Chelmsford

Excellent attendance - wish I had been there!

A good day for the club - an entertaining match with plenty of incident, and unlike last season the team didn't fluff its lines in front of an above-average attendance. I've got to say, like the previous poster, I was surprised when the first attendance figure was announced, let alone the revised one - like him I was thinking below 1000, possibly 900 at best. Obviously my crowd estimating powers aren't what they used to be and I was happy to be proved wrong in this instance.

Very enjoyable day and a great effort from all of those who made it happen.
The players stepped up as well which was good to see. Pleased for Pratt who works so hard. Thought Stearn played well, given a start he wasn't over eager to take on the world and I thought he played well with some dangerous crosses.
Walsh was excellent yet again, Adelsbury had his best game for Bath and didn't look bad in goal.

Well done to all concerned. hopefully a decent earner for the club as well.

great game and for the neutral it cetainly had everything

agree that adelsbury was excellent and walsh looks better with every game - i was too far away to comment on the mellor sending off but for once i thought coggins had a very good game (never thought i'd type that) so if mellor did raise his hands to the chelmsford player then he can't have any complaints

and stearn ... i was pleased he started but apart from the one cross that the defender did brilliantly to clear from under the bar he may as well not been out there in the first half - he was lucky not to get at least a yellow for kicking out after he was fouled and credit has to go to coggins for speaking to gallinagh to try to get him to calm down rather than brandishing card(s) - thankfully the goal appeared to calm him down and after that we saw more of the positive side to him - all in all, the game was a microcosm of his time with city so far

thought the whole team were good today.was a great result on and of the pitch.
Pratts workrate was awsome
Watkins control of the ball was excellent.
Simmo was his usual self
Walshy defo better than Preece
Stearn great to watch
Adlesbury probably had one of his best games for City
lets hope they can keep this form up for the rest of the season
then who knows if results elswhere keep going are way like today we just mite make the play offs

A great result, and what a contrast to the struggles against Dorchester. I was heartened to see The Management’s attacking line-up: we looked like a team that meant business. Even the presence of Mr Coggins, lurking in the middle, didn’t dampen my optimism – well, not much anyway.
In all my years of watching City, Chelmsford have nearly always proved a hard side to beat so I was pleasantly surprised to see how soon we took command of the game despite the fact that former City loanee favourite Carl Pentney had been benched in favour of Forecast (or, Fourpast as the Chelmo fans aptly refer to him).  Again we looked the smaller side, especially in the second half when they introduced some players who were clearly not vertically challenged, including one who would perhaps be more at home on a basketball court. However, on this occasion height was not the issue as the skill of the City players made up for the lack of tallness.
A special mention for Pratt (my MotM) . He worked tirelessly and scored a peach of a goal with a neat chip over Fourpast. He looked full of fitness today and his battling resolve when he took on nearly all of the Chelmo defence, and earned a corner, deservedly drew a round of applause from the City faithful. Top marks. You’ve got to also hand it to Stearn. I know Management don’t pay any attention to this Forum (what do we know?) but his start and presence took its toll on the Chelmo defence – as many of us hoped. OK, he has his faults, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he would walk into a Chelmsford side. Watkins again showed his technique, pace and versatility: his ability to turn defences is a pleasure to watch.
I could go on but all of the team put in a good shift today including Josh Low. There, I’ve said it.
Clearly, the only downside was the straight red for Mellor. Coggins had no option, irrespective of the crowd's disapproval of a mere yellow for the Chelmo player. From the Premier League downwards I continue to be amazed at the recklessness of players. We have an outside chance of the play-offs and we need to keep our best team, we were also in the lead and we defended the position, so why the retaliation? This was not a life-threatening foul from the Chelmo guy. Personally, I would fine Mellor, great keeper that he is (though not a kicker). Sorry Jason but restraint pays dividends in the long run: pour encourager les outré as they say.
So, overall, a thrilling game, with lots of skill on show. Let’s hope some of the bumper crowd will be encouraged to return to see some quality attacking football from Bath City. As Punch said, that’s the way to do it.

PS Is Chelmsford's Matthew Lock the same Matt Lock who graced Twerton with Team Bath? I think he may be. One of TB's best players I thought.

Not much to add but I would like to make special mention of Chris Allen who, after his penalty miss,was tigerish in midfield . I have been thinking that that he was too light weight but he showed how much he is toughening up with a relentless display of running and harrying. He also has kept a delicate touch that makes him easy on the eye and he often does the unexpected with his first touch to wrong-foot defenders. It doesn't always come off, but what the heck, it's inventive and enjoyable when it does.

Many very well reasoned posts in this topic.  I have picked out a few -

comrade powell wrote:Yes, a fantastic day with everyone pulling together off the pitch and a real team performance on it!...Thought it was a mistake to sub him but Bowman was excellent in his short cameo.

As many of us have said, a very successful day, the buzz around TP was electric.  Great picture of the four mascots on the official site. The Ross Stern cross was a peach. A good decision, given the match situation, to sub Ross.

BenE wrote:For me MOM was Adelsbury. He was terrific. It showed what a job he hade done when he had to go in goal...Hats off to the lad.

I was also impressed with Ben's performance similarly at Cheddar.

Dodgycarpet wrote:Be good to know what the revenue was compared to the average (mean median or mode). Hopefully really good!

Hopefully the admission takings were the same or better than with an average attendance of c.five hundred AND the "bonus" should have come from other revenue streams.  After all the effort put in by non board members I hope management "account", in detail, the results to us...

RUDI GULITS wrote:...lets hope they can keep this form up for the rest of the season
then who knows if results elswhere keep going are way like today we just mite make the play offs

We should go out to win every game with the same attacking intent as shown against Chelmsford BUT we would need to win every game to stand any chance and results of other games would need to be favourable (cue a statto analysis from A36   ), however, stranger things have happened...

Dark Star wrote:A great result, and what a contrast to the struggles against Dorchester. I was heartened to see The Management’s attacking line-up: we looked like a team that meant business...

...So, overall, a thrilling game, with lots of skill on show. Let’s hope some of the bumper crowd will be encouraged to return to see some quality attacking football from Bath City. As Punch said, that’s the way to do it.

Well said DarkStar, saves me writing something similar.  

the demon headmaster wrote:...Chris Allen who, after his penalty miss,was tigerish in midfield...it's inventive and enjoyable when it does.

Chris has an enormous amount of talent and a great pity he put the penalty too close to "Fourpast", who, to his credit, did move like "the cat" to make the save.
A big downside of the day for me was the fourth goal...spoilt my Betting Compo coup.  

  a very good game yesterday , well done city boys for taking the game to them , thats what supporters like some fight ,pitty about mellor needs to control his self , other than that a very good performance, well done

Not gonna be hard on Mellor for the red, it's pretty much written into the laws of the game that we have to have a man sent off in Conference South matches with Chelmsford. Last season we were a bit naughty and kept 11 men on for both games.
This season... Brown away, Mellor home
09/10... Badman away, Coupe home and Badman again in home playoff
08/09... Hogg home, Evo away

They had a player sent off against us in both play-off games in 2010. In fact it's the third time a goalkeeper has been sent off in this fixture.

stillmanjunior wrote:It was the latter - seconds after I announced it Andy phoned to say they'd forgotten to include the kids in the stand.

Mmmmm So exactly 200 in the stand?
A good day all round - except our GK obviously. Perhaps if he'd tried to kick him instead.... Probably would have missed with his record.
Back to the attendance...
The cynic in me doesn't believe the published figure(s). Don't really care but thought I'd mention it. Feels exaggerated. A lot. The 5/6 regulars I stand with always have a 'guess the gate' comp between us. We ranged from approx 650 - 850. These are regulars remember and one of usually gets within 20 or so - at least.
Anybody else feels like it was over stated?

Easy to say now I know but I thought it was about 1200.

There were more people in the stands and behind the dugouts than normal I thought. With the Bristol End empty maybe that made it look more sparse for some?

[quote="Roman MikeMmmmm So exactly 200 in the stand?
The cynic in me doesn't believe the published figure(s).  Don't really care but thought I'd mention it.  Feels exaggerated.  A lot.  The 5/6 regulars I stand with always have a 'guess the gate' comp between us. We ranged from approx 650 - 850.  These are regulars remember and one of usually gets within 20 or so - at least.    
Anybody else feels like it was over stated?[/quote]

I guess it doesn't matter a great deal but I also thought at the time the attendance was well under 1000. Looking at the clips posted of the goals confirmed my impression of the crowd number - no way were there 1374 present.

The clips posted are from the stand, so the Foundation kids in the family stand aren't visible, neither are people in the stand.

I admit from what I could see it didn't look much higher opposite but in the stands and on the terraces behind the dugout it looked more full than normal.