Southern League Premier Division Saturday 4 March 2006 - Ladymead - kick off 3.00pm

Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

Both sides started tentatively, but it was Tiverton who gained the early upper hand, creating a succession of half-chances in the opening 15 minutes. A curling Steve Winter free-kick, from a tight angle, forced Evans into a clawing save, before Chris Bale wasted Tiverton's best chance when he sliced Mudge's pull back wide from eight yards out. Slightly against the run of play, City took the lead when Walsh capitalised on a mistake from Tom Gould to blast past debutant keeper Stuart Jones at the near post. The goal deflated Tiverton and the game stagnated for the rest of the half with only a couple of good runs from Bird producing any kind of excitement.

The second half started scrappily and got worse from there, although at 1-0 there was always an air of tension as the home side tried to grab an equaliser. In fairness to Relish's side, it was up to Tiverton to try and make the game more exciting, but they were restricted to a handful of half-chances by a City defence that looked back to its imposing best. It was City who had the best of the openings too, with Bird and Steve Jones both going close, and Tiverton's only notable effort was a Sam Croft header that Paul Evans did well to stop. City were in control though and made sure of the win when the impressive Rollo lifted the ball over the keeper from the edge of the area with a slightly fortunate chip eight minutes from time. That should have been that, but referee Andy Perlejewski, who had otherwise been excellent, endured a nightmare final five minutes. First he denied Craig Davidge a penalty when the winger was brought down from behind with only the keeper to beat. He then stopped Dean Clarke being treated for an injury, instead signalling for the Welshman to get up, only for the midfielder to limp off the field minutes later. It still looked academic, but then David Steele fell over theatrically in a crowd of City players and the man in black hesitantly pointed to the spot. Bird, who had been on the rough end of some 50-50 decisions all game, took his protests too far and was shown his second yellow card. Steve Winter cracked the ball home and, almost immediately, the final whistle was blown.