By Harry Mottram: The last three games of the 2024-2025 for the Romans was a win, a draw and a loss – perhaps summing up the season as the first team ended the campaign in 15th place comfortably above the drop zone ensuring another season in the Vanarama National League South. It’s a season that saw something of a crisis when Gerry Gill under pressure from results left the club in November 2024. His departure after seven years in the hot seat came after a 3-2 defeat against Southern Premier South outfit Chertsey Town in the FA Trophy, leaving the Romans without a win and five successive defeats.
Goalkeeping coach Lee Kendall briefly took charge before Darren Way was appointed the new manager. Way was to steward the team into the safety of a mid table final position with wins over Weymouth and Salisbury – what next season holds in a highly competitive league nobody knows.
Bath City Woman ended a successful season in which they ended in fourth place in the league above Corsham and Cirencester while Gloucester were easily the top team. Bath City Women enjoyed a purple patch in February when they had two five nil wins notching up 12 goals in three games.
One of the games of the season was between Bath City and Larkhall in the FA Cup back in September when it was a Jordan Thomas’ wonder strike that helped the Romans to recover from 2-0 down to overcome the Larks by 2-3 in a match which will live long in the memory of both teams.
Larkhall Athletic escaped relegation by just two points in the league ending the season with a 0-4 defeat to Exmouth but have survived – although Larkhall women didn’t survive and now face relegation. Odd Down finished 17th in the league in a safety position ready for next season – while it was the Odd Down Women (main picture) who achieved success with an unbeaten season in the Division Three of the Somerset County Division and enjoyed some thumping wins including a 12-1 win over Pen Mill. They have not dropped a point throughout their 13 games in the league – and this is their first ever season and so will be in Division Two of the league next year.
It is fair to say that Women’s competitive football is still in its early days but there is no doubt its profile has increased especially with the professional game gaining extensive TV coverage. Like all sport it needs schools and colleges to give girls the opportunity to play the sport which will feed into the league structure.
Bristol
Locally – up the road to Bristol – and Bristol City finished sixth in the Championship (the second tier of the football pyramid) while Bristol Rovers who for a time played at Twerton Park were relegated from League One (the third tier of the pyramid) and will play their football in League Two next season.
More clubs
Apart from Bath City, Larkhall and Odd Down there are a number of football clubs in the city so if you would like play or simply to lend some support then all clubs will always welcome players of all ages and abilities. FC Bath is a club that has grown since it was founded by Mark Gough in 2010 giving plenty of opportunities for children to play (see https://www.fcbath.co.uk/ for details) while for students at the University there is club catering for men and women including six a side leagues. Other options include the Bath and District Football League – Sunday – with Bath United FC and Bear Flat FC as members. For more teams in that league see https://www.teamstats.net/teams/football/bath
Bath City FC
Bath play in the National League South, the sixth tier of the football pyramid. The home ground is Twerton Park. Known as the Romans they play in black and white vertical stripes. See https://www.bathcityfc.com/
Larkhall Athletic FC
Founded in 1914 the Larks play in the Southern League Division One South (SLD1S) and are based at the Securitas Stadium, Plain Ham. With a development team, a youth team and a women’s team the Larks are one of the leading outfits in the city. They are part of Larkhall Sports Club. Visit https://larkhallathletic.com/
Odd Down AFC
They are currently members of the Western League Division One (WLD1) and play at the Lew Hill Memorial Ground. See https://www.odddownbathafc.co.uk/
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