MATCH REPORT: Bath City 1-5 Maidenhead

Bath City were well-beaten by league leaders Maidenhead as the Romans were on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline at Twerton Park.

Maidenhead, and specifically Dave Tarpey, struck early as the runaway leader of the Golden Boot table slotted home an early penalty to give the visitors the lead after just ten minutes.

Tarpey, who now has a staggering 41 goals from 38 games, rifled his spot-kick down the middle of Max O'Leary's goal after the Bristol City loanee dived to his right.

The lead was doubled in the 39th minute following a well-worked passing move by Maidenhead.

James Comley picked the ball up from midfield, looked up, and picked out early substitute Sam Barratt who squared for Tarpey who tapped in for 2-0 from only a few yards out.

It got worse for Bath seconds after the resulting kick-off. After City carelessly gave away possession with an aimless long ball, Maidenhead seized control with Comley calm on the ball.

Comley shifted the ball to the right winger, who played in Tarpey and the striker turned provider this time, teeing up Sean Marks to make it 3-0 before half-time as chants of "easy, easy, easy" emenated from the away end.

Bath were unable to really trouble Maidenhead keeper Carl Pentney with their best chance in the first half being a Marvin Morgan header that looped onto the top of the crossbar during a corner kick routine.

The second half started in almost identical fashion to the first. With Bath giving away an early penalty.

Sekani Simpson, who came on as a half-time sub, must have wished he was still on the bench when he tripped Tarpey from behind and the referee pointed to the spot.

Tarpey completed his hat-trick with a less convincing penalty than his earlier one, as O'Leary got a hand to it, but the ball still found the back of the net and Maidenhead found themselves 4-0 up and out of sight.

Naby Diallo, also a half-time replacement, fared better than Simpson though as he scored Bath's solitary goal of the afternoon.

An impressive one it was too as Diallo darted away from defenders and hit a well-hit shot into the bottom corner to, at the very least, give the home fans something to cheer.

There was no doubt that it was Maidenhead's day though, and it was 5-1 three minutes from time when Jordan Cox scored an unorthodox volley to put the gloss on the win for the away side.