Keary's late goal gives Bath City victory
Bath City 1
Keary (81)
Bristol Rovers 0
Referee: Mr P Rees
Attendance: 837
Former Rovers defender Pat Keary popped up with an 81st minute winning goal for Bath City at Twerton Park this afternoon, heading home from a corner.
The match provided a good workout for a Rovers side that contained a mix of triallists, scholars, first year pros and new signings.
Darrell Clarke fielded the side he named yesterday, which included triallists Pierce Mitchell, Ryan Higgins, Neal Trotman and Dan Thompson.
Mitchell and Higgins appeared in the friendly fixtures, against Cirencester Town and Cheltenham Town. Trotman, with Plymouth Argyle last season, trained with the club over in Wales this week, while former Portsmouth scholar Dan Thompson ended last season with Bognor Regis Town.
Goalkeeper Kieran Preston was in goal and another second year scholar, Ryan Broom, was in the starting lineup.
The four first year pros, Aaron Ward-Baptiste, Jamie Lucas, Dominic Thomas and Danny Greenslade all started, as did recent signings Jake Gosling and Jamie White.
After torrential rain in the build to the game, the teams actually kicked off in bright sunshine.
Home skipper Danny Ball had the game’s first opportunity, but headed well wide from a cross from the right.
Gosling threaded a delightful ball through to Ward-Baptiste on eight minutes and the youngster calmly beat home goalkeeper Jason Mellor only to see his effort ruled out for offside.
Gosling, who was looking lively then traded passes with Broom, whose cross was safely gathered by Mellor.
The home side almost went ahead as the 20 minute mark approached. Dave Pratt found Andy Watkins in space on the edge of the area, but the striker’s shot was beaten away by Preston.
Five minutes later Rovers were awarded a free kick following a foul on White, but Gosling’s free kick from the edge of the area was comfortably dealt with by Mellor.
Another chance went begging for the home side when Watkins took advantage of a slip by Mitchell to advance on goal. However with only Preston to beat, he rolled the ball wide of the upright.
With ten minutes of the half remaining, Gosling again tested Mellor with another free kick, but the keeper once more saved comfortably.
Three minutes before the break Preston made an outstanding save when he dived to his left to touch a fierce drive from substitute Ross Stearn over the bar.
Shortly afterwards Ward-Baptiste somehow managed to glance a header wide, when well placed, from White’s cross.
Gosling fired a left foot shot over the bar four minutes after the restart After torrential rain in the build to the game, the teams actually kicked off in bright sunshine.
Home skipper Danny Ball had the game’s first opportunity, but headed well wide from a cross from the right.
Gosling threaded a delightful ball through to Ward-Baptiste on eight minutes and the youngster calmly beat home goalkeeper Jason Mellor only to see his effort ruled out for offside.
Gosling, who was looking lively then traded passes with Broom, whose cross was safely gathered by Mellor.
The home side almost went ahead as the 20 minute mark approached. Dave Pratt found Andy Watkins in space on the edge of the area, but the striker’s shot was beaten away by Preston.
Five minutes later Rovers were awarded a free kick following a foul on White, but Gosling’s free kick from the edge of the area was comfortably dealt with by Mellor.
Another chance went begging for the home side when Watkins took advantage of a slip by Mitchell to advance on goal. However with only Preston to beat, he rolled the ball wide of the upright.
With ten minutes of the half remaining, Gosling again tested Mellor with another free kick, but the keeper once more saved comfortably.
Three minutes before the break Preston made an outstanding save when he dived to his left to touch a fierce drive from substitute Ross Stearn over the bar.
Shortly afterwards Ward-Baptiste then somehow managed to glance a header wide, when well placed, from White’s cross.
Gosling fired a long range effort over the bar four minutes into the second half.
It was another 15 minutes before we saw another opportunity and that fell home striker Dave Pratt, who hit a shot straight at Preston.
On 72 minutes Gosling made a run from the halfway line before releasing Lucas who ran on and hit a powerful shot towards goal which saw Mellor make a fine save. The keeper’s block rebounded to the youngster
who headed his follow up attempt into the arms of the grateful custodian.
With nine minutes remaining the home side took the lead when former Rovers defender Keary arrived at the back post to send a powerful header past Preston from Stearn’s corner.
Stearn wasted an opportunity to double the home side's lead in the final minute, firing wide with only Preston to beat.
Rovers: Kieran Preston, Ryan Higgins, Neal Trotman, Pierce Mitchell, Danny Greenslade, Ryan Broom, Dominic Thomas, Aaron Ward-Baptiste (Jamie Lucas, 58), Jake Gosling, Dan Thompson (Ellis Harrison, 53), Jamie White
Substitutes: Ollie Clarke
Bath City: Jason Mellor, Dan Bowman (Pat Keary, 63), Martin Slocombe, Andy Gallinagh, Danny Ball, Sekani Simpson, Frankie Artus (Ben Adelsbury, 53), Ashley Kington (Chris Allen, 53), Dave Pratt, Andy Watkins (Zak Evans, 83), Chas Hemmings (Ross Stearn, 38).
Substitutes: Elliot Gibbons, Jordan Ricketts, Ryan Mitchell