Bath City 5 Raging Fever 5

George Dugdale

Raging Fever made the early journey west to Bath University to take on a youthful Bath City side. Due to a rumoured fear of regional accents, Fever travelled with a squad of only nine players. Fever's opponents kindly offered to lend some players. The appreciation of such generosity is shown throughout this report with the use of some derogatory nicknames.

The facilities at Bath University are phenomenal and would later put Bristol Rovers to shame. Fever's squad spent a lengthy period of time hunting for the changing rooms, passing a trampolining competition and offices for GB bobsleigh, Bath rugby and a Southampton FC satellite academy along the way.

The pitch was equally impressive and had held up well after the cold snap. The playing area was also substantial, which was bad news for Fever's new look midfield. Put simply, if breathalysers were used to decide central midfield partnerships, Thom Airs and George Dugdale would not have been paired together.

Despite the unfamiliar look to the Fever line-up, the visitors started the game rapidly. The match was barely two minutes old when a poor goalkeeper's clearance fell to Thom Airs, who judged the wind well to lift the ball back over the keeper's head and into the net. One touch, one goal.

Moments later, Fever doubled their advantage. A Dugdale corner was missed by the Bath defence, allowing Nick Wehmeier to fire home on the turn.

In one of the more incredible Fever performances, the advantage was three within the opening ten minutes. Dugdale lifted a ball over the Bath defence, allowing Wehmeier to race clear before slotting home his second of the day.

With Fever dominating possession, stroking the ball around nicely and creating chances at will, you would imagine the rest of this report would continue in a similar manner. However, this is Fever and it didn't.

Things started to go wrong when a misdirected Dugdale pass allowed a Bath attacker to intercept and race clear. Fever's guest goalkeeper, who was clearly regular goalkeeper Joel Harrison's western cousin, made a fine sprawling save, but tripped the Bath striker as he attempted to gather the loose ball. Bath's captain stepped up to slot the spot-kick home.

As quickly as Fever had raced into the lead, everything went wrong. Sloppy defending and a failure to retain possession played a large part as Bath made the most of Fever's generosity to pull another before the interval.

Things didn't improve after the break. Bath scored a further three unanswered goals, leaving Fever to wonder what exactly had gone wrong. One thing that hadn't gone wrong was the guest goalkeeper, who was doing everything in his power to keep the score down.

There were some tired legs among the Fever ranks, but the passing rhythm seen earlier in the game began to return as the game entered its final stages. Clear opportunities had been limited since the opening minutes, with a long-range Airs effort the closest Fever had come.

However, with fifteen minutes remaining Fever got a foothold in the game. John Matthews slotted a pass through to James Longshaw, who gave the goalkeeper the eyes to slot home.

Nick Wehmeier rolled an effort narrowly wide of the past after another Matthews through-ball, before Fever got back on level terms. Pat Wehmeier fed Airs in the midfield, allowing him to drive towards the edge of the penalty area. Dugdale raced onto the resultant pass to poke home with the outside of his right foot.

There was still time for Fever to go close to an eleventh goal in the game as Matthews flashed a volley narrowly wide of the post.

This was a game that was a little out of the ordinary and gives Fever a lot to improve on ahead of a derby fixture with Swindon before the Macclesfield game.

Fever: Bath City 'Joel', Bath City Seb, Nick Holloway, Robb Milne, Paul Soper, James Longshaw, George Dugdale, Thom Airs, Pat Wehmeier, John Matthews, Nick Wehmeier, Bath City 'Gareth Bale'.

Goals:N Wehmeier (2), Airs, Longshaw, Dugdale.