Manager Gill impressed by his battlers

JERRY Gill has praised the spirit in his Bath City side after seeing them climb up to third place in the National League South table.

The Romans completed a busy schedule of six games in 19 days with a goalless draw at Slough on Tuesday night. And the spirit shown by his squad has impressed boss Gill, pictured.

“We’re missing a hell of a lot of players,” he said. “We’re third in the league, which is a great feat for us. We haven’t got the biggest budget in the league, we’d be mid-table on budget, but we have a group of players that want to achieve and want to win things.

“That’s five clean sheets in six we’ve kept. That’s a really good backbone to have. It shows we’ve got some grit, and determination in the group; they knew they weren’t playing at their best (on Tuesday) but they didn’t want to get beaten.”

Bath will be keen to maintain their current form when East Thurrock United are the visitors for today’s clash.

East Thurrock are in the drop zone, although they did taste victory last time out, albeit against fellow strugglers Gloucester City.

The Romans are ten points behind leaders Torquay, and eight behind Woking, in second.

Elsewhere, Chippenham travel to Billericay, who presently sit in the final play-off spot.

Back in August, the Bluebirds became the first side to defeat the then table-topping Essex side, who despite changes behind the scenes and a reduction in their budget are still signing players on full-time contracts.

In contrast, the mid-table Bluebirds are looking to local league sides for loan signings as manager Mark Collier is down to the bare bones.

Injuries rule out Greg Tindle, Curtis McDonald, Alex Ferguson, Callum Gunner and Yan Klukowski, while Rhys Davies has returned to his parent club Shrewsbury after sustaining a hamstring injury in last Saturday’s defeat to Eastbourne Borough.

At the bottom, basement side Weston-super-Mare have a game away to Eastbourne, while 21stplaced Gloucester play their first game under the stewardship of Mike Cook against Hungerford – the team immediately above the relegation places. The Tigers play that game at home.