Tuesday 9th November 2021 ko 19:45

Somerset Premier Cup 2nd Round

BATH CITY 3 (Fletcher 8 Cooke 37 Smith 74)

PORTISHEAD TOWN 0

Att 476

Entry £8

Programme 50p

From a groundhopping perspective this didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’ve been to Twerton Park on a number of occasions, to the point that I’ve seen Bath City, Bristol Rovers and even Team Bath all play home games here. And as lovely is the place is, and you can double that for a game under lights, why on earth would Robyn and I engage in a mad dash after work from Oxford to see this game? The answer is family. 

Those of you with longer memories will remember GroundhopUK’s visit to Portishead Town on the Western Hop. Then, as now the Portishead manager is Eamonn Daly, and he is married to my wife Robyn’s cousin Claire. Now if you were there that day you’ll remember that there was someone missing- Robyn as her sister Kelly had organised her Hen Do that weekend!

So when Eamonn shared that Portishead had drawn Bath City away in the County Cup, I knew Robyn would want to be involved, in the six years we’ve been together she’s learned my rather cavalier attitude towards distance! What was a lovely surprise was that Kelly and seven other members of the Marshall clan drove from southern Bristol to join us, and we were joined by Hengrove Athletic’s  Martin McConachie who became an honorary Marshall for the evening!

I doubt any of us expected anything other than a home win. Bath City play in the National League South while Portishead play 4 divisions lower in the Western League’s first division. Eamonn has done a superb job in turning his team from being relegation fodder into a well established Western League side, but one glance at the Bath line-up saw them playing former full-timers like Ryan Clarke (Oxford United) and Lloyd James (Leyton Orient). 

The Bath win happened, but Eamonn and everyone  connected with Portishead should be extremely proud of how they both played, but also how they conducted themselves. As for me, it was lovely to support Eamonn and see family, but if you like football how could you fail to love a game under lights at Twerton?