Eastleigh 1-1 Bath City

EASTLEIGH 1-1 BATH CITY



SATURDAY 13th MARCH 2010
Blue Square South

Report by Jamie Montigue

Eastleigh ended a run of three straight home defeats by picking up a point at home to fellow promotion hopefuls Bath City this afternoon.

The Spitfires have been highly productive on their travels recently where they are unbeaten in six, including their latest run of three consecutive victories on the road; but at home Ian Baird's side had been struggling for form of late.

It was important to stop the rot and Ross Bottomley's second half equaliser ensured this was the case as the Spitfires ruled out City’s 29th minute penalty goal.

Injury-plagued Eastleigh, who were without key players such as Tom Jordan, Anthony Riviere, Andy Forbes and Jamie Brown (the latter two who are thought to be ruled out for the rest of the season), adopted a 4-5-1 formation with Richard Gillespie leading the attack as a lone striker. The former Bashley man only just passed a late fitness test ahead of the game, whilst Peter Adeniyi also came back into the side.

New signing Ashley Nicholls made his debut for the Spitfires after signing from Bishops Stortford in the week.

City brought a great band of supporters with them and were rewarded with the opening goal of the game when Luke Wilkinson was penalised for an alleged shirt-pull in the area. Referee Alex Neil appeared to be the only man in the stadium who saw the incident and awarded the visitors a penalty kick. KAID MOHAMED made no mistake from 12 yards beating Billy Lumley to find the bottom right hand corner of goal.

Before Mohamed’s goal, City had the first opportunity of the game in the 10th minute when Luke Wilkinson gave away a soft free kick just outside the box. Lewis Hogg curled a decent effort just inches past the post from the set piece.

Chris Holland sliced a clearance over his own cross bar when Tony Taggart bundled his way into a shooting position to the left of goal with a quarter of an hour played.

The visitors had a brighter spell with Sekani Simpson finding a lot of space down the right, where he used his pace on a number of occasions to cross into the Eastleigh penalty area. In the 23rd minute, Ashley Nicholls almost marked his Eastleigh debut with a goal at the wrong end as he turned Lewis Hogg’s low cross from the left narrowly wide of his own keeper’s upright.

After the aforementioned penalty incident from which Bath took the lead midway through the half, the game became scrappy and a bit of a midfield stalemate with neither side really having a clear chance.

Tony Taggart and Richard Gillespie combined in the 31st minute only for Taggart to shoot tamely and fail to test Ryan Robinson.

There were ugly scenes towards the end of the half when Sido Jombati was said to have spat at Shaun McAuley. Pushing and shoving followed before the referee decided upon issuing both players a yellow card after having a conference with both of his assistants.

Eastleigh hadn’t been able to make any in-roads or have a clear sight at goal for the majority of the half as Bath crowded out Gillespie in Eastleigh’s attack. That was until a minute before the break when Ross Bottomley floated a cross from the right in search of Gillespie who rose well and nodded just wide of the mark.

An altercation and trouble flared up once more as the players left the field and headed down the tunnel. No doubt the Jombati spitting allegation was the main cause for this.

HALF TIME: Eastleigh 0-1 Bath City

After the break, Eastleigh showed improvement in their play and sense of urgency with the particularly impressive ROSS BOTTOMLEY coming to the fore.

It was the towering utility-player's 67th minute equalising goal, which ensured the hosts were back on level terms. Sam Butler who had just come on for Shaun McAuley, made an instant impact with a low, driven cross that flew across the face of the six-yard box at pace and invitingly for Bottomley to attack and smash the ball home.

Bottomley got into a great position in the Bath penalty area just after the restart but was ushered wide by some stout defending from Adie Britton’s side.

In the 54th minute, Luke Wilkinson met a Brett Poate free kick with a header but couldn’t quite direct his effort having done well to get to the ball first.

On the hour, Gethin Jones perhaps should have done better from a City corner. The defender rose high above the crowd but headed over the bar when well placed and unmarked, just eight yards from goal.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the pitch, Ryan Robinson continued his assured display in between the sticks for the visitors. The goalkeeper’s aerial ability was particularly outstanding as he claimed every cross calmly and brought such confidence to the defence in front of him in doing so.

Billy Lumley made a smart double save to deny Darren Edwards from point blank range just before Bottomley had drawn Eastleigh level. In the 70th minute, Edwards beat the offside trap and looked to lift the ball over Lumley but couldn’t find the height to beat the keeper.

Eastleigh came very close to taking the lead for the first time in the game when their goal scorer Bottomley flicked a fine glancing header towards goal that had to be turned away off the post for a corner.

Ian Baird’s side were in the ascendancy as Sam Butler was just a whisker away with his long range strike before Bath went down to ten men with fourteen minutes remaining. Sido Jombati picked up a second yellow card for a tackle from behind on Tony Taggart and was promptly given his marching orders. Once the player had eventually gone down the tunnel, the free kick that followed from Poate was a disappointment from a promising position.

Robinson caught the ball showing good handling once more from a teasing, Taggart cross before beating a Danny Smith right flank delivery away from danger with a strong punch soon after.

In to injury time, Robinson continued his fine goalkeeping performance as he took the ball off the head of Bottomley as Eastleigh looked to grab a late winner.

The last of the action saw Bath City substitute David Gilroy fire a fierce shot into the side-netting having been played in to the left of goal by Lewis Hogg.
 

Despite playing out the game with one less player including five minutes of additional time at the end of the ninety, City held firm remaining solid at the back to claim a share of the spoils.

The Spitfires can now look forward to the visit of Welling United, who visit the Silverlake Stadium on Wednesday night.

FULL TIME: Eastleigh 1-1 Bath City