Late drama sees City secure A4 Derby win

City secured victory in this season’s A4 derby opener at the Thornbury Surfacing Stadium this afternoon thanks to late goals from Scott Wilson and Cody Cooke. Ellison pulled a goal back for Chippenham and Amadi-Holloway thought he had grabbed a late point for the hosts only for the referee to rule out his header.

The first half had seen the home side happy to keep possession with the ball spending much of the time being passed around between keeper Henry and his centre-backs. With City content to allow them the time and space to do this it made for little in the way of entertainment for the crowd during the opening 20 minutes. However, on 21 minutes Jordan Thomas had the first effort on goal with a low shot that Henry turned behind for a corner. Ten minutes later great work from Tom Smith saw him send Wilson bearing down on goal but Henry was equal to his shot. The earlier pattern was soon resumed after this brief flurry of excitement and the game reached the break goalless.

The Bluebirds finally began to up the tempo after the interval and a swift 49th minute break from ex-Roman Tom Mehew should have led to an opening goal but he wildly overhit his cross with three teammates waiting in the middle. Henry then kept the scores level six minutes later with his best save yet, turning Dan Hayfield’s long range effort over the bar. Just past the hour mark a scramble in the box caused a few nervous moments for City but with 16 minutes left they took the lead. Jordan Thomas did well down the left flank and the ball broke for Wilson to sweep home his 16th goal of the season. And seven minutes later they doubled their lead from the penalty spot. Cooke was barged in the back by Amadi-Holloway from a Wilson cross and stepped up to beat Henry from 12 yards. With five minutes left Chippenham pulled a goal back as Ellison headed home a corner. And they thought they had levelled the scores in stoppage time when Amadi-Holloway headed past Will Buse only for the referee to spot a clear push by the defender and rule the goal out. This turned out to be as close as they would come to denying City the three points that lifts them back to third place in the National League South table.