A depleted Wealdstone side slumped to an opening day loss at Bath, putting the tin lid on a difficult day for the club.

Stones have suffered from recent chronic lack of player availability, and those negative thoughts were only added to when traffic delays saw the team arrive late and kick-off delayed to 3.25pm.

The away side seemingly put these problems behind them as saw a strong performance saw them hold their own for the majority of the fixture, but they lacked the clinical edge to take advantage of two or three clear opportunities.

Bath’s late winner was a huge blow to the visitors who had fought back from an early 1-0 deficit and had levelled through the hard working Johnny Wright on 36 minutes.

Wealdstone were forced to play a more positive 4-4-2 formation with their lack of midfield defensive cover, with Micky Corcoran having be moved into a unfamiliar centre half role. The list of unavailable players – including suspensions – could have filled almost a completely different starting eleven, but new signings, Matt Bevans and Ryan Case, did well in the full back positions, despite a shaky start.

Stones started well and dominated the opening exchanges with chances falling to both Elliot Godfrey and most notably Wright who should have done better when he skewed wide on six minutes and went agonisingly close again three minutes later.

Action: Wealdstone go for goal

Despite starting on the back foot, Bath were awarded a free kick on the edge of the area and Dave Pratt stole in to turn the ball past Jon North and give the home side the lead against the run of play.

The opening goal gave City a confidence boost and if it wasn’t for excellent keeping from North the Romans would have extended their lead.

36 minutes in and a Stones corner created chaos in the penalty area as Bath failed to clear effectively allowing Wright to bury the ball into the roof of the net and take the teams into half time with the scores level.

Just before the hour mark Josh Hutchinson had the clearest chance of the match as he raced through the defence and with only the keeper to beat put a relatively tame effort into the arms of the Bath keeper.

Stones pushed on and with the momentum firmly in their hands created a number of half chances but failed to capitalise and as the game went on Gordon Bartlett’s make-shift side began to wilt in the sun.

The visitors began to drop deeper and deeper but were unable to stop the powerful Nick McCootie and he proved too much to handle for Stones and secured the win for the home side in the 81st minute.

Connor Calcutt had an opportunity to save a point in the dying moments but failed to hit the target and watched the ball flash agonisingly wide off the post.

Stones are straight back into action on Monday night when the face Concord Rangers at The Vale. The match singles the end of suspensions for Wes Parker and Matt Ball and Bartlett will be hoping that a couple of players will be available after injury.