To Soar with the Eagles You Have to Defeat Some Turkeys - Part 2

As I set down to write this I am aware that I might end up saying some not very nice things about Bath City's Tuesday night opponents: Weston-super-Mare AFC (the club so nice, they reformed it twice!). Perhaps that's not fair. I'll admit that it is probably not sporting. Weston are likely to be relegated at the end of the season and not play Bath City again for several years. I also must state that I have never had the chance to get to meet any Weston fans in person. They are probably normal people who in another context would be as nice to know as anyone else.

But then, this isn't another context. Any passionate supporter will tell you there are opponents that you can develop a strong, if irrational, dislike for. I'm getting that way with Weston. The shenanigans on New Year's Day did not help. They use a lot of dirty tackles. And hardly any of their supporters travel the short distance to Twerton Park on match day. Tuesday night I could only spot about five (there may have been more, but not wearing colours or sitting anywhere conspicuous). If City have a really amazing end to this season there might be two divisions separating the clubs next year, and that would suit me just fine.

Returning to my previous narrative, the match kicked off with home supporters nervously hoping that City would show their superior ability on the pitch against poor opposition - something that has often not happened in previous years. City chose to attack the Bristol End for the first half, and the singing, Ultra-type fans (including myself) gathered round the gigantic Bath City white ensign that the City supporter known as Paul1978 recently organised. We kicked off a night of singing with 'Oh When the Stripes Come Marching In!'

Singing anything at all on a Tuesday night match is a great stride for City supporters. Mid-week matches always have smaller, quieter crowds. The last one, a 5-0 thumping of Woking in December, had been played in relative silence. A noisy crowd, though, generates the sort of atmosphere that will hopefully encourage more fans to attend. We have also been thinking it is helpful for the players as well. I'm pleased to say that I can confirm this is the case with this message of thanks from a player:

The atmosphere around the ground has been fantastic since the Grimsby game and now you have the brilliant flag it adds to the atmosphere. The support [Tuesday] night was fantastic for a evening game, the moment we kicked off you could here your singing all over the pitch. It does make a difference to the players when you hear the fans singing and creating a great atmosphere. I'm really glad you're all enjoying the games and I hope you all stick together for the rest of the season to helps get us into the playoffs.

-Thanks,

Jim

Jim, as in Jim Rollo, the Bath City captain and general legend. What Jim says, we must do. Okay everyone?

I suppose I'd better start talking about what happened on the pitch. Actually, you can probably guess. City dominated things from the start (although without scoring) and Weston started kicking anything in black and white stripes within reach. The first few minutes were typical of the first half: Lewis Hogg was just wide of the post with a strike from the edge of the penalty box, quickly followed by a two-footed assault by Weston's Craig Rand on Kaid Mohamed. The home support may have seen red, but match referee Antony Coggins only saw yellow.

A few minutes into the match I met up with my friend James. James works on Saturdays, but comes to the occasional mid-week match. This was his first appearance at Twerton Park since last seasons soul-destroying loss to Bishop's Stortford (not to be confused with last month's soul-destroying draw with Bishop's Stortford). After a few minutes of chatting I suddenly realised just how much has changed in the last nine months.

He was really shocked to see the flags, to hear the singing, and by the size of the crowd. More importantly, he was shocked to see how well City were playing. Last season City were a solid team who showed flashes of brilliance, but mostly just flashes. This season, despite injury setbacks and a small squad, City have become a team that pass the ball with a silkiness that the snootiest haberdasher would feel proud to display. Feel the quality!

Although James has enjoyed coming to matches with me, he has always assumed a slightly mocking tone. It is friendly banter between mates, but when he's seen a boring match he has not refrained from disparaging comments. Suddenly, as we watched yet another brilliant cross into the box from Sekani Simpson, he could not do that. He didn't want to do it either. 'Is he a new signing,' he asked of Simpson, with the Ultras' songs ringing in our ears.

I assured him he was not, and that 'Simmo' has even impressed the presenters on Soccer AM. Simmo was on fire, and City were thumping Weston up and down the pitch. I had a sudden upswelling of pride as I realised just how much the club and the supporters have accomplished this season.

After hearing so much about the undynamic duo of Andy Gurney and Chris Smith (respectively Weston's manager and assistant manager), I invited James to come with me and stand behind their dugout for a few minutes. I was hoping to hear something shocking, like the instructions Gurney had reportedly given to his team on Boxing Day to get City's Lewis Hogg sent off. We listened for about twenty minutes, and I can say that nothing incriminating was said at all. There was some low level intimidation of the linesman, and a bit of wandering out of the technical area, but nothing serious. When Gurney did shout something to his players it was, 'Don't foul!' He shouted this over and over again. To me, that's the equivalent of carrying a fragile vase and having someone behind you shout, 'Don't drop it!' I'm not the professional football coach, though. Maybe they needed reminding.

City continued to dominate play, but not score. I will admit that this worried me. Unconverted half-chances were racking up quickly. Even poor teams can punish you when you fail to take advantage of a dominant spell. Luckily City did eventually take advantage at thirty-four minutes.

Sekani Simpson (as previously mentioned - on fire) eluded a Weston defender on the goal line and launched another perfect cross into the six-yard box. This led to one of my favourite goals of the season. Normally favourite goals are the ones that come unexpectedly, like Mike Perrott's stunning volley off a Jim Rollo cross against Chelmsford in the season opener. This goal, however, was clearly going to happen almost from the moment the ball left Simmo's foot. Kaid Mohamed was in the perfect spot to get a good header, and was for once not being molested by any Weston players. Weston's Lurch-like keeper, Kevin Sawyer (who to be fair, had an excellent game) was going to have no chance. It was still a thing of beauty, though, even though it was not subtle or mysterious. I, of course, went completely nuts and started screaming like a banshee. Like a banshee stood only a few feet behind Andy Gurney, I should say.

The half ended with City almost scoring twice more. James and I returned to the Popular Side of the ground. As we walked I reflected on how many goals City could have scored, and how surprising it was that match referee Antony Coggins had assumed such a low profile. After his flip-flop on the suitability of the pitch on New Year's Day, I was expecting more controversy from him. It turned out I needed only to wait until the second half.

Well, twenty-five minutes into the second half, to give him credit. Between minutes forty-five and seventy, the second half was much like the first: City dominating but not converting. Then all heck broke loose.

Weston striker, Josh Klein-Davies came at Lewis Hogg with a dangerous tackle on the sideline near the main stand. I was surprised by this. During a loan spell with City last season, Klein-Davies had come across as lazy an disinterested. I didn't know he had a dangerous tackle in him. Anyway, Lewis Hogg didn't like this very much. There are several versions of what happened next, but I am going to relate the one I heard. I sprinted over to the other side of the ground and questioned two fans who stood only a few feet away from the events that followed. They gave roughly the same story, and stood far enough apart from each other that they had not conferred. Here is what they said:

After being tackled from behind, Hogg stood up and said a few unkind things to Klein-Davies, who was still lying prone. Klein-Davies stood up eventually, and, taking Hogg by the face, proceeded to simulate receiving a head-butt from Hogg. He then threw himself back onto the pitch. This led to a lot of aggressive posturing from players on both sides, and a lot of people separating various players to keep things from getting out of control. A long time passed, with Coggins seeming unable to resolve the situation and get the match back underway. Eventually a red card was shown to Klein-Davies. Predictably, a red card was shown to Hogg as well. Although at least a minute passed between the two red cards, there was a further scuffle in the tunnel. Klein-Davies, two separate people told me, had been waiting in the tunnel for Hogg.

Coggins appears to have been suckered by the Weston striker. It was not be the first time, of course, he had been pressured by that team into making the wrong call. Coggins had assumed a low profile in the first seventy minutes, but he had done this by going too easy on the bad tackles Weston had been employing. Now, as he tried desperately to stamp his authority back on the game, he just looked ridiculous.

Suddenly there was not infraction so small that it could not require a whistle. One free-throw was re-taken four times. Players on either side who got a bit physical received long lectures about something or other. Coggins made it look important with lots of gesticulating. Well, he tried. Shorter lectures earlier in the match would not have gone amiss.

Although both sides were equal with ten men, the new dynamic seemed to favour Weston. They began to pressure City in a way not seen in either match. They even managed a decent shot ten minutes before time. As injury time approached I began to worry Weston would earn their second ever draw at Twerton Park.

Then, a bizarre match got even more bizarre. At ninety minutes Weston made their third substitution. On to the pitch came....Andy Gurney. That's right, the manager. It's not unheard of for a manager to name himself as a sub in non-league football. I suppose they want to make the squad look a bit bigger. It is pretty weird for one to actually suit up and come on to play. This was the fifth time Gurney had named himself as a sub this season, but the first time he'd actually come on. At thirty-six he's not quite too old to be a player, but it was his first league appearance for any club since he left Newport County for a career in management in 2008. I can't help but wonder what his motivation was here. What was the best outcome he could have expected? If he got a goal and levelled the score, what would the dressing room be like after the match? Wouldn't he be undermining the confidence of his own players? Wouldn't they all secretly (or not so secretly) hate him? And then there is the outside chance he could embarrass himself and shred whatever personal authority he has left. Certainly, an odd-ball call.

In the end Gurney failed to have much impact on the final few minutes (which I guess still makes the decision hard to justify). Coggins whistled for full time, and the relieved City fans roared with triumph. Things were good. City was in eighth place. Bring on Dover Athletic. Goodbye, until next season, Antony Coggins. Goodbye, hopefully for many seasons, Weston-super-Mare AFC!

To Soar with the Eagles You Have to Defeat Some Turkeys - Part 1

Bath City defeated Weston-super-Mare 1-0 last night. It was an important victory. City are now in eighth place, but only four points behind second place Woking. A victory over Dover Athletic this coming Saturday will almost certainly launch City for the first time this season into a playoff spot. Holy change-of-fortune, Batman!

Just a week ago, following a loss to Thurrock and a demoralising draw with Bishop's Stortford, the playoffs seemed a distant hope. Now they are there for the taking. But wait, you ask, have we not been down this road before? Has City's current position in the table (eighth) not been a barrier that City have appeared to be on the verge of passing several times in the last two seasons, only to disappoint? Yes, that is true. Eighth place has seemed like the natural home of Bath City ever since I began following them. There are rumours if they spend much more time there the Conference is going to bill the club for rent. Why, you ask, why do you think this is any different from the previous times City arrived in eighth place, appeared on the brink of top five place, and failed to deliver?

Two reasons. One is that I'm an optimist (read: stupid). Even if City were in fact a terrible team but had fortuitously found themselves in the top half of the table I would find a way to fool myself into thinking, 'this is our year!' (Havant & Waterlooville fans take note). The other reason is that the one thing that has constantly thwarted our brave men in stripes whenever they appear to be on the verge of greatness is.....bad teams. Yes, City will beat the tar out of Woking home and away, but will they be able to grind out three points against the teams propping up the table? Last year the answer was no. Just as the fixture list began to unfold into a series of 'sure-thing' victories last February, City managed to lose three 'sure things' on the trot. The most heartbreaking was a 0-1 loss to lowly Fisher Athletic. Fisher were so humbled by financial problems the team could not even afford training facilities. For a fundraiser they let fans manage the team. Once they had to borrow a game ball from some kids who lived across the street from the ground (okay, that's not true). Would this year's Fisher Athletic turn into another banana skin, and scupper another Bath City season?

This year's Fisher Athletic is our local rivals, Weston-super-Mare AFC. This is a very bad team. They have been bad for many years, but as winter has set in they have achieved new levels of badness. Their form going into last night was no wins, no draws, and six losses. In that time they have scored two goals and allowed fourteen. I would say that they could not fight their way out of a paper bag, but actually fighting is the one thing that they have been consistently good at. No wait, they've also been very good at getting their matches called off (see here).

Last night I arrived at the ground early on purpose. I had arrived on time for the New Year's Day match, only to find that Chris Smith had pressured the match referee (Mr. Anthony Coggins - more on him later), to reverse his earlier decision to allow the match to proceed. Instead of watching an important match I ended up watching Bath City train on the 'unplayable' pitch. I couldn't think of a way (or a reason) the Weston management team could pull the same stunt twice, but it hadn't made much sense the first time round either. At first, when I didn't see their coach in the parking lot I thought they had done another runner. It turned out that they had already arrived. Weston is close enough to Bath that rather than hire a coach they had just bummed rides off their mates (or something like that).

Bath City's rivalry with Weston has been remarkably one-sided. Although the two sides have been playing each other for over a hundred years, City have yet to lose in any of the encounters. In fact, every match has ended in a City victory except for one draw in 1911 (in a 'Bristol Charity League' match - like that counts!). In the six matches the two sides have played since City's promotion to the Blue Square South, Weston have yet to score a goal. Considering that Weston have also only brought a handful of supporters to either of the two matches I've seen them play at Twerton Park, it is sort of surprising that there is much of a rivalry at all? Why, as City fans, would we bother to concern ourselves with such a mere trifle?

Here is an account taken from the Bath City forum that will explain how the animosity has been kept alive:

When we played away at Weston on Boxing Day, there was a stoppage in play during the first half for an injury. Weston started the game appallingly, offering no threat whatsoever, as per usual. Gurney [the Weston manager] called a few of his players over. One would presume this was to offer some tactical advice, a few words to inspire his team to get back into the game. What did he say? "Get Hogg sent off".

I'm sure that Weston supporters will have swear that this is not so, that really Bath City players are always the provocateurs. Nevertheless, the idea that Weston are a team that play dirty is firmly embedded in the City-supporter collective consciousness. Combine this with City's tendency to struggle against poor opposition, and you had some decidedly nervous home supporters in the terraces of Twerton Park. Could City dispel the ghost of Fisher Athletic?

Once inside I decided to go watch Weston warm up. I wandered around to the Bristol Side and struck a non-challant pose. Right away I could see a difference between this team and the one that had lost 3-0 to City the previous February. Their shirts fit. I don't know why, but last year the Weston players were all kitted out like they were wearing hand-me-downs from their older, fatter brothers. It would have been comical, except their performance on the pitch was more comical, and eventually you stopped noticing the XXL sportswear. At least there is some progress for manager Andy Gurney to point to.

Watching the opposition warm up isn't actually very interesting. I was hoping to hear the Weston players discussing tactics to get various City players sent off, but to give them their due they just stuck to their warm-up routine. They couldn't even manage to be good villains (yet). I wandered back round to the Popular side to gossip with my fellow fans until the match started.

The consensus among my fellow gossipers was that although we'd love to see Weston get a 5-0 thumping, a 1-0, squeaky-bum victory would do. Several people pointed out that although Weston rarely win a match, they rarely lose by more than a couple goals. Three points, however it comes, would do nicely.

As the match was kicking off I realised there were more people to gossip with than normal on a Tuesday night. The attendance was eventually announced as 545, which is in fact the highest mid-week attendance of the season. Even the Woking match, following three days after over three thousand people had come to Twerton Park for an FA Cup match, had only been watched by 434 brave souls. Those brave souls had been very quiet souls as well. Tuesday matches are noted for being supported in a very relaxed fashion. The informal but growing group of Bath City 'Ultras' had turned out in force, however. Gathered round their giant Bath City white ensign, they began singing with more passion than has been heard midweek at Twerton Park for many years. There is a sense that momentum is building on the pitch when Bath City play. I'm proud to say, there is also a sense that momentum is building in the terraces amongst the supporters.

Part two can be read here.

New Year Begins With Controversy

Today's Bath City match against Weston-super-Mare was postponed today in very controversial circumstances. Since Monday's home match against Havant & Waterlooville was called off as well, any decision not to play was bound to upset a lot of fans. What happened today, though, appears to go beyond disappointing and move into the realms of farce, gamesmanship, and shame.

Here is a sequence of events as reconstructed from several eyewitness accounts: club officials and volunteers arrived at Twerton Park at 10:30 am to help remove the ground covers that were in place from the previous night. Although one cover was found to have ripped, exposing a small area roughly three by five feet, the pitch appeared to have survived the overnight low temperatures in good condition. At 1pm the match referee, Mr Antony Coggins from Bicester, arrived and agreed with the Bath City assessment that the pitch was playable. According to Bath City supporter Daniel Tanner (and since corroborated by others present) Mr Coggins said, 'My bed is harder than this I have played on worse pitches than this. I have put the key into the ground and it is fine. The game is okay to go ahead. You have done a great job well done.' He then enquired about where the club had sourced their ground covers.

Fifteen minutes later the Weston-super-Mare team coach pulled into Twerton Park. According to one Bath City volunteer, Weston assistant manager Chris Smith marched straight over to the corner of the pitch where the Popular Side and the Bristol End meet. This is the area of the pitch that normally suffers from freezing, and as Weston have been coming to Twerton Park for seventy-five years, it would have been well known to the Weston management team. Moments later Smith claimed the pitch unplayable, and that his players would be risking injury if the game was allowed to start. Perhaps succumbing to pressure, Coggins held an additional pitch inspection at 1:30pm. Despite the presence of sunshine for the preceding half hour, Coggins chose to reverse his previous decision at 1:45pm and declare the pitch unfit. The Weston-super-Mare squad did not chose to stay around long after this. By the time I arrived at the ground with my two children at 2:20, their coach had already departed for home.

Arriving at Twerton Park today was confusing to say the least. Just as we entered the ground someone came up to me and told me the game was called due to a frozen pitch. I thought he was joking, but then I wondered why a complete stranger would joke with me about something like that. Two more people told me the same thing within seconds. A minute later I saw my friend Dave and his eight-year-old son. They had come for their first ever match at Twerton. I felt embarrassed, but he said they would come back again. As the gates were wide open, I decided to take the boys into the ground and have a look around.

The first thing I noticed upon entering was that the Bath City players were having a practice on the supposedly 'unplayable' pitch. I also met several other frustrated City supporters, and from talking to them, started to piece together the events of the day. In a nutshell, it is widely believed that Weston did not want to play the match. They have had some injuries and have been losing players to other clubs. In fact, according to Daniel Tanner's account, upon hearing the ref's decision to call it off Weston manager Andy Gurney 'rubbed his hands up and down with a smile on his face,' before making a sarcastic comment to City player Matt Coupe. This reportedly led to a heated argument between Gurney and Coupe that City manager Adie Britton chose to intervene in [there is some confusion about whether Coupe's exchange was with Gurney or Smith as they are somewhat similar looking].

I decided to make my own unofficial inspection with the help of a fellow supporter known on the Bath City message board as the 'A18.' We did a circuit of the pitch and spent several minutes around the area that was supposedly frozen. The grass was a bit crunchy, and there were certainly areas that could not be described as 'soft.' It was a long, long, way from the icy tundra that City had played on at Woking just two weeks earlier. It certainly did not look dangerous.

It turns out that Weston have form when it comes to controversial, last-minute postponements this season. On 5 December their match with Eastleigh was called in very similar circumstances, although the scapegoat in this instance was rain. After passing an inspection at 1pm the game looked declared 'on' by the match referee. After Weston's arrival at Silverlake Stadium the referee went on to reverse his decision, in this instance as late as 2:45. Quoting from a thread from the Eastleigh forum:

the pitch was passed as playable at 1.00 and ... it didn't rain from then until 2.45 ... so what changed?... As far as I could see there was no significant surface water on the pitch (none at all at the club house end) and the groundsman indicated to me by attempting to push his heel into the ground that the pitch wasn't particularly soggy either. I suspect that the game wa called off because Weston had a couple of players missing and put pressure on the referee.

Another poster on the same thread wrote:

Well I heard the rumour about Weston officials putting pressure on the ref to call in off from 3 different sources so there is quite possibly some truth in it.

I was alerted to this earlier controversy by 'A18's father, known as the 'A36.' They live in Hampshire and had made a long drive to see today's match. It is supporters like them who were the real victims of this farce. Many people will have travelled long distances at great expense to come to Twerton today. Every effort should have been made by all participants to get the game underway. Whatever their motives, it appears that Weston wanted the match abandoned almost from the moment they arrived. They certainly were not willing to hang around to try to get the match started once the referee had made his ruling. Seeing how football clubs exist because supporters pay to see them play, such blatant disregard for the time and money of those same supporters appears to border on the scandalous.

There have been many reactions to today's events. The fact that City were holding a full training session on the so-called unsafe pitch was a statement in itself from City manager Adie Britton. When asked by a Bath Chronicle reporter, 'you think other parties may have spoken to [Anthony Coggins] about the condition of the pitch?' Britton wisely declined to comment. Speaking of the pitch, Britton said 'we don't feel it is dangerous at all. We wanted to play and we think it's safe. We're going to train on it. We don't have a problem with it at all.' (the full interview can be heard here).

The official announcement from Weston-super-Mare AFC is surprisingly bland considering the controversy:

Today's game against Bath City fell victim to the weather, after another late call by the Referee Mr Coggins, who apparently called the pitch fit for play earlier in the day.

It then lists no less than three other occasions in the last month when referees have reversed earlier decisions about their club's matches proceding [this blog has asked for a clarification of the events surrounding today's decision from the club but as yet has received no response].

As there is nothing official to shed any light on the situation from an official Weston-super-Mare AFC perspective, I have also solicited views from unofficial sources. An appeal for comments was placed on the Unofficial Weston-super-Mare AFC Fans Forum by myself at 4:04pm this afternoon. As of writing ninety-six people have read this post, but so far no one has felt inclined to express their opinion.

Another thread was started by a Weston supporter soon afterwards, however, calling for Andy Gurney to be sacked. 'Angry Gull' wrote:

'Is it true Andy Gurney was too scared to play the game? We can run and hide all we like, but we're certs for relegation and Gurney's cowardly acts, dragging the club even further through the mud, is a total disgrace. He's sending us down as a laughing stock. Time to go....'

Weston's forum allows anonymous posting, however, and it should be noted that 'Angry Gull' is not a registered user.

The same cannot be said of the forum's moderator Sean, though. He has posted on this same thread and this is the closest thing to an official response from Weston to have been made thus far. He wrote:

No it's not true Bath City told us the game was on at 11:09 Bath City lied the ref' called the game off at about 13:55. Bath City jumped the gun, they need the money hence why they were more than happy to tell the world the game as on when in reality it was never going to happen.

I have asked 'Sean' to clarify just who he is accusing of lying, but he has so far declined to elaborate. He appears to have gotten his times as confused as his grammar, but his main thrust (I think), that the referee did not pass the pitch as playable at 1pm is contradicted by two eye-witnesses as discussed above.

The Nedved Juniors and I hung around the ground for about half an hour before we decided to head home. Both children were delighted to receive free doughnuts from the tea-bar staff who needed to dispose of perishable stock. They might have succeeded if they had tried selling them, though. At least fifty City fans had stayed on to watch the practice session.

Little Nedved Junior, who is only five, asked me to explain again why the match had been cancelled. I swallowed my anger for a moment and tried to give him a simple, unbiased explanation. Although I was cross, I instinctively did not want to draw a child his age into the controversy. 'The other team did not want to play because they thought the pitch was unsafe,' I explained.

'Then the other team are scaredy-cats,' he said.

I suppose even at age five children have a grasp of controversy after all.

It was a very frustrating moment when we left eventually. The only thing that kept my mood from getting too low was the wonderful sunshine and clear skies. Not the kind of day you expect a match to be called off because of poor weather. But then, you don't get scheduled to play Weston-super-Mare every day.



Note: Nedved's Notes will still happily publish any official response from Weston-super-Mare AFC that is received in a follow-up post.