Bristol City caused much disappointment to Trowbridge spectators on Wednesday evening by not bringing more representative League match for the "Festival of Britain†game. Biggest disappointment was the absence of Alec Eisentrager, who played with the Town before joining the Ashton Gate club as a professional.
Nevertheless a keen robust game was seen, with the respective defences outstanding, though some rather easy scoring chances were thrown away through over-eagerness. Neither goal-keeper was unduly troubled for some time, and then Morgan, in the City goal, brought off a grand save from a splendid first-time drive by Harry Haddon. The Trowbridge goal had two very lucky escapes in a lively onslaught by the City shortly before half-time. Once King dived to a low shot from Rudkin and deflected the bill past an upright when Vince was at the opposite side of the goal, and a few minutes later Welch kicked off the home goal-line.
In the second half Trowbridge's long and accurate passing often caught the City defence with open gaps, and from one such raid, initiated by J. Davies, who played very intelligently, Trowbridge scored the only goal of the match. The ball passed to Haddon who, rather than shoot, took the ball to the goal-line, and when Morgan tried to intercept the winger passed inside to Dagg, who slammed the ball into the roof of the net first time. Rudkin, from few yards out, missed badly for the City, and Abrahams tapped the ball outside the City goal from an unmarked position after Dagg had given him a perfect pass. There were a couple of hard luck efforts —Haddon striking the City crossbar with a grand drive, and D. Prentice doing likewise for the City, George Vince knocking himself out when colliding with the upright in his endeavour to reach the ball. The goalkeeper soon recovered, however.
Tuck was again a great tower of strength to Trowbridge at centre half, and King, Welch and Gough all did well. The home forwards, although missing several scoring opportunities, served up some attractive play against a strong defence, in which Mitchelson (left back), Compton (centre half), Bignal (right half) and Morgan (goal) were outstanding. Before the match Mr. E. Bullock, chairman of the Supporters' Club, presented a cheque for £600 to Mr. J. Ladd, the Town F.C. Chairman. Referring to the ground improvement scheme, Mr. Ladd said: "You all know the wretched conditions our boys laboured under during the past wet winter. We are now going to endeavour to make those conditions much better during the close season.†He thanked Bristol City for again coming to help the club, and expressed the hope that shareholders would turn up in force with helpful criticisms at the club's annual meeting in June.
Report from the Wiltshire Times
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