Page 34 - Bath City v Chelmsford City - Tuesday 15 December 2020 - FA Trophy

LOOKING BACK 1989/90 CONTINUED

Although they put nine goals past Pontyclun in the three games more. Dover though had lost their last two
Welsh Cup, City hadn’t scored more than three in a home games, both cup ties, against lower league local
league game, but that was to change with the arrival rivals Ashford and Folkestone.
of tonight’s visitors Chelmsford to Twerton Park. With Tony Ricketts back from injury, Paul Stevens
With Tony Ricketts injured, Paul Stevens moved into resumed his normal position at right back with Phil
central defence with Phil Underhill coming in at right Underhill dropping to the bench. City captain Dave
back, and Chelmsford almost took advantage of some Palmer was making his 350th appearance in the black
early uncertainty, only a fingertip save from Jim Preston and white.
keeping the scores level. They got off to the worst possible start, going behind
It took City a while to get into their stride and they after just three minutes, Dave Palmer’s misjudged back
didn’t take the lead until the 37th minute. As had pass setting up Dixon to put Dover ahead. Just as they
happened in the away game, a goalbound City shot had started to get a foothold in the game, they went
was handled by a defender, but this time Paul Randall, further behind when Lee increased the home side’s
who was denied on that occasion, made no mistake lead in the 24th minute.
from the spot. Three minutes later it was 2-0 when he To City’s credit, they responded well, and by half time
scored again, this time from Gary Smart’s corner, but were level. Ten minutes before the break, Gary Smart
there was still time for Chelmsford to pull a goal back scored after being set up by John Freegard, and two
before the interval. minutes later they were level, Rob Cousins’ shot from
Like the first half, the second took a while to get 35 yards deceiving the Dover keeper.
going, but after Chelmsford had again failed to take The second half was a much tighter affair with chances
advantage of indecision in the City defence, two goals at a premium, City coming closest to finding a winner
from Gary Smart in the space of three minutes took the when John Freegard hit the outside of a post, but
game away from them. The score became 5-1 three neither side was probably too disappointed with a
minutes from the end when Paul Randall completed his share of the points.
hat-trick after John Freegard’s shot had rebounded to
him, those three goals making him the leading scorer LES BINGHAM
in the league.
Four days later, City made their second visit of the
season to Weymouth, this time for the 1st leg of the
1st Round of the Westgate Insurance Cup, as the
league cup was known that season, with Steve Langley
between the posts in place of the rested Jim Preston.
They went ahead in the 13th minute when Paul
Randall scored from the spot after being brought
down by Compton, and Dave Singleton doubled the
lead 15 minutes later when he was left unmarked. Just
two minutes after the interval it was 3-0 when Dave
Singleton’s header found the back of the net and he
completed his hattrick in the 65th minute, 10 minutes
after Weymouth had scored with their first real chance
of the game.
A hectic last 20 minutes saw Smith pulling back a goal
for Weymouth before he completed his hattrick to bring
the score back to 4-3. His namesake in the City side,
Chris Smith, then had the chance to put the game out
of Weymouth’s reach but was thwarted in a one-on-
one with the goalkeeper, and in the last minute Cooper
completed Weymouth’s comeback to level the scores
and leave all to play for when the clubs met at Twerton
Park for the second leg.
Is 21st October too soon for a game to be a ‘six
pointer’? Realistically you might say yes, but in the
context of the season so far, City’s trip to Dover
arguably was just that even so early on. The Kent side
had won all ten league games to date, and although
City were only one point behind, they had played

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