The Southern League`s Outstanding Teams – Bath City 1977/78

A review of Bath`s fantastic season.

Any team from any era can be proud of losing just two games in a 42-game season, so when Bath City`s achieved that feat when winning the Southern League Premier Division championship in 1977/78 was remarkable.

Even more amazing is that their second defeat didn`t arrive until the very last game of the season when the title was already won.

But their crowning glory of that campaign has to be the fact that they remained unbeaten in the league until Saturday, March 11th!

Bath`s inspiration was player-manager Brian Godfrey.

The former Welsh international joined City as player-manager in May 1976.

The former Preston and Aston Villa forward led the Romans to a fourth-place finish in his first season in charge before becoming only the second manager to lead the club to the Southern League title the following campaign.

Goals from Andy Provan, Peter Rogers and George Gibbs got Bath off to a winning start with a 3-1 success against Worcester City at Twerton Park.

Three draws against Nuneaton Borough, Atherstone Town and Maidstone United followed before City embarked on a run of four successive home games.

Minehead were seen off 3-1 with a brace from Rogers, Yeovil Town succumbed to the same scoreline, but Telford United snatched a 2-2 draw before October was seen out with a 4-2 win against Redditch United.

Bath also made FA Cup progress before the end of October too, having had to start at the Preliminary Round with wins at Western League sides Taunton Town and Bridport but then almost coming a cropper at Hampshire League minnows Swaythling, where only a Kevin Griffin penalty salvaged a replay.

But there was to be no upset at Twerton Park as Swaythling were beaten 3-0 with current Tiverton Town boss Martyn Rogers amongst the scorers.

The Third Qualifying Round saw Provan and Richie Bourne score the goals that saw off Dorchester Town at home.

November was another good month for Godfrey`s side as, after being held to a 2-2 draw at Wealdstone on November 1st, Bedford Town were beaten 3-1 at The Eyrie and then fancied Kettering Town were hammered 5-0 at Twerton Park, with Peter Rogers taking his goal tally to the season already to eight.

Merthyr Tydfil were beaten 2-1 at Penydarren Park in the Fourth Qualifying Round of the FA Cup and, back at home in the league, Hillingdon Borough suffered a narrow 1-0 loss.

November went out with a 0-0 draw at home to Third Division Plymouth Argyle in the First Round of the FA Cup, followed by Bath`s first defeat of the season - a 2-0 loss at Home Park in the replay.

How would that first defeat affect the team?

Badly it seemed, as their next game was an astonishing 7-1 loss at Whaddon Road against league rivals Cheltenham Town in the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy!

However, seven days later they were back to winning ways with a 4-2 win at Dover, with Gibbs bagging two of the goals.

Dartford were next up away and local lad Derek Vaughan, drafted in from Portway Bristol by manager Godfrey due to injuries, scored along with Provan to earn a 2-2 draw.

Weymouth were to prove to be Bath`s major title rivals and ended up in the runners-up spot.

But on Boxing Day in 1977, they suffered a humiliating 7-2 derby defeat on their own Recreation Ground patch in which Andy Provan scored four times himself, with Bourne, Gibbs and Peter Higgins` penalty completing the rout.

Cheltenham proved a stumbling block again for Bath the next day (they played twice in two days then over Christmas) as they battled to hold the Romans to a thrilling 4-4 draw at Twerton Park in which Martin Wheeler scored twice.

The `double` was achieved over Kettering at Rockingham Road, courtesy of another Provan effort on January 2nd but two successive 0-0 draws at Redditch United and at home to Barnet set Bath back a little – strange results given the fact they had scored 12 goals in their previous three matches.

It was business as usual though as AP Leamington were seen off 4-0 at home, thanks to a Peter Rogers pair, but January went out with a bit of a whimper as two more goalless draws, this time against Hastings United and Gravesend & Northfleet, were sandwiched by a 1-1 home draw with Nuneaton.

February kicked in though with a 3-1 home success against Wealdstone with Gibbs on target twice, and it was his goal that was all that separated the sides at Atherstone in the next game at Sheepy Road.

Two away games in three days followed which saw Yeovil Town hold City to a 1-1 draw at The Huish and another `double` completed with a 1-0 win at Minehead.

March started with Dartford matching their home 2-2 draw in December with the same scoreline at Twerton Park, while the following Monday, goals from Provan and Wheeler sealed a 2-0 win at home to Maidstone United.

But Saturday, March 11th saw Godfrey`s men suffer their first league defeat after 29 games unbeaten when, despite a goal from January signing Jimmy Jenkins, Telford scrapped for a 2-1 win at the Bucks Head.

The following Saturday Grantham Town were beaten 1-0 at home, thanks to another Provan effort.

Bath then had a little light relief from the title battle in the league when they faced two home group games in the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Cup.

Goals from Provan, Gibbs, Bourne, another Higgins spot-kick and Mike Burns

Weymouth were determined to gain a little pride back after their Christmas hammering by holding Bath to a 1-1 draw saw Arezzo beaten 5-0 and Jenkins and Higgins once more from the spot sealed a 2-0 win over Paganese.

The end of March saw Weymouth visit Twerton Park determined to gain some pride back at least following their Boxing Day hammering.

And it took a Gibbs goal to ensure Bath maintained top spot with a 1-1 draw.

Hillingdon held Bath to another 1-1 draw at The Leas Stadium but the goals bonanza that seemed to occur when Bath met neighbours Cheltenham continued on April 4th as they went to Whaddon Road and made up for their 7-1 Trophy drubbing back in December by winning 6-0 with Jenkins proving a good signing with a hat-trick.

He was on target again, along with Peter Rogers, as Bedford were seen off 2-0 at home, and two crucial away matches saw good wins at Grantham – 4-0 – with two more for Jenkins, and 2-0 at Underhill against Barnet.

Gravesend suffered a 2-0 defeat at Twerton Park with another Jenkins goal but after Bath had the title firmly in their grasp, 0-0 draws at home to Dover and away at Hastings were followed by a more convincing 2-0 win at AP Leamington, leaving Worcester to beat Bath 1-0 at St George`s Lane to seal fourth place behind Weymouth and Maidstone and condemn Godfrey`s side to only a second defeat of a wonderful season when they finished as top scorers with 83 goals – 15 more than anyone else – and conceded the fewest goals – 32.

More silverware came Bath`s way as they won the Somerset Premier Cup by beating a then-First Division Bristol City 2-1 at Twerton Park, thanks to goals from Wheeler and Gibbs, while the Anglo-Italian Cup finished in Italy with a win over Treviso but defeat to Udinese 5-0 in the final.

But what a season!