Cheltenham Town and Bristol City played out a nil-nil draw at the EV Charger Points Stadium yesterday.
Both teams struggled to break each other down with Joe Lumley and Joe Day having a fairly uneventful evening.
The hosts will start their league campaign next weekend when they travel to Cambridge to play the U’s while City’s league campaign gets underway a week later.
The initial 20 minutes were fairly even, with neither side testing their opposition goalkeeper. The closest either team came to scoring was when Joe Day slipped as the ball was rolling back his way.
The remaining 25 minutes of the half had little to offer too with a Rob Dickie shot from 25 yards and a Sam Bell header both not succeeding.
Bristol City started the second half on top with a shot from Cornick inside a minute of entering the field of play. This was perhaps the closest we came to a goal came after forty-nine minutes.
Hayden Roberts swung in a corner from the left which met the head of Rob Dickie who couldn’t hit the target, narrowly missing the right-hand post.
In the fifty-sixth minute, young Bristol City midfielder Adam Murphy picked up the ball on the halfway line and drove past his opposition counterparts. He then pulled the trigger as he broke into the penalty area with the shot being deflected out for a corner.
Bristol City had the majority of the ball at the start of the second half. Ephraim Yeboah’s curling shot failed to test Day in the Cheltenham net with his effort falling well wide of the mark on the hour mark.
After this, George Miller was able to capitalise on a fortunate ricochet with the Cheltenham forward testing Lumley with a near-post shot. But, the shot was comfortable for the City keeper.
With seventy-five minutes on the clock, Yeboah closed down Joe Day and won the ball back in the penalty area. He slipped Cornick down to the by-line who put an agonizing ball across the face of goal with Elijah Morrison inches away from heading the ball home.
Cheltenham won the ball back with Tommy Backwell eventually stinging the hands of Lumley at the other end.
Cheltenham looked like they were the side that would win it late on. In the final seconds, the ball got whipped across the 6-yard-box with Ethon Archer arriving at the back post. But the tricky winger couldn’t direct his shot goalward, with referee James Durkin ending the match after.
Cheltenham Town – 1. Day, 12. Power, 6. Cundy, 17. Bennett, 23. Anderson, 4. Kinsella, 8. Young, 32. Broom, 7. Pell, 22. Archer, 10. Miller
Subs – 41. Diallo, 18. Bakare, 36. Caple, 42. Bailey, 30. Willcox, 26. Backwell, 38. Tustin, 25. Sohna, 14. Dulson, 9. Angol
Bristol City – 13. Lumley, 22. Knight-Lebel, 16. Dickie ©, 24. Roberts, 17. Sykes, 12. Sheppard, 28. Murphy, 31. Morrison, 20. Bell, 25. Yeboah, 9. Mayulu
Subs – 1. Duncan, 6. Araoye, 2. James, 26. Derrick, 8. Phillips, 4. Nelson, 29. Griffin, 11. Pecover, 27. Cornick
