Straker expects Roman reaction
City aiming to bounce back on the road at Wealdstone
Jerry Gill admitted Bath City’s decision making in the final third let them down as Hemel Hempstead Town somehow left Twerton Park with all three points. The visitors spent most of the game defending and were grateful to keeper Laurie Walker, who twice kept out Adam Mann, including a one-on-one, while the Romans also missed further chances. But it was Hemel striker Steve Cawley, with one of their only two presentable openings, that sent them home with three points even they could scarcely believe. And days after Jack Batten was forced off in the midweek draw at Truro, City also lost his replacement, Kevin Amankwaah, to compound a frustrating afternoon. “It looked like it was going to turn out as one of those games,” said Gill. “I had a really funny feeling. “I thought after the first half when it was very lacklustre, we were the ones looking to try to win the game. They came and set out for a point, and ended up going away with three. “They came 4-5-1, got behind the ball like most teams do when they come here and then we’ve had to try and move the ball with some sort of ball speed and create chances. “Obviously we had to make a change first half with Kev Amankwaah going off, we changed around the shape a little bit because of that. “A chance for Tom Smith, two headers; the first one was probably the better chance in the middle of the goal. “Then second half if Adam Mann scores – which I think he should, I don’t know why he’s tried to dink it, he should try to slide it past the keeper – it’s a different game. “We’ve conceded a really poor goal and it’s a sucker punch on us, because I can’t remember Ryan [Clarke] having to make a save, to be honest. “For all the dominance in possession and us trying to create and open them up, it’s really frustrating that they’ve come away with the three points, because I thought the performance was better than Truro, but our decision making was probably the one that’s cost us the game.” The goal aside, the Romans rearguard was not unduly bothered for most of the afternoon – that despite a reshuffle that moved Michee Efete from right to centre-back, and Joe Raynes dropping into defence from midfield. “I said at half-time, the back four and the goalkeeper were right on their game,” Gill said. “Even Kev Amankwaah was superb until he’s had to go off with his injury. “It was up to those front players – the midfielders and the strikers – to try and win us the game. I felt as if individually and their decision making together wasn’t right today. “We’re having shots from angles where we’re not going to score, when you’ve got to cross the ball. We’ve got people in the box when crosses are coming in, we’ve got strikers pulling out round the far post instead of filling in the middle of the goal. “We got lucky, I think, because I’ve looked at the league and we’ve stayed fourth. That doesn’t bother me, the league position, it’s more about our performance level, and I think today in our creation and decision making around the final third we weren’t right.” City began the game with a diamond in midfield and two up top, before switching to a 4-3-3 following Amankwaah’s injury. Given what he had seen up to that point, however, Gill was likely to have made the change regardless. “We haven’t done too much work around that,” he said. “We did a meeting before to see if we could get it working. “We knew they would probably come in 4-5-1, 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 and we were trying to get in between the lines, but it wasn’t really working that well. “We had spells, but I probably would have changed anyway and gone with some width, so the personnel change, what it does, it leaves you one less sub. “We haven’t got an abundance of bodies in the building to be able to change it. But there’s enough quality in that team to go and get something from that game.” City were only able to name four subs for the game – one of them newly promoted youth-team keeper Harvey Wiles-richards. In the past week both Andy Watkins and Dan Ball have had hernia and shoulder operations respectively, while the timeframe for Batten’s return remains to be seen ahead of next weekend’s visit to Wealdstone. “We’ve had three subs and that probably tells you the story,” Gill said. “One of them is a young loanee from Bristol City. “We haven’t got the squad, we haven’t got the budget to match those boys in the top, but we think we’re competitive with our starting XI and maybe two and three on the bench. “We’ve got Andy Watkins out for six weeks, he’s had a hernia operation, Dan Ball has had an operation Thursday, he’s out for six weeks. Matt Richards we can’t get right. “And I feel so sorry for Kev Amankwaah, because he’s come in the last two games and done ever so well, but we can’t get him fit, we can’t get him on the pitch. “Sean Rigg’s only come back today, I can’t start him because he hasn’t done anything, just trained, and it leaves us short. “It’s not us feeling sorry for ourselves at all, because I made the decision to have a smaller squad within our budget and more quality. “It was the quality today that’s let us down, we haven’t been able to produce that key moment of class to unlock a team that’s come here to defend and take a point.”