Clevedon Town bowed out of the Somerset Premier Cup at the Everyone Active Stadium on Wednesday night after they were edged out in a five goal thriller as they pushed Bath City all the way and were in the game right up to the final whistle.
Needing a good start the Seasiders found themselves one-nil down after only three minutes when a long cross from the left cleared the hosts defence and Eddie Jones headed in at the far post.
But they were not deterred and quickly went in search of an equaliser.
On 12 minutes a long ball found Archie Ferris out wide and his cross into the box was taken by Bath keeper and captain Ryan Clarke before Syd Camper could get his head on the ball.
Three minutes later good work by the hard-working Ethan Feltham created space wide on the but Alex Twiggs just failed to get a touch on an inviting cross.
The deserved equaliser came on 17 minutes when a smart Clevedon passing move created the chance for Feltham and he curled a superb shot round goalkeeper Clarke’s dive into the corner of the net.
Stung into action Bath regained the lead five minutes later when the ball broke to Omar Holness and his superb shot from 20-yards curled round Clevedon goalkeeper Luca Smith’s despairing dive into the top corner of the net.
A good spell from City saw Momodou Touray just failed to make a proper connection with an attempted overhead kick from Jones' cross, Tom Smith was blocked in the box and Holness headed wide from a corner.
Clevedon found themselves restricted to breakaways, but they equalised again on 36 minutes with a penalty.
Callum Kingdon’s free kick found Ferris in the box who was tripped as he went round Joe Raynes. Syd Camper sent Clarke the wrong way to score from the spot and a great half ended 2-2 at the break.
In a good start to the second half Town created a great chance when just before the hour Twiggs was brought down as he burst forward, and Camper’s free kick was headed just wide by Archie Ferris.
But it was their National South League visitors who scored the next goal on 62 minutes and with the ball bouncing around in the area following a reaction save from Smith, Tom Richards set up Coady Cooke to score from close in.
City looked to press home their advantage and Clevedon keeper Smith produced two super saves to keep out shots from Alex Fletcher and Elliot Frear.
Fletcher then cut into the box and Smith again saved at the expense of a corner which Hayer headed clear, and Elliott Nicholson was on hand to clear the follow-up off the line.
Then when Holness evaded Kindom’s challenge Smith produced another diving save, it looked like Clevedon had weathered the storm and they set about getting a third equaliser, despite losing Twiggs with a nasty looking injury on 80 minutes.
First Clarke punched a Feltham cross away as Hayer challenged and Alex Camm saw a shot deflected for a corner.
Smith was then in action again at the other end when he tipped a shot from debutant substitute Ethan Cannings over.
Clevedon continued to press forward in search of the equaliser to take the game to penalties, but City held on to progress to the second round.
There were good performances throughout the Clevedon side with another great game from goalkeeper Smith through to Twiggs and Hayer at the back and the hard-working Feltham up front, but striker Ferris just shaded the Seasiders Man of the Match award.
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