Djoumin Sangare heads clear over Nick Roddis.
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St Albans City collected their first away Conference South point of the season on Saturday but celebrations were muted as poor finishing enabled Ernie Howe’s Basingstoke Town side to extend their unbeaten record at the Camrose against the Saints to a sixth year. A match which took virtually all of the opening half to burst into life will be remembered for Paul Bastock’s penalty save on the stroke of half time, a wonderful goal by Stoke midfielder Lloyd Webber and a catalogue of squandered openings by the visitors. With Simon Martin unavailable, City made one change from the win over Bognor with Paul Hakim lining up alongside Lee Clarke but Hakim now faces a month on the sidelines after suffering a painful ankle ligament injury. There was little to choose between the sides early on although St Albans appeared the most likely to create an opening. Inside the opening 15 minutes Hakim headed over for City and Lewis Cook drove a half-volley just over for Stoke. Forty minutes of near tedium were swept away during a dramatic finale to the half. Mark Graham and Scott Cousins linked well to create space for Graham to send a low cross into the six yard box where Clarke’s well timed run ended with him somehow blazing the ball over the most open of open goals. Continued pressure from Hakim and Graham led to a defensively slip which presented Clarke with a second chance that surprisingly followed his first into orbit. Clarke’s uncharacteristic misses looked costly on the stroke of half time when Dean Cracknell was harshly adjudged to have fouled Mark Peters in the Saints penalty area. Peters took the spot kick himself but his soft right-footed effort to Bastock’s left was smothered easily by the jubilant keeper. City started the second period on top with both Clarke and Hakim causing home keeper Rob Bullivant problems but it was the Hampshire club who forged ahead on 50 minutes with a glorious angled strike from 20 yards by Lloyd Webber. The ball went at pace high to Bastock’s right and came to rest entangled in the netting around the stanchion. An excellent save by Bastock low to his left from Peters crisp drive terminated Basingstoke’s threat for the afternoon and sparked a wave of City attacks. Hakim twisted well only to shoot gently through to the keeper, Cracknell fired a yard wide and Djoumin Sangare, outstanding at the back alongside the equally impressive Patrick Ada, latched onto a long ball only to see his shot rebound across the goal via the keepers right hand post. City’s dominance was finally rewarded on 72 minutes when Hakim chased and won Bastock’s long punt and squared the ball to Clarke who scuffed his first effort before regaining his footing to slide home the equaliser and become the first City striker in 51 years to score in all of the Saints opening four league games to a season. Clarke wanted more but overhit crosses by Graham and Cousins denied him the opportunity while City’s last decent chance was snuffed out when Bullivant held a rising drive from Tom Davis.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |