The City starting line up featured six players with extensive first team experience in Oakes, Scimeca, Whittingham, Fowler, MacLean and Cooper, but the wurzels went one better with Weale, McCombe, Skuse, Betsy, Noble, Byfield and Jevons all having played plenty of league football.
Despite this, both sides had a a bit of an unbalanced look about them because both back fours only had one player with first team experience in their line up. The visitors had towering captain McCombe to guide their youngsters through the game whilst we had the returning Ricky Scimeca who captained the team from centre back.
In those first ten minutes, the experienced forwards on both sides caused either defence all sorts of problems as City, with Matt Green prominent, went close through a Fowler header and Green snapshot from distance, whilst the wurzels forced the first of a series of good saves from Oakes and wasted a great chance as Betsy fired wide as City's offside trap broke down (not for the first time or the last!).
However, the game changed completely when, firstly, MacLean was injured in an innocuous looking tackle on the Bob Bank side of the ground and then Scimeca pulled up with what looked like a recurrence of his groin problem. Scimeca immediately went off to be replaced by Paul Gallagher, but, as he walked off fairly comfortably, it is to be hoped that it was just a precaution. On the face of it, Maclean's injury was the more worrying as he had about ten minutes of treatment on the far side of the pitch before hobbling back round the pitch to the dressing room using a pair of crutches that had been brought out for him.
Gallagher (who has played most of the time as a winger when I have seen him before) slotted in at right back and this left the City with a back four of Gallagher, Buswell, Hudson and Bloom (I assume that is Mark Bloom's son?) and of these only Buswell had, very limited, previous experience at this level - given the wurzels experienced attack, it literally became men against boys.
City still had chances with both Green and Fowler wasting chances provided by good Whittingham passes, but, at the other end, City were hanging on desperately at times and it really was a mystery how the visitors took so long to score. When they did, it was a straightforward goal as they got in down City's right and Byfield slotted home from close range as the ball was deflected to him.
With Bristol enjoying a height advantage all over the park, they were causing City particular problems from free kicks and corners and it was no surprise when their second came from a dead ball situation as McCombe's powerful header was diverted in from point blank range by Byfield.
A two goal lead for the wurzels at the break was about right, but , for the first half hour of the second half, City competed well. Peter Whittingham, playing in central midfield, was the pick of the City team for me as he combined good long range passing with a hard working attitude. Whittingham could have had a hat trick during this period as he made a couple of bursts from one end of the pitch to the other which ended with him just failing to control a pass when clean through on one occasion and then he fired just wide after Fowler's cute pass had put him clear of the defence. Whittingham also shot narrowly wide from distance and provided a lovely pass that Matt Green should have made of when he only had Weale to beat, but the closest City came during this decent spell for them was when centre back Buswell stepped forward to crash a great thirty yards shot against the post.
It needs to be said though that the wurzels could easily have added to their goal tally during this period as only a combination of some fine saves from Oakes, some poor finishing and the woodwork kept the score at 2-0.
With a quarter of an hour left, City looked to have got right back in the game when the replacement for MacLean (sorry, I don't know who he was - he was wearing the number 12 shirt and there was no one with that number on the team sheet!) scored with what I am sure was intended to be a cross which sailed over Weale's head and dropped into the net via an upright.
However, as it turned out, all this goal did was allow the wurzels to restore their previous dominance and it wasn't long before McCombe again exposed City's frailties from set pieces by heading in a corner. After that, it was just a question of how many the visitors would score as substitutes Kingston (with an excellent first time shot from the edge of the penalty area) and Jackson both found the net with the ref seemingly blowing for time early to spare City further punishment after the fifth goal went in.
I wouldn't want to be too critical of the youngsters who played today - they all tried their hardest and the defenders especially were given a thankless task once Scimeca went off, but it has to be said that, based on this performance, they all looked a very long way away from being worthy of first team consideration. I thought Jack Carlile in central midfield was probably the pick of the youngsters and, besides Whittingham, Michael Oakes made some good saves whilst having no chance with any of the goals he conceded, but there wasn't much else to get excited about besides that. People will obviously want to know how Robbie Fowler played, well, I wish I could report that he looked fit and ready for an extended run in the first team, but, I thought he was finding it hard going after about twenty minutes and he still seems some way short of full match fitness yet.