Wednesday 4 September 2002 - Ladysmead - kick off 7.45pm Dr Martens Premier Division

It was Foster who almost opening the scoring after just four minutes. A poor goal kick by Collis allowed Williams to lay the ball off to last seasons top scorer but the keeper recovered well to block his shot. However, Collis failed to learn from this escape and this ended his interest in the match a minute later. His weak clearance was pounced on by Williams and he rounded the keeper only to be hauled to the ground. The mandatory red card was flashed and after about a five minute delay Pears took the gloves to face Jason Drysdale from the penalty spot. Whether the delay affected the City wing-back is not clear but despite placing the kick well Pears guessed right and palmed the ball to safety. The miss was disappointing but with a man advantage and a stand-in keeper City should have been in control only for Drysdale to blot his copybook even further after 14 minutes. The ball went out of play on the left and despite the linesman awarding City the throw the referee pointed in the other direction. Unaware Drysdale tired to wrestle the ball off the Winter leading to a scuffle involving both benches and most of the players. When calm was restored the referee sent Drysdale off but only booked Winter. With the numbers now even Tiverton began to show why the went into the game unbeaten, easily protecting Pears and looking more and more threatening going forward. Pears was forced into tipping a Foster cross over on 25 minutes but five minutes later the home side took the lead. Rudge's initial header came back off the post, even though Mark Bryant blocked Chenoweth's follow-up the ball fell kindly for Rogers and he had a simple tap-in. Rollo almost got on the end of a Williams cross after 35 minutes as City fought back. With five minutes remaining in the half Tiverton grabbed their second goal. Gary Thorne gave the ball away on the halfway line allowing Everett to excahnges passes with Winter before firing past Bryant.

Playing down the slope in the second half City should have come out all guns blazing to put pressure on the emergency keeper. Time after time they produced some neat approach play but never looked like finding a way through Tivvy's back line. In fact on the occasional break they looked more likely to score, Roger's 60th minute shot going the closest. As their fustration began to build City were lucky not to be reduced to nine men. Harvey, having been booked in the first period, was being targetted by a number of sly challenges and he retalliated by aiming a kick at Everett. Having escaped a second caution manager Alan Pridham sensibly pulled him off to be replaced by Gary Horgan. Inadvertantly, perhaps, this change led directly to City getting back into the game. The substitue collected the ball two minutes later and tried his luck from 25 yards. The shot flew arrow straight and found the corner of the net. Finally City began to put some pressure on their hosts. Foster wriggled free of his marker only for Pears to parry his shot. Rudge just got to the ball ahead of Ellis Wilmot to clear the rebound. A nasty clash of heads saw City's Thorne and Town's Peters forced from the action with just over 10 minutes left. Committed to throwing men forward City had a couple of close escapes at the back and with two minutes remaining this policy appeared to have paid dividends when Haines flattened Williams in the box and City were awarded another penalty. This time Foster stepped up and gave the keeper no chance of repeating his first half heroics by blasting the ball two yards over the bar. City's sizable travelling support were left stunned and even though there was still time for Wilmot to see his close range shot kicked away by Pears that was the end of hopes of a repeat of the Chippenham excitement.