City squad is better on paper than on grass, concedes Bartlett

Scott Bartlett says that Bath City’s squad is currently better on paper than it is on grass.

Bath City keeper Harvey Wiles-Richards, pink, joins the attack in the closing stages of the Emirates FA Cup clash with visitors Weymouth | Photo © Simon Howe

The Romans are in an early-season slump that has seen them lose three games in a row.

After two defeats in Pitching In Southern League Premier South over the Summer Bank Holiday weekend, City were beaten by lower-grade Weymouth in the Emirates FA Cup first qualifying round on Saturday 5th September.

Following the 2-0 reverse by the Southern League Division One South team at the Cannon Clarke Stadium @ Twerton Park, Bath manager Bartlett said of the game: “Really poor. I thought even our good bits weren’t clean.

“I’d be hanging our hat on five or six really good deliveries in the first half. We didn’t really create a chance, apart from one really clean move, where Scotty [Wilson] got a good shot off, but that was outside the box. We didn’t penetrate them nearly enough.

“We’re huffing and puffing but we’re finding it hard to win games. Looks like we’ve got a little bit of an identity crisis, really.

“Again we made changes, we tried to freshen it up, and we trained brilliantly on Thursday [3rd September].

“But as the game wore on, once it becomes a bit stop-start, we find it really difficult to get that tempo back. And that would be a fair assessment.

“Even our better players on the day were nowhere near where they should be.

“Maybe being happy with some of the bits has set our bar a bit low, as a group of players, a group of people, and staff.

“I think that maybe when we’ve been good, we’ve told them we’ve been good, but really it’s probably not good enough to get us to where we want to get to.

“It’s a really disappointing result, and it’s three [defeats] on the spin, so there’s no shirking it, and you’ve got to take responsibility. First and foremost it’s mine.

“But the players need to realise that they’re in the team at the moment, they need to stay in it, and if they’re not in the team, they probably need to have a look at the reason why.

“We’ve lost an awful lot of games in the last few years, and we need to change the culture.

“I thought that we’d almost cracked it by the end of last season.

“But things creep back in, and I just think that we weren’t very good today. I don’t think Weymouth were particularly good either. That’s my honest opinion.

“They deserved to beat us in the end. They ran forward quicker than we ran back.

“Some players have given us absolutely everything – whether that’s still enough, I don’t know.

“But I thought it was a really low-quality game – and we have to make sure that there are no excuses.

“Yes, it’s dry, grass is a bit long, it’s bobbly. There are excuses you can say every single game. But we haven’t looked anywhere near where we will look.

“If we’d won that game, or even got a draw, I’d be saying the same thing, that we probably aren’t dominating the game enough. We’re not dictating the tempo of the game at any point for a long period.

“What I did say at half-time was I thought we’d started poorly and for the first time this season we actually recovered quite well, to a point where we did get it wide quite well. We switched it quite well.

“Joe [Raynes] put in three or four amazing crosses from the right-hand side. On another day you score – but another day isn’t today.

“So largely disappointed, particularly with the second half again.

“I think that we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“We were hopeful with the ball today rather than purposeful.

“We tried everything from a coaching point of view, we changed to a four, changed it back to a three. We ended up with five up front at the end. And still we lacked any real quality.

“There are some good players in that dressing room. But we haven’t got enough at the moment in any sort of form or confidence.

“It’s my job mainly, but also theirs, and everyone’s, to stay positive and get around them [City’s problems], because there are good things happening here.

“When we get it right, it’s going be a really tough place for teams to come. But at the moment, we’re seen as a bit of a scalp that’s maybe got a little bit of a softness, which hurts.

“But we take the pats on the back so you have to take the criticism as well, and you take responsibility for that – but we all need to do it, myself, all the staff and all the players.

“They [Bath’s players] didn’t have enough left in the tank [in the closing stages]. That’s something we’re talking about.

“If anyone wasn’t fighting, they wouldn’t get anywhere near our starting XI or our bench.

“But I know how it looks, and I feel it as well, because it’s difficult when you see an opposition coming away with a ball in a 50/50, or running away from us.

“So I know how it looks, and it’s difficult to stomach, definitely.

“But I thought, in fairness, probably the team that looked like they wanted it more won the game. Well, actually, no, that’s not the case, but that’s how it looks, and we’ve got to do something about that quickly.

“Last Saturday [29th August], after 60, 70 minutes [of the home game with Uxbridge], we were top of the league, and everyone was happy, probably except me, because I felt that our performances weren’t anywhere like good enough to get us where I want us to get to and where we will get to.

“We thought a few tweaks here and there would help us. I think it will do long-term – but at the moment, we’ve got to make sure that we get back to winning ways as quickly as we can.

“The only way you can do it is to work really, really hard. It doesn’t just happen. You don’t go from that today – which was slow, lethargic – to a sparking display. It never, ever happens.

“So, we’ve got to grind together, grind something out, stick together.

“I’ve got to get as many of the players that are starting or coming off the bench in some sort of form. But sometimes it’ll be down to them.

“And if they can’t do it over a period of time, then we look at have we got the right personnel in the building to do what we need to do?

“I believe there’s a good squad there – but at the moment, it’s better on paper than it is on grass.”