Bath win in Blue Square Premier Playoff Final

Bath City 2 - 1 Aldershot Town (Blue Square Premier Playoff Final)

Bath City won a hard fought battle against Aldershot Town on a fine spring afternoon at Wembley. A brace from Amadou Kouman helped Bath to victory.

Midfielder Amadou Kouman got Bath off to a flyer by scoring a placed shot on 6 minutes. Kouman doubled Bath's lead with a placed shot on 17 minutes.

Aldershot also saw their 22nd minute strike questionably chalked off. Striker Danny Hylton managed to grab the consolation for Aldershot in the 65th minute with a powerful close range effort.

Attendance: 38817

We managed to hold out for a 0-1 scoreline against Kettering to take the semi-final into extra time. With our squad riddled with injuries and spent from the FA Trophy, we hobbled around the pitch hoping for the coin toss of penalties. Goal chances are few and far between, so off to penalties we go! Letheren saves one and we make it through. Luckily there's a week to rest up before the finals.

Kouman comes out of the blocks firing and nails 2 into the back of the net. It feels like the AM pattern is running well, so we exploit the middle and hope for more. Many chances, but nothing else goes in for us. We look pretty comfortable at 1/2 time and seem to have their measure. Aldershot finally blast one through in the 2nd half, but we are still getting more solid chances than they are.

With 5 minutes to go we shut up shop and hope they don't strike it lucky. The game fizzles toward a 2-1 win to us. We're going up to Division 2, but memories of our FA Trophy defeat are still fresh in our minds. Seems like we got something out of this month, but not entirely what we were expecting. Hopefully the achievement will sink in more through the coming days.

May is going to be fantastic for the budget. The Kettering semi final leg at Twerton Park broke $75K, then 2 apppearances at wembley brought in another 500K to double our total gate receipts for the year. We now have a healthy cash position to help us buy up for the entry into the professional league.

Bath powerless to resist as Rushden dominate

Bath City 1 - 3 Rushden & Diamonds (FA Trophy Final)

Bath City were on the end of a deserved defeat at Wembley as they were completely outplayed by their opponents. A brace from Raymond Putterill helped Rushden to victory.

The match began in controversy with Rushden seeing a goal disallowed in controversial circumstances. Rushden also saw their 20th minute strike questionably chalked off.

Rushden finally took the lead when winger Raymond Putterill scored a well timed close range finish on 43 minutes. Putterill doubled Rushden's lead with a powerful close range effort on 46 minutes.

Striker Billy Paynter gave the Bath fans a glimmer of hope after 64 minutes with a powerful effort. Full-back Curtis Osano completed the scoring for Rushden with a screamer from the edge of the area on 73 minutes.

Young winger Jack Boyle then summed up his team's performance by nearly gifting Rushden another goal on 83 minutes.

Attendance: 24069

Powerless sounds about right. Rushden has been dominant this season and finished well clear on top of the table. Our last encounter with them ended badly, and with tired legs going into this match, it wasn't looking like we had many options. By 1/2 time we were still in the game on the scoreboard, but they had the majority of posession and shots on goal.

The fans left despondant after the final whistle as it wasn't a pretty game. Most seem to forget that it was far above our expectations of even getting to the final, let alone be in a promotion playoff that had caused the match congestion.

At least we're still in with a shot at the playoffs. Our 3-2 lead in the first leg of the semis over Kettering only 3 days before the FA Trophy caused our lack of sting, but hopefullyy we can keep it together in the return leg to make it to the finals.