Apology to the fans after ‘lethargic’ performance
Jerry Gill apologised to supporters after Jordy Ndozid’s first-half strike confined Bath City to an embarrassing FA Cup exit against Step 4 Sevenoaks Town.
The Isthmian Division One South East side sat 57 places below the Romans in the pyramid and were playing their first-ever match in the Third Qualifying Round, which proved to be one they’ll never forget.
To add to City’s misery, topscorer Cody Cooke was forced off with a nasty head injury which resulted in a 10-hour stay at the RUH for stitches to be added.
Even with him on the field, City were surprisingly toothless as they lost at home to a side two levels below them in this competition for a miserable fifth time in 14 years.
“I want to send out an apology from myself, players and staff, which I haven’t had to do very often,” said Gill afterwards. “That
performance was not acceptable.
“That’s not just because we’ve lost to a lower division team, it’s just where our levels were.
“It’s not like we were cut open loads but it looked like Sevenoaks had an extra yard in their legs – they moved the ball a bit quicker at times than us. We were very laboured and lethargic.
“I’m distraught really that we’re out of the FA Cup.”
After a fairly even opening, the visitors had the first clear opportunity
when Kyle De Silva’s through ball found Yahaya Bamba, but the Oaks’ striker was thwarted by the feet of Joe Wright. However, the Romans’ respite was short-lived as seven minutes before the interval Ndozid picked the ball up on the edge of the area before drilling into the bottom corner to give Sevenoaks the lead.
The hosts reacted with a double change at the break, withdrawing Elliott Frear and Chris Lines for Luke Spokes and Tom Smith.
“We were really poor, especially in the first half where we never really got out of a jog,” analysed Gill.
“We knew we had to change it. We weren’t getting Elliott in the game, really, Chris wasn’t able to have an influence on things. We felt like we needed more legs in the middle of the pitch. We started the second half brightly.
“We believed we’d get back in it, of course. We have in recent weeks.”
City came out for the second half with greater impetus. Scott Wilson was denied by Tyler Mccarthy just three minutes after the interval before he was thwarted by a block from Oluwadamio Olorunnisomo after a goalmouth scramble on the hour mark.
However, the hosts were dealt a setback midway through the second period when top scorer Cody Cooke was forced off with a head injury after a collision with goalscorer Ndozid.
“It looked like a nasty one,” said Gill. “That was obviously a blow to us because he’s such a key player.
We couldn’t get our key players in the game all afternoon.
“Some of our patterns of play weren’t as good as they have been.
“Hopefully Cody will be fine for next week.”
Despite Cooke’s absence, the Romans kept pushing for a late leveller, but Matthew Weaire and Corey Holder held firm at the centre of the Sevenoaks defence to help the Kent outfit into the Fourth Qualifying Round for the first time in their history.
“We wanted an FA Cup run as much as the fans,” said Gill. “We were so hungry for it. We haven’t done enough in this game to get back level, so credit to them, but this was a really below par performance.
“I don’t know if a game every three and a half days has caught up with the players. We’ve asked a few questions there.
“We need to go back to how we were a few weeks ago before this busy period of games.
“It’s important now that we focus on the positive stuff and try and get back to the league campaign with a positive frame of mind.
“The hangover from this game has to be cleared before next Saturday. We’ve only lost two games in 12 – we need to remember that.”
Gill confirmed that Dan Greenslade will be fit to face Hungerford Town having missed the last three with a hamstring injury and is hopeful Joe Raynes will recover in time from an ankle knock sustained at Oxford City on September 24.