Bath City Women (0) 0 Whitchurch Ladies (3) 5 – Wednesday 22 March 2026
Shield Services Group SW Regional WFL Div 1N – Cannon Clarke Stadium @ Twerton Park
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Bath City Women suffered their heaviest defeat in a midweek mauling by Whitchurch Ladies.
Hannah Gillett (2), Emily Plummer (2) and Xanthe Taylor netted for the visitors in a miserable evening for Matt Abreu’s side.
The two met in the cup in February, a match where the Romans fell 2-0 down inside 13 minutes before remarkably turning it around.
History partly repeated itself in Twerton. On five minutes, Hatty Gammon’s cross from the left bounced kindly for Gillett, who met it sweetly on the half volley to rifle past Lucy Clay.
It was 2-0 soon after. Devon Rich won the ball in midfield and helped it over the top for Plummer, who dashed between Bex Fry and Eve Trivett before an unorthodox finish saw her knee the ball onto her boot in helping it over Clay.
Unlike the cup game, where City stormed back with six goals, a comeback already seemed unlikely under the lights at Twerton.
Other than a strong penalty shout turned down for potential handball from Rich, who appeared to bat Tara Taylor’s corner away with her arm, City had little to shout about and were hit by a third on 37 minutes.
Gillett’s flicked ball forward was miscontrolled by Trivett and Plummer took advantage, racing away before perfectly slotting into the bottom left corner – the 100th goal conceded by City in the league since forming in 2022.
The second half got off to a dreadful start for the hosts as Adella Clarke hobbled off and their evening went from bad to worse with a fourth on 65 minutes.
Faith Constable’s delivery from the left was nicely controlled by Xanthe Taylor, who then volleyed into the far corner from 18 yards out of Clay’s reach, a dream first goal in Whitchurch colours.
Visiting keeper Sophia Isaac was withdrawn just afterwards with an ankle injury, forcing defender Jess Taylor to take on the gloves.
The replacement stopper, who was in goal for the cup game, proved her worth as she batted away Rosie Burridge’s header before denying Jasmine Rennie on the follow-up.
Fry leathered off target following an adventurous forward run but the fine combination play of the visitors always looked the more threatening to add a fifth.
Top scorer Ilarna Nche hammered wide after picking up a loose ball on the edge of the box and also struck the crossbar from a tight angle.
They completed the scoring on 87 minutes. Constable turned Trivett and her cross was unintentionally cushioned by Jess Evans to Gillett, who controlled deftly before a fine finish against the inside of the post wrapped up a marvellous success for the high-fliers, who were every bit as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.
City’s Line-Up: Clay; Trivett, Fry, Evans; T Taylor, Spratt, Vilday, Rennie; Brown; Clarke, Edwards. Subs used: Walls, Bloomfield, Burridge, Key, Storey.
Scorers: City – none; Whitchurch – Gillett (5, 87), Plummer (12, 37), X Taylor (65)
Referee: Darren Robbins
