Tiverton Town (2) 2 Bath City (0) 2 – Tuesday 18 July 2023 – Pre-Season Friendly – The Ian Moorcroft Stadium
Match Report by Mark Stillman.
Bath City recovered from 2-0 down share the spoils in their latest pre-season friendly at Tiverton.
Headers from Jamie Richards and Matt Britton put the Southern League South outfit in control, but two lapses after the break saw the Romans recover.
But former Tivvy midfielder Dan Hayfield halved the deficit before Luke Russe slammed home a leveller.
Another former Tiverton player, Alex Fletcher, was in attendance with a percentage of the gate receipts donated to him. He greeted the teams before kick-off and took part in a Q and A at half-time.
Cody Cooke had City’s first opening but shot too close to the hosts’ goalkeeper from a tight angle.
Tiverton opened the scoring on 15 minutes. A short corner routine saw Jack Rice and Cam Salmon link up with the latter’s whipped delivery nodded home powerfully by Richards from close range.
Scott Wilson curled just off target from 20 yards as City struggled to test the home trialist keeper, well protected by a packed defence.
In attack Tivvy, managed by former Romans title winners Martyn and Scott Rogers, threatened in the final few minutes of the half, with Tom Bath side-footing wide from the edge of the box after trickery from the impressive Dylan Jones, and Rice’s strike from 25 yards needed the feintest of touches behind from Ollie Wright.
From the resulting corner, Louis Morison’s hanging delivery to the back post saw Britton climb higher than Kieran Parselle to head home Tiverton’s second in the final action of the half.
Having looked assured defensively in the first half, Town undid their good work five minutes after the break.
Goalkeeper and defence hesitated from a ball over the top which allowed Hayfield to nip in and prod the ball past the Tiverton number one before effectively walking the ball into the net.
Three minutes later it was 2-2. Chris Lines was allowed to stride forward from centre-back before easily playing the ball through to Russe, who kept onside and slammed home, wrong-footing the goalkeeper.
Jones weaved past the City defence but shot too close to Wright, with a home trialist also heading straight at the Romans custodian after a smooth build-up down the right.
Hayfield was smartly denied by the home goalkeeper when Lines’ quick free-kick found him in space and Joe Raynes flashed wide as Bath probed more but had to settle for a third draw in five friendlies.
Att: n/a
City’s Line-Up: Wright; Dyer, Lines, Parselle (c) (Batten 63); Raynes, Hayfield, Smith, Russe, Greenslade; Cooke (Morgan 63), Wilson. Subs not used: Robinson, Trialist, King, Ford.
Scorers: City – Hayfield (50), Russe (53); Tiverton – Richards (15), Britton (43)
City Bookings: none
Referee: Jon Veale