Tiger Roar - An unofficial Gloucester City AFC Website
City of Gloucester coat of arms
Welcome to Tiger Roar, an unofficial website that aims to promote everything good about Southern League Premier South side Gloucester City.
Online since the summer of 1998 the website has grown beyond belief and includes close to a thousand pages encompassing past and current player profiles, historical articles, videos clips, match reports and top quality photographs.
After 13 years in exile following the 2007 floods The Tigers returned to a rebuilt Meadow Park just in time for COVID to deny supporters access to games as the club sat proudly at the top of the league.
There was a time that Cirencester were better than us, one of those footballing things that I take great umbrage at. Mangotsfield are another, but that's for another day.
I'm not sure why but Ciren opted to take relegation at the end of last season and are now an Hellenic League side. We opted to take relegation because we were shite. So with two leagues between the two sides, despite being spirited it was a very one sided affair.
City had the ball in the Ciren net after just fifteen seconds. A quick start after the very impressive trialist #15 on the left wing robbed a defender and squared for Brandon Smalley to rifle home. A few minutes later it was two, Smalley again getting on the end of a BRE sidefooted pass back into the mixer from a corner. There were appeals of offside but Smalley was easily on.
And then it was three after nine minutes when Joe Hanks finished a well worked corner routine which I'm sure we'll see again when the season kicks off in anger. I think the closest the home side came to scoring was when Jared Thompson appeared to misjudge the direction of a shot which came back off of the post when he thought it was going wide.
Second half and City continued to get the better of their hosts and scored again when midfielder trialist #22 who sounded as though he was called "Hanks" scored a perfect header from a Dayle Grubb corner. Then "Kai" wearing #15 capped a fine display with a 20 yard piledriver having hit the bar prior to it.
As the gloom descended City fielder more and more trialists. To be fair none of them look out of place and it was good to see the King back up front after his weekend in Lincoln.
That was quite a hard game to watch. On paper we have a very good attacking side but on the 3G pitch tonight was struggled to make many chances against a team from a league below.
Yate, managed by former City favourite Darren Mullings included two former Tigers; left back Lewis Hall and attacking midfielder Lucas Tomlinson. Striker Marlon Jackson was also present but didn't see any action.
City started with Kieran Phillips and Brandon Smalley up front and in a first half where everything seemed to come down the left through Jamie Reckord the keeper wasn't tested so much so that I simply deleted my video footage at half time.
It was concenring to see KP limp off with an injury, he didn't look happy by all accounts. He was replaced by Ed Williams who would go on to score the games only goal in the second half, this after Smalley had shot narrowly wide. The only two chances of note in the entire game.
As usual with friendlies there were a number of substitutions but spare a though for young Zack Pinchard who came on with more than 91 minutes on the clock only to get closer to the referee to hear him blow almost straight away!
As the game petered out to a conclusion the game seemed to be played in our half more often than not. Some may say that we controlled the game but it wasn't very thrilling to watch and might serve as a bit of a wake up call as to what we face over the next nine or ten months.
Always a joy to see these men in action, even if they are a year older every time that they come back to Meadow Park to play. But it's true what they say, you never lose it!
For the second season running this game was played in honour of the late Mike Dunstan in front of his family. And for the second season running the City Legends ran out comfortable winners, this time 9-1 with a late consolation goal scored by Marcus Lane, although finished and claimed by Mike Ward-Hedley, we won't mention that he was offside mind.
The Legends had scored seven times by half time with Tom Webb rounding the keeper to open then Lee Smith nodding home a cross from a Jamie Reid cross. Jody Bevan bundled home a Smith centre before he turned provider for Alex Sykes to score with a rare header.
Bevan then scored again, timing a header that powered in off of the crossbar and bounced down behind the line before coming back out. Syko scored two more before the break, I think one might've even been with his right foot!
There were just the two goals in the second half. This was probably because the Staff XI was more like sixteen. A fourth from Sykes that hammered in off the bar before Smith got his second with a breakaway before jinking past Stuart Lane in the City Staff's goal. Lane got his own back in the final minute by denying Lee's son Chance when one on one!
Matt Rose was presented with the trophy by Mike's son Jack.
The City Legends were managed by Kenny Blackburn with support from Adie Mings and Boris!
City Legends : Sam Tandy, Mike Green, Adie Harris, Gary Kemp, Marc Richards, Jamie Reid, Tom Webb, Matt Rose, Alex Sykes, Jody Bevan, Lee Smith. Subs - Lee Randall, Kenny Blackburn, Chance Smith
City Staff & Fans XI : Matt Phillips, Tom Landon, Tom Kear, Lee Wood, Marcus Lane, Jay Marriott, Niall Priday, Mark East, Mark McBride, Will Beard, Theo Giles, Josh Taylor, Brett Salvage, Stuart Lane, Jack Beard, Luke East. Subs - Mike Ward-Hedley
Watch in first person view as Lee Smith rounds the keeper to score City Legends' ninth goal of the game
Friday July 12th 2024
Ed Williams city goalscorer
Dayle Grubb hit post thrice
On reflection a 1-4 defeat to a team from a league below when you're aiming to build a Championship winning team is something to be concerned about but the number of goals scored versus number of chances created tells a story.
Cleeve probably made six or seven chances whilst City's was more like ten; the home keeper stopped everything and those that beat him hit the frame of the oddly shaped goal.
Ed Williams scored for City. It was the opening goal coming from a hanging cross that looked as though it was going out but Harry Emmett kept it in and put it on a plate for Williams to sidefoot home.
However what seemed like three shots later and Mike Cook's side were 1-3 down; a shot rattled the crossbar and the rebound was slammed home, then a lovely shot into the top corner from distance and then a killer third on the stroke of half time.
Cleeve's fourth and final goal at the start of the second half was probably the worst one to concede, a breakaway from a City corner down the left wing finished with aplomb by their pacy wideman.
It seemed like shot after shot for City after that as the summer sun faded over Bishops Cleeve, nr Cheltenham. But when are we ever lucky in that part of the world? Dayne Grubb summed it up expletively after he'd hit the post for the third time!
The Cheltenham side featured the evergreen Steve Davies at right back as well as former City midfelder Mat Liddiard at centre back and one time loanee Isaac Pearce who came on as substitute. Shyiak Sutherland is a new signing at Kayte Lane and came through the U18s at City but never made a first team appearance.
Former Tigers Matt Rose, Jamie Edge and Matt Williams were all in the crowd.
Ed Williams gives City the lead in tonights pre-season friendly
Saturday July 6th 2024
Dayle Grubb cool finish
Jamie Reid gaffer!
Another home game against another Hellenic League side although this one ended a lot closer with Jamie Reid's men scoring twice late doors to end the game 4-3 to City.
The game was originally supposed to kick off at 3pm at Fairford but with England in action at tea time the game ended up being switched to Meadow Park starting ninety minutes earlier so everyone had a chance of watching the game against Switzerland.
With goalkeeper Jared Thompson still unavailable City fielded another ex-youth teamer in between the sticks, this time it was Alex Avenell. Alex had been on the bench for Chippenham last year when they knocked us out of the FA Trophy.
Talking of goalkeepers, Jared's older brother Conor Thompson was on the pitch doing some coaching. Also, in the crowd was their father Paul, another goalkeeper and one who faced City twenty years earlier, most notably for Mangotsfield when Andy Hoskins knackered him enabling Chris Burns' team to record a 4-1 win away at Cossham Street.
Despite having the better of the chances it was Fairford who took the lead but then they showed that they could score at both ends when following a cut back from Harry Emmett Joe Hanks saw his shot parried by the keeper only for it to hit a defender and roll over the line.
In the second half trialist Baidoo netted twice sandwiching a tidy left footed finish from Dayle Grubb. But Fairford made it look closer when former City youngster Tristan Haswell scored with a header and then they scored another through Leighton Blackler after a lax pass from BRE.
Have to say it was a bit of a concern that we conceded twice with three of our best defenders on!
A tough first training session for the Women tonight which was sparsely attended by a mixture from both of last seasons first team and development XI plus two or three new faces.
The session consisted of some initial running around the pitch and then some stretching exercises followed by some work with the ball and a short match. No surprises but Nicole Lewis scored the only two goals fo the game!
The session ended when theirs overlapped with the mens session so they all did a bleep test with trialist Josh Barlow being the last man standing.
It felt like a long ten weeks since the County Cup Final as City got back into action with a 5-1 win against Longlevens at Meadow Park.
Just three years ago City faced the Hellenic League side in the FA Cup and as many as a thousand "fans" came to support 'levens against the City club. A thousand Gloucester people going against Gloucester City. That's why we'll never have a successful football club in Gloucester.
There was plenty of guess whoing going on among the fans trying to put names to faces. Former youth teamer Elliott Jones played in goal whilst Jared Thompson was on his honeymoon whilst Charlie Holliday played the first half on the right wing. Most of the players on the bench came from the U16 squad.
Four of the five goals were scored by trialists, two of which were new faces and the fifth came from a long range effort from Josh Barlow who'd been around the club at the end of last season on a dual registration with tonight's opponents.
Kieran Phillips got the other one with a lovely header from a cross which was just as good. Give KP this kind of service and he'll score thirty goals this coming season.
These are practice matches and it's as much about how goals are created as much as they're scored and the second was an absolute gem of a pass from Harry Pinchard's younger brother Zack who featured for the U16s last season.
Curtis Hutson, previously of Merthyr Town put that one away and he also netted from the penalty spot after King Baidoo had been brought down by Ollie Long. King also scored the opener.
It's that time of the year that players either love or hate; the first pre-season training session after a couple of months off!
There were faces both new and old gracing the surface at Meadow Park, mostly doing running, running and then some more running all under the eye of new coach John Brough. The former Cirencester Manager has replaced the outgoing Andy Hoskins alongside Mike Cook and Marc McGregor in the City dugout.
Everyone was put through their paces by Spencer Hamilton apart from Harry Pinchard who is still nursing an injury from the end of last season, he did light training on the bike and with weights.
Tiger Roar is an unofficial, independant production. It has nothing to do with Gloucester City AFC 1980 Ltd or the Gloucester City Supporters Trust. All comments expressed on here (unless stated) are those of the author and not those of the football club.
Most content on this site is copyright of the site owner and must not be reproduced without prior permission (unless waived by the author). Please do not use or remotely link to any of the images or videos on this site.
Lots of statistical information is courtesy of the great work done by club historian Tim Clark. His book is The Complete Record of Gloucester City AFC 1883–2009. (566 pgs) Tiger Timbo Publications. ISBN 978-0-9557425-1-4.
I would like to express thanks to everyone who has helped make this website possible through donations, images, video clips and statistical information. If you feel I have used your own copyrighted material and would like it removed, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss it's removal because it makes Nathan Walker cry.
Above all, enjoy the website and please come back for more!
