Reading Wildcats 7:6 BathBy Nik Roberts

Bath didn''t come out of the blocks firing on all cylinders this time, although, the stats show that the number of shots in the first quarter was even, 8 each, Reading however converted 5 of theirs to Baths 1. Much of this was due to the Reading Goal keeper, who came up with some class saves close in.Once the attack had been beefed up by the late arriving Mark Lovett, and Baths defence began to get the measure of the Reading attack men things gradually turned around. In a tight game the visitors relied heavily on the midfield dominance, especially at face, and so began the big comeback, in fact for the second week running the majority of the goals came from midfield. At face Bath won 11 of the 17 taken; Ken Murray cleaning up on 8 of his nine, with Mark Jeffrey providing a more than able substitute in between.Another shut out by the defence in the last quarter, with some equally class saves by Dan Weil meant that Bath nearly clawed their way back into the points, but a brilliant save by Mike Nolan for Reading in the dying seconds denied Bath a share of the spoils, which to be fair they deserved.Our regular ''Stato'' Mike Howard was on hand to record the match, it seems that Reading had 38 shots, 19 on target. Bath had 36 shots, 18 on target. Both keepers made 12 saves each. Maybe the difference wasn''t just one keeper. Difference in the teams: the keeper, oldest man on the pitch: Trevor Rogers and not me for a change.Quotes of the day:''I just thought I wouldn''t bother defending, just like you guys do'' Mike Nolan to his defence after wandering out of his goal to leave an empty net for Mark Pinnick to put the ball in.''You know you shouldn''t interfere with me'' Nolan again after being checked in the crease.