Bath City vs Newport County Part 2 - Draw of the Titans

Big Nedved Junior and I filed into Twerton Park and made our way to a fairly crowded Popular Side terrace. After tea and doughnuts had been purchased we made our way back to the area the singers were congregating. There was no chance of the crowd reaching the size of the previous week's match against Forest Green Rovers, but it was still obviously going to be well above average. Like the FGR match, the Bristol End would be filled with (segregated) away supporters, but unlike the FGR match there was a fair amount of rain coming down on them. Considering that we had all just been mixing in a crowded bar a few minutes earlier, herding the Newport supporters into what is effectively a large, crowded, unsheltered cage seemed very unsporting.

City elected to attack the Bristol End in the first half, which meant the singing contingent moved in that direction. This brought us fairly close to the Newport supporters, or at least as close as possible with the barriers up. The match kicked off and the singing began with the traditional, 'We are the Bath, we are the Bath, we are, we are, we are the Bath.' I've been living in England long enough that this no longer seems a totally inappropriate use of the definite article any more. The 'choir' was not as large as it had been for the FGR match, or as vocal as it had been at Grimsby Town. It was still substantial considering our normal efforts, especially for a league game. This was encouraging, but there was a new element to the singing that, if I am honest, made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

One of the first songs sung was 'God Save the Queen.' I had never heard this sung at a City match before. I did not know what to make of it at first, but after a moment I realised it was meant to taunt the Newport fans. Although God Save the Queen is the royal anthem, it serves as the national anthem of England at sporting events. Since Newport is in Wales, I suppose the Newport fans were supposed to feel slighted by it.

I decided not to join in. Not being one of her subjects, I don't tend to sing God Save the Queen anyway, but I also didn't think the rivalry between Bath City and Newport County should be viewed in an English/Welsh context. Three of the players named in the City squad that day were Welsh (Gethin Jones, Richard Evans, and Kaid Mohamed), and City boasts three non-British players as well. No doubt, Newport's squad is equally unrepresentative of their host country. Surely the Newport fans would not fall into this trap as well?

Even at that distance it was not possible to hear what the Newport supporters were singing. The acoustics at Twerton Park are not great. They may have sung Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau all day as far as I know. There was one thing I could hear, though, that really shocked me.

As the City supporters sang God Save the Queen a overweight, ginger-haired fellow standing among us began to boo. He booed loudly and continuously. After a moment I realised he was not booing something on the pitch. He was booking God Save the Queen! Although he was standing with the City fans I did not recognise him. The reason why became obvious very quickly. He was a Newport County fan who had snuck in the City supporter side. Burly stewards arrived on the scene quickly and bundled him out and through the barriers to the Newport supporters area.

I know 'God Save the Queen' was meant as a taunt, but it is still the closest thing the UK has to a national anthem. I was pretty shocked to hear a British person boo it no matter what the context. Would this bozo boo the Union Flag as well? Blow raspberries at the British Olympic team? Despite the lack of crowd violence in American sports, if you chose to boo the Star Spangled Banner at an American sporting event, no matter what your motivation, you would be lucky to get out alive. You'd be lucky to get the second boo out of your mouth. The Newport fan only received bewildered looks from the onlooking City fans.

On the pitch things were more straightforward. City began the game as they had against Woking, attacking positively en masse. The first fifteen minutes mostly belonged to City, except for one dangerous and on target free kick from Newport's Sam Foley. A few minutes later Lewis Hogg earned a corner kick when he forced Glyn Thompson to deflect the ball to the left of the goal. Hogg squared up to take the kick himself. Although the goal mouth was crowded with orange-clad Newport players, Sido Jombati managed to make contact with the kick and strike it sharply down and into the goal.

Some players pump the air when they score. Some taunt the opposition. Some lay down on the ground. Sido just smiled. He was so pleased with himself for scoring his first goal in a City shirt he appeared to just wander around the pitch aimlessly beaming at everyone (after the match Big Nedved Junior told me that after he had scored Sido had smiled at him!). After a few moments he regained his bearings and ran towards the Portuguese flag that the supporters hang in his honour, just as he had said he would when I interviewed him. It was a great moment, and the prospect of defeating Newport County, the runaway league leaders, seemed real.

The prospect lasted seven minutes. It was long enough for us to sing 'Top of the League, You're Having a Laugh,' and 'You're Not Singing Anymore.' At twenty-one minutes it was us who were not singing anymore. Chris Holland made an uncharacteristically bad tackle to the left of the City goal. The ref pointed to the penalty spot without hesitation. Having seen the replay, I have to say it was a good call. Ryan Robinson almost saved the day when he guessed right and got a touch on Craig Reid's kick, but it was not enough.

And, if I'm honest, that was mostly it for the day as far as excitement on the pitch goes. The conditions, which were not great at kickoff, got worse. Newport's defence was predictably strong, but their strike-force had an off day. By the end of the first half City's midfield started booting the ball forward to no one in particular. Neither team came away from the match with much footage for the season highlight film.

Looking back on the match, I suppose it was a draw waiting to happen. For both teams it was the third game within a week and everyone was doubtlessly tired. For City, getting a point off of a club running away with the league title would always be acceptable. Likewise, for whatever reason, Bath City are one of Newport's bogey teams. They have lost to them repeatedly in recent years, and must have been fearing doing so again. In fact, a draw appeared to be Newport's objective in the first few minutes. Keeper Glyn Thompson took his goal kicks excruciatingly slowly from the very start. He was so slow that I'm sure that if he had done this at the end of the match he would have been booked for time wasting. I could not help but suspect that Newport manager Dean Holdsworth had told him to eat as much of the clock as possible from the getgo. Either that, or he needs treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

The second half began with both teams hoofing and hoping. The hoping rarely worked out. A few minutes into the second half it was announced that the Newport fans would be held in back for five minutes after the match. This seemed sensible after there were some parking lot confrontations between FGR fans and some local Twerton residents the previous Saturday. A few minutes later, though, it was announced that the Police had intervened and now wanted the home fans to be held back for five minutes. Presumably this was because the Newport fans had some coaches right outside their gate and they could, in theory, depart before the City fans were on the loose. It is not normal for home fans to have to wait, though, and there was some grumbling on the terrace.

Big Nedved Junior, however, had a different interpretation of this announcement. It took me a few minutes to figure out that he was very worried by this. He heard 'police' and 'held back' and came to the conclusion that we were all going to be arrested. I laughed at first, but he was actually worried.

'Why do you think we would all be arrested?' I asked.

'Because of so many people swearing,' he explained.

There had been an uncharacteristic, and uncomfortable amount of swearing on the terrace, for sure. It was not just the words spoken. To my ears there was more bitter tone to the City crowd than normal, giving the 'choice' words a sharper edge. Although we City fans like to complain about the behaviour of the Newport fans, I don't doubt that they bring out the worst in us as well. It was bad enough, at least, to make a seven-year-old worry about getting nicked.

After a much more involved discussion than I was in the mood for, about how yes, swearing was bad but no, the police will not arrest you for it (even though it is wrong and the police are supposed to arrest people who do wrong) I eventually convinced him that we were not going to be rounded up after the match and flung into prison.

Eventually the game petered out and the ref blew his whistle. It was not a boring match, but it wasn't terribly memorable either. I could hear several people mutter that the result was 'about right.' The City fans exchanged applause with the City players, and the Newport fans and players did likewise. We waited dutifully for five minutes, shuffling our feet on the Bath End terrace, before being allowed out. On the way we walked past the club bar, Charlie's, which was full of City and Newport fans mingling and drinking without incident, just as had happened before the match. The Newport fans had eschewed boarding their buses and opted for a five minute head start on ordering drinks. Now that we were no longer segregated the hostile atmosphere had melted away.