Stevenage Athletic 1
Bath City 0
Southern League Cup (1st Round 1st Leg)

Match report written by Alan Watson, Stevenage Gazette, 7th October 1971

Stevenage go into second leg with one-goal lead

MONDAY NIGHT'S Southern League Cup game at Broadhall Way was a veritable game of two halves. In the first half Stevenage outclassed Bath, scored a goal, and should have scored at least one more. In the second, they went off the boil, and could so easily have surrendered their slender lead.

The outcome was an interesting situation for the return leg at Bath on Monday week.

Stevenage's 1-0 lead might just be enough to see them through the tie, as long as they don't go all out to defend that lead.

For the second period of the match showed how dangerous that policy can be. Athletic's loss of rhythm after the break allowed Bath to come forward and play their football. And although City still never really looked like scoring on Monday night, it could be a different story when they play on their home territory.

Stevenage would have been firm favourites to make the next round if Keith Hargreaves had scored instead of hitting the post in the 24th minute, when a brilliant dummy from Ray Dingwall completely up-turned the City defence.

Hargreaves had already scored one goal, in the ninth minute. Joe Jefferies made the most of a not-very-promising situation with a splendid cross, and HARGREAVES coolly darted forward to beat the advancing McAuley.

Hargreaves also collected a first-half booking to complete an eventful 45 minutes for him. Earlier, Bunny Larkin had his name taken for kicking the ball away when he disagreed with a decision from referee Mr. A. C. Lines, who added to the first-half entertainment with some rulings that were amusing, to say the least.

It was certainly an action-packed first half, with Stevenage pinning back their Premier Division opponents with polished, attacking football. Hargreaves was playing his best soccer of the season, and it made a remarkable difference to the overall performance.

Steve Pitt, Brian Parkinson and Steve Gear were left out of the side that played on Saturday and Bunny Larkin, Tony Gregory and Ron Fagg came back into the side. The midfield play was always sound, and with Ray Dingwall at his most aggressive in the centre-forward role, Stevenage looked good.

Bath rarely ventured into the home penalty area and even inside the box they made little headway against a Stevenage defence that was back to its commanding best, with Tony Gregory outstanding.

Jose Whishaw had already tested McAuley before Stevenage scored, and late in the half Long charged in to meet Dingwall's cross with a powerful header that had speed but lacked direction. Dingwall beat Burt for sheer pace with an exciting dash down the right before putting over the centre.

Bath's sole effort of the half came when Collier failed to gather a cross and White put in a shot that was hurriedly blocked.

After the break, the game took on a different outlook. As Stevenage faded, City did enough to show that they could give Athletic a harrowing time in the return leg. Seyburn thumped a curling shot against the crossbar early in the half.

Then, with 17 minutes left, a cross found Taylor, who connected with a clever header. Collier saved, and he was on hand again to thwart Mitten when the inside-forward weaved his way past three men before hitting a snap shot.
So Stevenage kept their lead. Whether one goal will be enough to clinch a place in the second round will not be known until the second instalment at Bath.