Wells City Ladies (0) 1 Bath City Women (4) 5 – Sunday 27 August 2023 – Pre-Season Friendly – Athletic Ground
City’s Line-Up: Farley; T Davis, Curtis, Gray, Black; Taylor, Giles; Bull, Goater, Dunne; Sabic. Subs used: Harris, Wright, L Davis.
Scorers: City – Dunne (20), Goater (24), Sabic (37, 90p), Wright (45+2); Wells – Own Goal (76)
Bath City Women rounded off pre-season in style with a comfortable win at Wells City.
Four goals in the first half made the difference as the Romans attacked with style against divisional rivals from last year.
Having controlled the early stages on the vast Athletic Ground surface, Bath took the lead on 20 minutes when Hari Sabic worked the ball wide to Tamzin Dunne, who cut inside and saw her strike deflect heftily off Shannon Lockey to give goalkeeper Lucie Nurse no chance.
It took four minutes to add a second. Chelsea Giles’ industrious play in midfield ended with a superb through ball to Libby Goater, who deceived Nurse at her near post from a narrow angle.
Sabic rounded Nurse and neatly curled past a player on the line to make it three before Tanea Wright notched a fourth in first half added time, capping off a miserable first period for the hosts.
To their credit Wells didn’t give in and improved after half-time. They were presented a way back into the game when the referee signalled shirt-pulling in the box but Emily Brown’s penalty missed the target.
Curtis inadvertently pulled one back for the Blues when Caitlin Baker’s corner saw the centre-back head home at the near post past a frustrated Sadie Farley.
Having not got into gear in the second half, this sparked City up again as Taylor was brilliantly denied by Nurse with Sabic placing the rebound wide.
Captain Taylor was involved in City’s fifth, winning a penalty for handball from the grounded Kelly Weston. Sabic confidently side-footed home from the spot to complete the scoring and give Matt Abreu’s team a perfect confidence boost ahead of the season opener with Weymouth this Sunday.