Our unbeaten home league run has come to an end following our monumental 5-1 loss to Bath City on Tuesday night at the Bob Lucas Stadium.
This defeat ensures that we are 17th in the National League South table, two points above the relegation zone.
Though we had managed to go four league games unbeaten at home before our outing against The Romans, it would be difficult to argue that the visitors didn’t end the game as deserved winners.
This was evident through Bath’s early dominance, in which Elliot Frear and Scott Wilson ensured a 2-0 lead for the visitors.
Whilst in-form Ben Thomson managed to claw one back with a stunning 25-yard volley, standout player Jordan Thomas found a third for his side before halftime, thus leaving any hope from us to be short-lived.
To make matters worse, Frear added his second on the hour mark, before Calvin Brooks was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Ultimately, a Cody Cooke header capped off a miserable Tuesday evening for The Terras.
The changes from the previous match versus Welling United involved Brandon Goodship and Moe Shubbar being called up to the XI, the latter making his first ever start for us.
The game started with some good defending from Brooks in the fifth minute, as he was able to intercept and clear the ball behind.
However, the resulting corner could have ended in an opening goal for the visitors, Jordan Dyer’s header failing to hit the target from the far post.
From then on much of the first 15 minutes would be dominated by The Romans.
It wouldn’t be long before Bath had another opportunity, with Cooke unable to fire his low-driven effort past Jared Thompson following Thomas’ through-ball.
Cooke’s offside in the 10th minute was perhaps a sign of things to come, slotting in after Thompson managed to spill Wilson’s 20-yard shot straight towards the feet of the forward.
The linesman flagged offside, much to our relief and, most likely, Thompson’s.
Our first decent chance would come five minutes later, with Shubbar cutting in on his left foot and firing just wide.
However, any hope that we would take the lead would ultimately be short-lived.
Frear would be the game’s first goalscorer after he was left in acres of space following Dan Hayfield’s pass, before firing a low-driven shot past the helpless Thompson.
Frear’s opener allowed the visitors to take control of the game, giving us hardly any opportunities.
Their second would come 15 minutes later, this time Wilson being the player on the scoresheet.
It came following a pin-point accurate delivery from Thomas, who managed to ping his cross towards the feet of Hayfield, who clipped the inside of the post.
Wilson was then left with an open goal, having no trouble slotting the ball in from an extremely close range.
We did pull one back just two minutes later, Thomson surprising everybody with his powerful volley from 25 yards.
The in-form forward spotted Buse slightly off his line, the Bath shot-stopper ultimately left with no chance.
However, likewise with Shubbar’s chance, our hopes would again prove short-lived.
Thomas was further proving a nuisance towards our defence, sending Sesay the wrong way before delicately slotting the ball into the left-hand corner.
As Bath would restore their two-goal lead before halftime, our players trudged towards the tunnel with a huge mountain to climb.
The second half started positively for us, Goodship being unfortunate to see his free-kick parried away by Buse three minutes into the second half.
The forward managed to trick the defence by firing underneath the wall, albeit not quite past The Romans’ shot-stopper.
However, just three minutes later again, we would require a stellar piece of football at the other end, this time from Brooks.
Hayfield looked certain to have added a fourth for his side when he rounded Thompson.
Though Brooks had other ideas, successfully sliding in before the midfielder could get his shot underway.
Their fourth would unfortunately come not much later, though, with Frear adding his second.
The winger was able to take an extra touch inside the box following Wilson’s cross, powerfully firing past Thompson to make it 4-1 to the visitors.
With only half-an-hour left remaining, our chances of leaving this match with any points looked slim.
Our hopes were further dashed when Brooks was given his marching orders in the 77th minute.
Already on a yellow card, the defender was judged to have pulled back Thomas near the halfway line.
The evening was capped off with a fifth Bath goal, when ex-Terra Cooke headed in from close range.
The thoughts of Bobby Wilkison after the match were that of disappointment, stating that they “let [them]selves down.”
However, we are still faring better than last time this season after the same number of games, and have the opportunity to put things right tomorrow away at Farnborough [15.00 GMT].
Match report by
Jack Webb
