National League South Braintree Town 0 Bath City 2 It was hardly surprising that Iron manager Brad Quinton kept his players locked in the dressing room for a good half an hour after their dismally inept and dreadful performance in this game which was deservedly won by a clear mile by the visitors.
It has to be regarded as the Iron’s worst 90 minutes of football this season leaving Quinton extremely frustrated.
He said: “To say I’m bitterly disappointed is an understatement because we were poor, failed to do the basics right, failed to pass the ball to one another cleanly and lacked initiative going forward so we didn’t really created anything.”
A rightly delighted City boss Jerry Gill said: “It was a fantastic all round performance by my players who dominated the game throughout, scored two good goals and should have had more.
“It was another clean sheet for us and I felt we managed the game right to the end on a difficult pitch,” he added. “I’ve now a good, well balanced squad with competition for places and we are playing well.”
For the Iron this was another serious dent in their intended promotion aims and on this showing that seems a way off dream because they were dreadful with no authority in midfield, no bite in attack, and some chaotic defending at times.
Ironically the Iron could have taken the lead in the first minute when young Reece Grant raced clear only to put his shot wide of the goal with just keeper Luke Southwood to beat, but after this bright opening 10 minutes spell the game totally belonged to visiting City.
They deservedly took the lead on 23 minutes when Iron keeper Nathan McDonald failed to hold a comparatively easy low shot from Anthony Straker leaving Nat Jarvis to react quickest and tap the short rebound home.
On 32 minutes they added a second with a superb right wing curling shot into the top corner of the home net by Jack Compton giving McDonald no chance.
From then onwards it was all City who showed far more determination individually, played feet football in tricky conditions and they opened up the home defence time and again with some attractive football and the only surprise for visiting fans was that they didn’t add to the tally in their dominant second half.
For the Iron it’s case of back to the drawing board and some fresh personnel needed in one or two positions if they are to reignite their promotion push.
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