Dowling’s strike downs old rivals Bath City

Monday 31st August

Southern League Premier South

Frome Town 1-0 Bath City

Dowling (81’)

Frome Town recor-ded an historic win in front of the Badgers Hill faithful to round off a perfect Bank Holiday weekend, picking up six points from six with a 1-0 win over rivals Bath City.

The Romans looked to start strong and in the first minute of the game, Matt Bowman had a strike from inside the area and Kyle Phillips was called upon early to make a fine save.

A chance fell to Callum Gould in the 18th minute as he had a pop from inside the D. The effort was deflected behind for a corner and David Duru’s header came off a Bath head from the resulting set piece.

Duru proved to be a livewire in the opening 45 minutes. Half an hour into the game he was in a race against the Bath City keeper Harvey Wiles-Richards and nearly stole the ball off the former Bristol City academy goalkeeper in a perilous position for the visitors.

Five minutes later Duru showed excellent hold up play down the left, though unfortunately his cross was too close to Wiles-Richards.

Just before the break Duru headed the ball forward in the direction of Archie Ferris. Ferris finished his chance past Wiles-Richards into the back of the net; however the referee pulled the play back for a foul on a Bath defender in the build up with both teams then going into the break goalless.

56 minutes into the game, Phillips had to be on his toes once again as he made a superb stop to deny the veteran and former EFL striker Alex Fisher after he went racing through on goal following a slip in the Frome backline.

It was a very cagey game for the majority of the second-half, with both teams proving to be very tough to break down.

James Morton tried a smart set piece in the 79th minute for the visitors as he hit his shot under the wall but the strike was straight at Phillips from the former Forest Green midfielder.

Straight after that free kick, Danny Greaves made three crucial changes with Brendan Holmes, Harris Feltham and George Dowling coming on in place of Zac Drew, Albie Hopkins and Josh Owers.

It was Dowling who made an instant and incredible impact off the bench on 81 minutes. It was good play by another substitute Sam Meakes down the right to keep hold of the ball before he found Dowling free on the edge of the area and he rifled a strike through a crowd of bodies and as soon as the ball nestled in the bottom corner, the ground erupted in jubilation with over 1,000 Frome fans having just witnessed what is quite possibly the biggest goal in Frome Town history.

There was still time for a Bath City equaliser however; on 84 minutes Josh Raynes delivered a ball to the back post and Phillips once again showed his goalkeeping expertise to produce a smart double save to deny Kieran Parselle twice on the volley at the back post. You could hear a roar from the crowd following those saves as if Frome had scored a second goal.

And the roar was louder when that full-time whistle finally blew after four minutes of injury time as the Dodge had masterminded a win at Badgers Hill over the famous Romans.

Report: Harry Minton