British Gas Business Football League Premier Division
Saturday 20 January 2007 - Meadow Park - kick off 3.00pm
half-time: 1-0 result: W4-0 attendance: 568
team: Evans, Simpson, Rollo (c), G Jones (Coupe 41), Holland, S Jones, Rogers (Clarke 84), Hogg, Edwards, Partridge (Walsh 77). McKeever. subs not used: Harris, Green.
man of the match: Sekani Simpson
scorers: Edwards (19), Rogers (46), McKeever (47), Walsh (90)
bookings: none
officials: L Blackwood (Walsall), G Blackmore (Studley), E Smart (Smethwick)
league position: 1st form: LWWWWW next match: Tiverton (EC) (A)
Report taken from by Richard Gadsby

Whisper it, but Bath City's title bid is looking more and more assured with every passing weekend. There is still a long way to go, of course, and with a small squad a run of injuries could throw a serious spanner in the works. But if the way City have started 2007 is anything to go by there is only one stand-out candidate for automatic promotion from the British Gas Business Premier Division this year. John Relish's side have now clocked up 16 goals, five successive clean sheets, and a maximum 12 points since the turn of the year, while title rivals like King's Lynn, Mangotsfield and Hitchin continue to take points off each other. Arguably City biggest threat to the championship could be their Twerton Park tenants. Team Bath top the division's form table and, for once, are very well placed as they head into the second half of the season - traditionally the time they reach their peak. If City can keep up the sort of form they showed on Saturday, though, it will all be academic.

Their 4-0 battering of local rivals Gloucester will do nothing to dispel the growing optimism at Twerton Park. In wet and windy conditions, on a bobbly pitch, Relish's side somehow manage to play some scintillating football, especially in the second half. And, but for the heroics of hosts keeper Matt Bath, the scoreline could have been even more emphatic. Both sides struggled to adapt to the inter-changeable weather at the start of the game and mistakes were rife early on. The ball seemed to constantly get stuck under people's feet, robbing Scott Partridge of an early one-on- one chance, and the best opportunities all seemed to come from set-pieces. A Chris Holland header from a Mark McKeever corner had already forced Matt Bath into a fine tip over when another McKeever inswinger led to the first goal. Again it was Holland with the powerful header, but Darren Edwards managed to stick a neck out as it sailed past him to nod the ball past the wrong-footed keeper. City had been on top at that stage but Gloucester enjoyed their best spell of the game straight after the goal. Mike Fowler volleyed wide from the edge of the penalty area after a well- worked corner routine, but City dealt with the pressure well and came back strongly as the half came to a close. And it could have been 2-0 just before half-time when Bath made a fine double save, first to palm away Scott Partridge's cross-cum-shot and then blocking Lewis Hogg's sliding effort from the rebound.

It was still anyone's game as the players came in at half-time. Two minutes into the second half, however, it was all over as City made it 2-0 almost straight from the restart. Lewis Hogg skipped past a defender on the right wing, drew the other marker and then pulled the ball back for Scott Rogers to blast home. And it was 3-0 just a minute later when Scott Partridge's weighted flick past Bath bounced off the post and rolled kindly for McKeever to curl home. Any plans the Tigers made at half-time were thrown out of the window and Tim Harris' demoralised side never really recovered. For their part, City played some excellent pass-and- move football, with Hogg and Rogers running riot in midfield to carve open the hosts' defence. Only an inspired performance from Bath in the hosts' goal kept the visitors at bay. But City were not to be denied though and grabbed a deserved fourth goal two minutes into injury time when substitute Phillip Walsh headed in at the back post from a corner for his second goal in a week.