, Gill has as ever left no stone unturned in his preparations. “We’ll be ready,” he said. “Lewes, I’ve been to watch them last Wednesday [in their replay win over Kings Langley]. “They’re a good side, a very good footballing side, so we’ll have to bring our A-game. “lt’s of rotations in the middle of the pitch, they’ve got some tricky wingers, a physical presence up top, not too dissimilar to Welling, really. “I’ve watched them, I’ve got all the details, so we’ll be ready for that.” The Romans will be entering the game hoping their injury situation improves. They saw Sean Rigg limp out of last week’s 2-0 defeat to Welling United in the second period, having had to leave James Morton and Andy Watkins out of the matchday squad. Frankie Artus and Dan Ball were named on the bench, though neither were fully fit. “Obviously Sean goes off; it’s a terrible tackle,” Gill said. “A straightleg one that’s gone down over his shin right into his ankles. “It’s on the one he took a knock on before, so we’ll have to assess that and see how it is. “Frankie’s got a swollen knee, Andy Watkins we think has pulled his hip flexor in training when we did some shooting near the end, and James Morton’s got his ankle injury still. “It’s hit us quite hard and with a small squad that’s what happens, but there you go, that’s life, we get on with it. “Any XI we put out there we expect to put in a performance. I felt we didn’t get to the levels at all with any purpose with or without the ball.” A crowd of 1,585 turned out for that Welling tussle on the club’s pay what you please Community Day. That was their biggest crowd for a league fixture since their National League days in 2011, when Grimsby Town came to Twerton. Though they might not have seen the Romans at their best, Gill is hopeful many of that bumper crowd come back for another crack - and get to witness “the true Bath City”. The Romans chief said: “I’ve demanded things off the fans, said we want them to be a bit more vocal. “I’m really disappointed for the fans because the attendance, 1,500 in here, it looked good, it felt good, but we didn’t really give them anything back today. “A massive thank you to everyone at the club who’s put on such a great Community Day, and got the bodies in the ground. “Hopefully people will come back because they haven’t seen the true Bath City today. “We’ve done ever so well recently. You’re not going to go through a season without any blips at all. We’ll learn from it, we’ll come back and we’ll be stronger.”