Tuesday 17 February 2004 - Ironmould Lane - kick off 8.20pm Dr Martens Premier Division

City’s embarrassment was furthered by the fact that their side contained eight of the players who so impressed in Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Havant & Waterlooville. The three changes saw keeper Paul Evans and player-manager Gary Owers rested plus cup-tied Darren Hawkins unavailable. In came Justin Shuttlewood for his second start of the season in goal, Iain Harvey into the centre of midfield and Frankie Bennett on the left flank. The start of the game was delayed for 35 minutes as Brislington repaired a failed floodlight but City will have wished they hadn’t bothered as within two minutes of the kick-off they fell behind. A corner was won which Shore lifted to the far post. Claridge was completely unmarked and somehow his header found it’s way past Shuttlewood. This dreadful start was soon forgotten though as City responded by pushing their lower league opposition back on the defensive. On seven minutes a neat build up saw Josh Jeffries force a good save out of Ollis. The rebound dropped to Harvey and he intelligently tried to lay it back to an unmarked Jeffries, only for a last ditch intervention by Radford to deny him a simple tap-in. A break down the right flank four minutes later by Jim Rollo ended with Scott Partridge turning his cross inches wide. An equaliser looked only a matter time but suddenly City began to look vulnerable at back every time the home side attacked. Claridge fired wide and then Cook was denied by a smart block by Shuttlewood. City failed to learn from these narrow escapes and two goals within three minutes around the half hour mark took the game away from them. The first came after Shuttlewood spilled a high ball straight to Cook who returned it into the unguarded net. Then the goalscorer was given acres of room down the left side and, when his first effort was blocked, Miller fired home the loose ball. City appeared to have grabbed a lifeline ten minutes before the interval when Frankie Bennett shot past Ollis only for a shockingly poor offside flag to deny him his first strike of the season. Ollis then produced a fine save from Bobby Ford’s well-struck shot and Steve Jenkins saw a header cleared off the goal line.

Any hopes that the second half would see a repeat of the incredible comeback at Dover ten days earlier were soon dispelled as the home side easily dealt with City’s increasingly ragged attempts to break them down. Owers replaced Drew Shore and Jeffries with Dan Cleverley and Steve Bridges but these changes had little impact on the game. City’s only threat was coming from Partridge, but for all his running and effort Brislington’s defence was rarely stretched. In truth no City player could be faulted for their effort, Rollo and Matt Coupe both earning cautions for ‘wholehearted’ challenges, however something was missing and it was clear long before the end that City’s last hope of silverware this season had disappeared. In fact it was Brislington who came closed to increasing their lead with Claridge’s overhead effort just flying over and the same player forcing another smart stop out of Shuttlewood with 17 minutes remaining. The only bright spot for City in a desperately dismal evening arrived in the shape of Steve Tweddle. City’s top scorer had been sidelined for three months with an Achilles injury so it was a welcome cheer that from the two-thirds of the crowd made up of City fans when he replaced Bennett twenty from the end. He almost capped his return with a goal in the closing stages and Bridges and Cleverley also blasted late chances high and wide but all in all it was yet another night to forget for City.