A disappointing afternoon at Twerton Park brought a 2-0 defeat and an added time sending-off for Ethan Sutcliffe.

A wicked deflection that gave Matt Rowley no chance handed Bath City a half-time lead and an early second half goal gave the Angels a mountain to climb that proved far too high.

Jay Saunders, interviewed post-match said: “It was chalk and cheese from Tuesday night. We’ve had back-to-back games on really difficult pitches and we dealt with the conditions much better at Chesham. The first goal was a killer because there was nothing in the game, we were coming into it and then they have a shot that deflects and loops into the goal and that’s a real blow, going into half-time at 0-0 it is different. But then, you do your team talk and a mistake at the back and they score after about 30 seconds and all you planned at half-time goes out of the window.”

On a sunny, bright afternoon that had a deceptively bitter chill, Jay made two changes from the side that earned maximum points at Chesham with GianLuca Botti and Jack Wood returning to the starting XI for Mo Dabre who was missing through the injury sustained late in the game on Tuesday and Brody Peart taking a place on the bench.

For the opening half-hour, for the supporters of both sides it was a case of talk among yourselves, especially for the Angels faithful, many of whom had made a long weekend of it, as there was little to distract attention coming from the pitch.

But, out of the nothingness, Bath’s Jordan Alves laid the ball back into the path of Bradley Ash, whose shot took a cruel deflection and looped into the goal.

As the game drifted into added time, Rowley was forced to make an excellent save to deny Ash with the resultant corner seeing Alex Fisher hook the ball over the bar.

The second period could not have got off to a worse start with the hosts doubling their lead within the first minute after a defensive mix up allowed Mitch Beardmore to shoot past Rowley.

The Angels tried to shake things up with the introduction of Taylor Maloney and Peart but in the last third of the pitch they were unable to create anything of note.

It was, in fact, defender Ronny Nelson that brought the first real save of the afternoon from Harvey Wiles-Richards after 78 minutes, diving low to push the ball to safety.

The Angels miserable afternoon was complete with the 92nd minute red card for Sutcliffe, whose high foot inadvertently caught the head of Luke Russe. The referee’s initial reaction was that a yellow card would suffice but upgraded that to red once he had seen that the impact had drawn blood.

Jay said of the sending-off: “The fourth official said he didn’t think it was a red card, because the referee has seen the blood he has changed his mind. Matt should have cleared the ball but the lad has ducked down, Ethan doesn’t know he is there and nine times out of ten that is a very harsh decision. We will look at it and if the video shows it, we will appeal. There was no malice in it.”