The Pointless Yeild Three Points

Bath City defeated Weston-super-Mare 2-0 today in a contest more one-sided than the score reflects. By all measures Weston failed to present any real challenge to City either in attack or defense. City could have notched up more goals, but with an important home match against Havant & Waterlooville in just two days, manager Adie Britton decided to rest key players in the second half. City were happy to sit back and soak up what feeble pressure Weston were able to mount.

Today's fixture was part of a non-league football tradition. All teams are paired up with a local rival to play on Boxing Day, followed by the return fixture six days later on New Year's Day. I'm not sure how this tradition started, but it makes sense as trains do not operate at all on Boxing Day so fans who want to follow their team on the road have no choice but to take to the road themselves. At thirty miles each way the journey to our Somerset rivals was close enough that roughly three hundred Bath City fans made the journey.

I was not one of them, unfortunately. This was due to some of the other traditions of Boxing Day- traditions that I fail to really grasp the importance of.

In America the 26th of December is known as 'the day after Christmas.' It is a day for sitting around the house with your family, eating leftovers from the day before, and watching holiday television (especially American football). It is not an actual holiday, so some people have to work. Although most people end up doing what I've just described it couldn't really be called a tradition. It is just what normally happens, and if you have to miss out on it then it is no big deal.

In Britain the 26th of December is known as 'Boxing Day.' It is a day for sitting around the house with your family, eating leftovers from the day before, and watching holiday television (especially association football). Unlike the 'day after Christmas' it is an official public holiday (or to give it its correct title, a 'bank holiday'). Although some people have to work to keep the country running, having to work Boxing Day is seen as a real hardship. Because it falls on a Saturday this year we will all be getting a bank holiday on Monday to make up for it, in fact. As I have learned, both at home in life in the UK generally, you mess with Boxing Day at your peril.

This was the first year I had expressed any interest in going to a football match on Boxing Day. It wasn't a popular idea. I will admit that if I had gone I would have felt very awkward leaving the wife and kids at home on the day. They were expecting me to be there to eat leftovers and watch telly with them. Even though I don't understand the emotional significance of Boxing Day, I respect it.

I could not go to a football match, but I was at least able to participate in one (of sorts). About the time that Bath City were lining up against Weston-super-Mare, I was involved in some desperate goalkeeping in a nearby park with the Nedved Juniors. Like Bath City, I was more than a match for my opponents (well, they are aged five and eight). Unlike Bath City, I allowed in a lot of goals. That's not because I was letting them beat me (I do suffer from 'competitive Dad' syndrome). My sons always bring two balls with them to the park, and they have realised their best chance to get one past me is to shoot both at once. If I stop fifty percent of them I feel pretty good.

It's a strategy that Weston-super-Mare maybe should have tried. They were outclassed by Bath City from the first whistle. City had several clear cut chances in the first half hour, but it was not until Lewis Hogg's free kick at thirty-two minutes that they were able to take the lead. Gethin Jones headed the free kick to an open Darren Edwards who put the ball in the net. Seven minutes later Weston's shaky defence allowed Edwards a free run at the goal. This ended with him slotting the ball past Weston's keeper, Kevin Sawyer, who was by all accounts having a shocker. City went into the half time break with a 2-0 lead.

The second half started with City again dominating play, although no further goals were scored. City manager Adie Britton had an eye on the home match against Havant & Waterlooville in two days time, so he brought Edwards off at the hour mark so he could rest. Weston made the odd effort on goal, but the game continued to play out with City dominating but not adding to the score. It was, in the end, a comfortable win for City against a weak opponent.

City have a habit of dominating Weston-super-Mare AFC. In the past hundred plus years the two clubs have met thirty-seven times. City have won all but five of those matches (and only lost two). Since City's promotion to the Blue Square South two seasons ago the clubs have met five times. Weston have not only lost all five matches, but have yet to even score against City. If our rivalry with Weston was a boxing match, it would have been stopped long ago.

Weston is a strange club. They barely have any fans. When they came to Twerton Park last season only five of them could be bothered to drive from North Somerset to North-East Somerset to see their team play. They have also avoided relegation twice in the last three years because of other teams folding or withdrawing. Although they are struggling, unsuccessfully, to stay out of the relegation zone again this season, it is still easily possible that they will survive again as long as they avoid the bankruptcy courts. In these tough economic times, if you can stay solvent it turns out it is almost impossible to be relegated.

Weston-super-Mare AFC is a curious phenomenon. Like Boxing Day, their purpose eludes me. And yet, they still remain. Maybe I'll figure them out on New Year's Day?