DORCHESTER TOWN 1

Bath 42

BRISTOL CITY XI 4

No. 11 34, Dunstan 52 og, No. 3 65, No. 18 89

DORCHESTER Town sustained their first defeat of pre-season as a youthful Bristol City XI won 4-1 at the Avenue Stadium.

City were full of running, showed excellent tactical awareness and slick passing in torrential rain as Dorchester’s energy levels fell away during the second half.

Dorchester made five changes from the side that started the 6-0 victory over the Magpies’ under-23s.

Under-23s’ keeper Bradley Smith came in along with Tiago Sa, Charlie Madden, Josiah Dunstan and Emile Ngoy, who shook off a calf strain.

Tom Blair (back) and Harry Hodges (dead leg) were among the omissions.

Dorchester had designed this game to pose their biggest test in pre-season so far, but the hosts started brightly as Sa worked the Robins’ keeper with a first-minute corner.

The two sides traded chances as Smith caught a free-kick before Sa went close with a sweet shot that drifted just wide of the far post.

Sa again threatened goal with a searching free-kick that nestled on the roof of the net, but it was City who took the lead.

Slipping into the Dorchester penalty area too easily the Robins’ left-sided winger cut in and rifled a deflected shot past the helpless Smith in the 34th minute.

Eight minutes later, the Magpies equalised with a well-worked goal.

Bayston was the catalyst with a blazing run on the left and he checked back to find Sa whose pinpoint cross was on a plate for Bath to nod home into the bottom-left corner.

However, defender Oakley Hanger was replaced before the break by Jack Torniainen having sustained an apparent injury.

After the restart, Smith smothered a good chance for City’s number 10 before the Robins made it 2-1 when a teasing low cross from the number 11 was poked beyond Smith by Josiah Dunstan.

Home goalscorer Bath then went down clutching his hamstring and was replaced by a trialist winger.

Sa, who was excellent for the hosts, was denied a goal by a wicked deflection and from the resulting corner the sub trialist winger boomed wide.

In the 65th minute, the Robins were 3-1 up when a sub winger slid in a terrific cross along a sodden six-yard box for the unmarked left-back to tap into an empty net.

Dorchester battled on and youngster Smith shone when denying the Robins’ sub striker a clean through chance.

Robins’ number eight missed with a shot on the turn and their number 18 turned and struck an effort at Smith before the latter slammed home from an acute angle on the right flank to complete the scoring.

Magpies: Smith, Hanger (Torniainen 45), Sa, Madden, Dunstan (Trialist 73), Trialist (Poole 46), Clarke, Lowes, Bayston (Trialist 64), Bath (Trialist 58), Ngoy (Griggs 46).

Bristol City XI: No. 1, No. 2 (No. 22 64), No. 3 (No. 4 73), No. 4 (No. 21 64), No. 5 (No. 2 73), No. 6 (No. 16 64), No. 7 (No. 20 64), No. 8 (No. 19 73), No. 9 (No. 15 64), No. 10 (No. 18 64), No. 11 (No. 8 73).