Lee Clarke
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A possibly unjust defeat at Winterstoke Road saw St Albans City fall to their lowest position, fifth, in the Conference South for three months on Saturday but did fully force home the importance of ending the non-stop sequence of short term signings to patch up a frequently disrupted defence.
When Chris Seeby failed a fitness test, manager Colin Lippiatt was forced into giving Eddie Duah a debut at right back alongside central defender Nathan Bunce and left back Mark Burgess, in so doing the total number of defenders used by the Saints so far this season rose to 19. It was too many changes for the side to accommodate and within 18 minutes City were two goals down and despite completely outplaying Weston Super Mare after the break Frank Gregan’s side hung on for only their third home success of the season.
The Saints were caught cold on 11 minutes when Tom Davis fouled Mark McKeever, before the defence sorted itself out McKeever played a quick ball into the path of Marvin Brown whose fierce shot was well blocked by Paul Bastock only for Scott Rogers to tuck away the rebound.
Seven minutes later Bunce, signed two days earlier from Canvey Island, headed the ball towards and across Bastock who, presumably believing he was too far out to use his hands, failed to collect and allowed Brown to seize the loose ball and plant it into a completely unguarded goal.
Despite the disastrous start City looked a threat going forward although the debut making Weston keeper Stuart Jones had few direct shots to contend with. Midway through the half Simon Martin beat Jones to a cross from the imposingly built Bunce but the ball went just over.
St Albans’ pressure was rewarded on 32 minutes when Lee Clarke headed goalwards from a Matt Hann corner for Paul Hakim, who had a fine game, to slide in his fifth goal of the season at the back post.
Jones had to stretch to tip over a shot from distance by Davis as City pushed for an equaliser but three minutes from the break the game was effectively settled when Duah was poorly adjudged to have conceded a free kick which City got away for a corner but could do nothing to stop Seagulls captain Matt Rose from heading Scott Walker’s dead ball cross home for the third Weston goal.
The second half saw the Somerset outfit reduced to little more than breakaways as City laid siege to the home goal but lady luck refused to smile on the visitors as a succession of scrambles failed to fall kindly for them and Lippiatt’s side were certainly on the wrong end of some highly dubious refereeing decisions including three possible handball penalty verdicts.
The deficit looked to have been reduced on the hour when Hakim, bearing down on Davis’s excellent through ball, scored following a fumble by Jones only for a linesman’s flag to indicate, quite clearly incorrectly, that the keeper had been impeded.
Burgess, who had a highly promising debut, tested Jones with some long range efforts while a through ball of his saw Dean Cracknell blocked by the keeper with the loose ball being cleared off the goalline following a shot by Martin. A rare Weston attack saw Bastock thwart Brown with his legs before Bunce, a constant aerial threat from set pieces, headed a Davis free kick down for Matt Hann to shoot powerfully straight at Jones.
Cracknell suffered the same fate following excellent approach work from Davis and Hakim whilst deep into injury time an inswinging Hann corner was kicked clear from almost over the line by Jones and Hann ended a frustrating afternoon for the Saints with another clean drive from 20 yards just over the target.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |