3QR - WEYMOUTH AWAY!

Another very interesting tie to look forward to!

Another derby which is good. Both clubs probably hoping to get Ye*vil.

Another train strike day so that will prevent many from travelling

kermit wrote:Another train strike day so that will prevent many from travelling

All the more need for a good coach deal, £10/£15? Could be good investment with 3.5k in bank already and over 5k for winners of the tie.

Are you suggesting that the Club subsidise the cost of the coach?

comrade powell wrote:Are you suggesting that the Club subsidise the cost of the coach?

Think it would be good idea to get as many fans as possible there given the importance of the game and its a rail strike day. Think the club has done it before?

The trip to Ebbsfleet a few years ago was funded by the players after the Potters Bar debacle and the Club subsidised the Welling trip in 2019 in the hope of extra support. I've mentioned it to the SC.

These comments from the Weymouth forum:
"Bath are top but in their 9 games they have played 4 of the bottom 6 and nobody in the top 7. They sneaked past Larkhall by a single goal on Saturday in the cup. I'd suggest that their league position is possibly slightly false.

Should be a good match hopefully."

daven wrote:These comments from the Weymouth forum:
"Bath are top but in their 9 games they have played 4 of the bottom 6 and nobody in the top 7. They sneaked past Larkhall by a single goal on Saturday in the cup. I'd suggest that their league position is possibly slightly false.

Should be a good match hopefully."

Yes, reasonable comments which we would say ourselves tbf.

Hopefully no need for segregation this time

You can argue that we have not played anyone in the top 7 but we have taken 7 points from those placed 8/9 & 11. If we had not done so then those teams could be in top 7. The same argument could be used with us taking points of those in bottom group.

daven wrote:These comments from the Weymouth forum:
"Bath are top but in their 9 games they have played 4 of the bottom 6 and nobody in the top 7. They sneaked past Larkhall by a single goal on Saturday in the cup. I'd suggest that their league position is possibly slightly false.

Should be a good match hopefully."

Perhaps Jerry should pin that on the dressing room wall! Weymouth's wins have been against Dartford, Dover and Hemel who aren't exactly setting the league alight this season.

comrade powell wrote:The trip to Ebbsfleet a few years ago was funded by the players after the Potters Bar debacle and the Club subsidised the Welling trip in 2019 in the hope of extra support. I've mentioned it to the SC.

As we need to advertise the trip in this week's Club newsletter and Saturday's matchday programme (the deadline for which is today) we felt there was insufficient time for awaiting a response from the Club.

"Could be good investment with 3.5k in bank already and over 5k for winners of the tie" - yes, but if memory serves me correctly the FA are not very quick in paying the prize money and I guess the Club have some pressing bills to pay in the meantime.

The trip is now advertised (see link below) and you can see that lower fares will apply if there are more than 30 bookings. With a train strike that day, hopefully many will see the SC coach as an attractive alternative. And with many more possible trips on the road to Wembley, now's the time to make sure you're a member!

https://bathcityfcsc.com/upcoming-trips/

James Carlin wrote:Hopefully no need for segregation this time

I see on their website they are selling separate home and away tickets.

Reading the Weymouth fans forum they don't see us as a big threat just because we are top of the table. They say that we have not played any team in the top seven yet and that we have played four of the bottom six.

City 'til we're relegated wrote:Reading the Weymouth fans forum they don't see us as a big threat just because we are top of the table. They say that we have not played any team in the top seven yet and that we have played four of the bottom six.

At this stage the League is still so tight that if we'd lost to any of those at the bottom, they'd likely be midtable or top half with those extra three points. Meaningless. And if they do all remain at the bottom for the season, great, taking points off of struggling teams has been an issue in recent years.

Bit of a radical thought but I wonder if it’s because we have played, beaten and got the points is why we are where we are, and the teams we’ve beaten is a contributory factor of why they are in the lower reaches of the league.
Unless of course we’d be happier at ‘tother end of the table.

As the weather is preventing me from going for a walk I thought I'd do some research on some other starts to the season since our relegation from the NL.

We have taken 20 points from the 9 games played so far and are in 1st place in the table. This is the 3rd best total since the 12/13 season.

In second place is last season's start when we had 17 from 9 putting us 6th in the table and finishing 11th. Here are the final positions of those first 9 opponents...

1-2-3-7-8-12-17-18-19 (average 10th)

Our best start was in 15/16 when we started with 6 consecutive wins and were still unbeaten after 9 matches with a total of 21 points putting us 2nd - we finished 14th. The 9 opponents' finishing positions were...

5-6-7-8-13-16-18-20-22 (average 13th)

Our worst start was in 20/21 with only 6 points from the first 9 games but as the season ended very early it wouldn't be fair to use that.

Next worst was 13/14 when we had just 9 points from 9 and were in 13th position, but eventually finished 7th. The 9 opponents' finishing positions were...

1-4-5-8-9-12-15-17-21 (average 10th)

I accept that you can prove anything with stats, but the above suggests that..

- whether we start well or badly we end up around midtable! (our average finishing position at this level is 10th)
- last season's start was exceptionally good based on the strength of the teams we played
- we were blessed with a relatively weaker set of opponents for our best start
- our position after 9 games is either some places worse or better than our final one (which is perhaps the point our Weymouth friends are making on their forum and by myself on another thread). But that's not to stop the enjoyment of our present top spot!

Perhaps I'll return to this after the final league game - it will probably still be raining..

While we're on stats, out of curiosity yesterday I looked at our League record between the Larkhall game last week and the same fixture last season in the Somerset Cup.

It's P25 W15 D3 L7. Points per game average of 1.92. Not far off champions form and good enough for 2nd place most seasons, if continued over a whole season of course, but even over 25 games it's impressive especially after last winter's devastation.

We're a good side in a competitive division and we're in good form, it doesn't matter at all who we beat, it matters that we have the points on the board. Lets just enjoy it and really get behind the boys, they're all decent blokes with fantastic attitudes and they've got a great chance of a good season.

comrade powell wrote:As the weather is preventing me from going for a walk I thought I'd do some research on some other starts to the season since our relegation from the NL.

We have taken 20 points from the 9 games played so far and are in 1st place in the table. This is the 3rd best total since the 12/13 season.

In second place is last season's start when we had 17 from 9 putting us 6th in the table and finishing 11th. Here are the final positions of those first 9 opponents...

1-2-3-7-8-12-17-18-19 (average 10th)

Our best start was in 15/16 when we started with 6 consecutive wins and were still unbeaten after 9 matches with a total of 21 points putting us 2nd - we finished 14th. The 9 opponents' finishing positions were...

5-6-7-8-13-16-18-20-22 (average 13th)

Our worst start was in 20/21 with only 6 points from the first 9 games but as the season ended very early it wouldn't be fair to use that.

Next worst was 13/14 when we had just 9 points from 9 and were in 13th position, but eventually finished 7th. The 9 opponents' finishing positions were...

1-4-5-8-9-12-15-17-21 (average 10th)

I accept that you can prove anything with stats, but the above suggests that..

- whether we start well or badly we end up around midtable! (our average finishing position at this level is 10th)
- last season's start was exceptionally good based on the strength of the teams we played
- we were blessed with a relatively weaker set of opponents for our best start
- our position after 9 games is either some places worse or better than our final one (which is perhaps the point our Weymouth friends are making on their forum and by myself on another thread). But that's not to stop the enjoyment of our present top spot!

Perhaps I'll return to this after the final league game - it will probably still be raining..

If we hadn't got off to such a good start in 15/16 I am not sure we would have stayed up as we only got 21 points from 30 games before the 'Tyler Harvey' game against Weston.

Weymouth fans and the manager think best team won though we had the inevitable injury time angst.

They’re certainly correct there. Frankly Larkhall gave us a much tougher game and today’s result flattered Weymouth. That was the first time we’ve beaten a team managed by Bobby Wilkinson and it’s been a long time coming.
Like a fortnight ago we started slowly but there was only one team who was going to win it once Weymouth wasted just about their only chance and we really should have scored more than the two. Surely they’ll be tougher opponents when we return for the league match in five weeks time.
Good to see Parselle back organising the defence and we looked far more solid at the back. Clark ran them ragged at times and the first goal was a real beauty.
Here’s hoping for a home draw on Monday.

It's a long time since I enjoyed a stress free FA cup tie with City. Scoreline flattered Weymouth who competed but lacked any cutting edge.
Always like going there as it's a tidy stadium and a friendly well run club.