The unofficial archives of Tiverton Town Football Club
Team Bath 1 - 1 Tiverton TownWednesday 06/08/2003 Friendly | John Reidy |
Tiverton Town wound up their pre-season programme with a low key encounter that saw them come away from the University of Bath having learnt nothing that they didn´t know before they arrived. It was a game singularly lacking in excitement as neither side seemed inclined to move out of low gear. However‚ that situation did not cause too much concern for Town boss Martyn Rogers. “It was what we wanted to wind down our preparations”‚ he commented. “We didn´t pick up any injuries‚ so there are no problems on that front. It´s been quite a tough programme - six games in the last twelve days - so we´ve proved our fitness. I´ve given the lads four days off to recover from that and the minor knocks they´ve taken and we´ll have a couple of light training sessions next week to work on set pieces and the like. Then we´ll be ready for the off‚ and we´re all looking forward to that”. The action‚ such as it was‚ was mainly concentrated around the centre of the field with what goal attempts there were coming from players making solo runs that were inevitably curtailed by the defences. Town gave a run out to trialist James Turner in midfield and the young Bristol player looked quite comfortable in the team‚ while Steve Ovens starting alongside Richard Pears up front was the most threatening going forward for the Yellows. For Team Bath‚ Matt Lewis was the man causing most problems but neither goalkeeper was seriously troubled in the first 45 minutes. Nothing much was changed by the long walk to and from the changing rooms at the interval but things did liven up in the 58th minute when Shaun Goff lobbed in a shot from ten yards into the Bath half that had Darren Chitty between the students posts back peddling furiously to push the ball away for a corner. The kick was cleared away to Lewis and it was his persistent run that forced Fraser in turn to concede a corner from which former Taunton Town striker Tom Stocco headed the Dr Martens new boys in front. Town supremo Rogers immediately introduced Jamie Mudge and Kevin Nancekivell in an attempt to liven up the Tiverton forward play and the ruse brought swift results. From a free kick midway inside the Bath half‚ Mudge nudged the ball on to Paul Chenoweth. The Town midfielder slid it through the defensive wall into the path of Nancekivell who cleverly flicked it past the home keeper for the equaliser on 66 minutes. Having woken up‚ the game seemed to decide that it had done enough to entertain the sparse crowd and promptly resumed it´s slumber‚ dozing away in midfield for a further twenty four minutes. Tiverton looked more likely to add to the scoring through the liveliness of Ovens and Mudge but there was little disappointment when the referee blew the final whistle on a typical pre season friendly. Tiverton Town: S Fraser‚ S Winter‚ D Haines‚ J Rees (L Vinnicombe‚80)‚ M Aubrey‚ R Cousins‚ S Goff (K Nancekivell‚60)‚ S Ovens‚ R Pears (J Mudge‚60)‚ J Turner‚ P Chenoweth (B Harris‚80) |
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