Bath City (1)2 Whitehawk (0)1

A late goal from centre half Manny Monthe ensured that Bath City emerged with three valuable points from an entertaining encounter with Whitehawk at a rain soaked Twerton Park this afternoon. The visitors equalised early in the second half, cancelling out Shaquille Hunter’s strike from midway through the first half, but ultimately returned to Sussex empty handed.

The hosts enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and Naby Diallo turned adeptly inside the box in the 2nd minute, but his goalbound shot was blocked by a defender.

Thereafter, The Hawks began to gain the upper hand in terms of possession and they had a golden chance to take the lead in the 5th minute when Max O’Leary was unable to cut out a dangerous cross from Mike West, but Almpi Llenga headed wastefully wide of the target. Two minutes later Danny Mills broke forward towards the City goal and his pass fell to the well positioned West, whose shot was deflected into the outside of the side netting.

The away side continued to push forward, with Ahmed Abdulla dragging a shot wide of O’Leary’s post from 20 yards on 9 minutes, and debutant Harry Hickford was forced into an outstanding sliding tackle to deny West a clear shot on goal.

City finally found some forward momentum and almost opened the scoring with 13 minutes on the clock. Monthe gathered the ball beyond the far post following a corner from the right, and drove a low cross into the 6-yard box which was met by Nick McCootie, only for keeper Adri Munoz to pull off an incredible blocking save.

Hunter made space for himself on the edge of the Whitehawk box and saw his rising shot deflected over Munoz’s cross bar for a corner, but the home side’s period of pressure was rewarded on 22 minutes. Andy Watkins did well to make ground down the inside right channel and his cross found the unmarked Hunter in front of goal, who made no mistake from 6 yards.

The Hawks tried to find a way back into the match and always looked dangerous on the break, but constructive play was becoming more difficult as the rain descended in torrents for a prolonged period. However, it was the hosts who threatened to add to the scoreline when Diallo did extremely well to win the ball deep inside away territory on the half hour mark. He slipped a neat pass through to McCootie, but the striker slid his shot the wrong side of the far post as Munoz rushed out to narrow the angle.

A sweeping move from Whitehawk five minutes before the break ended with West having a clear sight of goal, but his shot suffered the same fate as McCootie’s effort from ten minutes earlier.

By the time the second half had commenced the intensity of the downpour had abated, and the away side set about restoring parity. Despite this, City thought they had increased their advantage on 47 minutes when McCootie tapped home the loose ball after Munoz had parried Hunter’s initial shot, only for the offside flag to be correctly raised.

Whitehawk found themselves back on terms in the 53rd minute when a free kick was swung in from the right, and Llenga’s perfectly flicked header from inside the box gave O’Leary no chance.

The visitors were clearly invigorated by their success and, for a spell, threatened to take the game away from their hosts, but City gradually recovered their composure.

George Rigg fired a shot narrowly wide of Munoz’s post and, on the hour mark, Watkins wrestled the ball from Gabriel Yan out wide on the right and raced towards the by-line. He pulled the ball across goal, but the onrushing McCootie was just beaten to the ball by a defender who did extremely well to avoid finding the back of his own net. Rigg then saw another effort from distance bobble wide of the post.

Josh Hutchinson and Frankie Artus replaced Hunter and Billy Murphy respectively as Gary Owers’ side sought a winning goal. To be fair to Whitehawk, they were holding their own in terms of possession, but it was the home side that were posing the greater threat going forward. Hickford went down as he drove into the right hand side of the penalty box, but the referee, Mr Adam Ricketts, who had already given a series of unfathomable decisions, deemed it appropriate to award a free kick outside the area. Artus’ dead ball delivery was met by McCootie, but the forward could not direct his header on target.

It appeared that City would have to settle for a share of the spoils, but they found a deciding goal two minutes from time. Another free kick eventually fell to Monthe on the edge of the box, but his shot was blocked and the loose ball arrived at McCootie’s feet, whose clipped effort was pushed away by Munoz. The rebound ran invitingly for Monthe, and he duly obliged by joyfully slamming the ball high into the net.

Whitehawk tried to find a response in the short time remaining but only had Marvin Hamilton’s long range shot to show for their efforts and, in the event, this flew just wide of O’Leary’s post.

This was a keenly contested and entertaining game in difficult conditions with both sides displaying attacking intent, but City were the better team overall and deserved their victory. There was a danger that missed chances would again cost the Somerset side dear but, in the end, Monthe’s late persistence proved decisive. The Romans will now look to build on their success when Oxford City visit Twerton Park on Tuesday evening.

Bath City: Max O'Leary; Harry Hickford, Chas Hemmings, Manny Monthe, Dan Ball; George Rigg, Naby Diallo, Billy Murphy (Frankie Artus 78); Shaquille Hunter (Josh Hutchinson 74), Nick McCootie, Andy Watkins (Stuart Fleetwood 88). Subs not used: Lee Marshall, Jack Batten.

Whitehawk: Adri Munoz; Marvin Hamilton, Gabriel Yan, Javier Favarel, Ramon Aldaver (Luiz Felipe Infante-Idalgo 55), Almpi Llenga, Mike West (Marcos Ribeiro 46), Sergio Torres, Danny Mills (Matheu Soares Da Silva 90+3), Ahmed Abdulla, Wilfred Tagbo. Subs not used: Kleyton Agostini, Chris M'Boungou.

Referee: Mr. Adam Ricketts. Attendance: 535.

An excellent debut for the season, KK - welcome back!

comrade powell wrote:An excellent debut for the season, KK - welcome back!

I prefer 'début'. Excellent report, as always, although I did not think that it should have been a penalty.

Sir Ged Roddy wrote:

Excellent report, as always, although I did not think that it should have been a penalty.

My thoughts at the time were that it was not even a free kick but, having decided that it was a foul, I thought that the referee should have given a penalty as the 'offence' was inside the box. However, from the comments on another thread, my eyes from my viewing point on the Pop side clearly deceived me!

Hooray KK is back. Top report as usual.

I didn't think it was a foul either but I think the ref thought it was time he evened up the free kick count.

No, not a penalty. I was level with it and it was outside the box. Loved the interpretive mime in trying to convince the ref that it was inside though.

Welcome back KK.