Students end Frome's brave FA Cup run

12:15pm Wednesday 15th October 2008

Team Bath 4, Frome Town 0

FROME Town's brave run in the FA Cup came to an end at Twerton Park last night as they lost 4-0 to a very good Team Bath side in the third qualifying round replay.

After the the heroic 2-2 draw on Saturday, it was always going to take a huge effort to get a result in the replay, and on the night Team Bath showed why they are flying high at the top of the Blue Circle Conference South League, though the final scoreline slightly flattered them, as Frome more than matched their hosts for long periods of the match and were in no way overawed by the occasion.

With Frome playing up the slope, the first 20 minutes were very even and played at a very fast pace. Team Bath's main attack plan seemed to be to loft high balls into the Frome area, while Frome looked to counter with fast wing play and balls played along the ground through the defence for Mark Salter to run onto. On several occasions, this almost paid off, but the speed of the Bath defence managed to nullify the threat.

In the 21st minute Joe Gomes hit a cracking 35 yard right foot shot that thudded into the body of Meredith in the home goal and four minutes, Duggan almost connected with a great right wing cross from Lapham, but the score remained level.

As on Saturday, it was 30 minutes before Richard Fey had a shot to deal with, but three minutes later, Bath took the lead as Fey stretched for a low, hard right wing cross, only for the ball to squirm out of his grasp into the path of Bath's Ben Thompson, who had an easy tap-in from 10 yards to give Bath the lead.

In the 38th minute, Fey was again in action, but this time he produced a brilliant save to tip over a 20 yard Steve Abbott shot that was screaming into the top corner.

Bath now looked to capitalise on their lead, but this allowed Frome more freedom, and in the 40th minute, a brilliant through ball from Gomes allowed Toby Colbourne space and his 20 yard shot was just saved for a corner by Meredith.

At half-time, with only one goal separating the teams, 200 plus Frome faithful looked forward to the second half, but their hopes were dashed in the 48th minute as a stunning, curling 35 yard shot from Bath's Thompson thudded against the intersection of the post and crossbar. The ball rebounded ito play and somehow found its way back to Thompson again, and his low, pacy, outswinging cross was cleanly met by the head of the diving Joe Arnold for a well taken, classy goal.

Frome struck back immediately, and one minute later, Mark Salter found himself clean through on goal, but was foiled by Meredith who did well to save at the striker's feet.

Bath effectively wrapped up the tie in the 53rd minute when Jamie Cheeseman and Leigh Burke looked to deal with a high, bouncing ball, but a penalty was awarded as a Bath attacker somehow seemed to be tripped in the incident, and Marc Canham confidently stroked the ball low into the corner of the goal for a 3-0 lead.

With the match now effectively over, both teams played attractive, open, attacking football, but Frome were caught again in the 71st minute as a through ball just evaded Cheeseman and Ben Thompson produced a carbon copy right wing cross onto the head of Joe Arnold for a well worked fourth goal.

The last 20 minutes of the match was very open and even, but neither side could find another goal, though Frome's Allison went close in the 78th minute with a shot that brought a fine save from Meredith.

At the final whistle, both teams were applauded off the pitch by the crowd of 438, and the Frome team and management can be very proud of their achievements in the this year's FA Cup, which has produced some outstanding performances and some great memories.

Mark Salter was awarded the man of the match award after a performance of skill and continuous effort against a very good defence.

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