Steve Clark, for nine years St Albans City's top goalscorer and favourite son, returned to haunt his old buddies on Tuesday evening with a two goal salvo which will only have added to Saints supporters dismay at the manner in which he was allowed to leave the club in the summer. In many ways it was a classic Clark performance, for more than an hour he had been little more than a spectator then barely 15 minutes later he departed to a rapturous reception from his new fans at Canvey Island as City were sliding to a humbling second half four goal drubbing. But if Clark was Canvey's hero then referee Alex Valentino was, as far as the locals were concerned, the villain of the piece. The turning point of the game came in the 62 minute when Canvey's former St Albans defender Mick Bodley appeared to bring down Martin Randall as he raced clear on goal. Mr Valentino ruled that no offence had been committed but City let the incident get to them and a swift counterattack ended with Clark curling a fine shot across Laurence Batty to put the Islanders ahead. City drew the match official's attention to one of his assistant, Will Smeulders, who waved his flag indicating that Bodley had committed a foul but put it down before Clark scored his first goal for his new club. After the game Mr Valentino confirmed that he had overruled his assistant and several City supporters in line with the incident said that he made the correct decision. Most worrying for City is the manner in which they capitulated after that goal, prior to then they had played some fine football and should really have been three goals to the good before Canvey gave any hint of their championship aspirations. Inside the opening ten minutes Randall wasted a golden opportunity after being set up by David Pratt while Batty, who otherwise had an unimpressive evening, saved well from Sammy Cooper who went close again shortly after. City's early promise was rewarded on 21 minutes with an outstanding goal. Spencer Knight - in tremendous form before the break and tragically under used after it - and Randall combined to feed Peter Risley who whipped over a peach of a cross which Gary Ansell met at the back post to head in his first goal for the club. Six minutes later the woodwork came to Batty's rescue after he had been beaten by a Chris Duffy free-kick while a minute later a half cleared City corner came to Chris Piper whose shot through a crowd of players deceived the diving Ashley Harrison. Somehow the keeper got a foot to the ball and sent it spinning wide where it was seized upon by Randall whose first time shot was again blocked by Harrison when a goal seemed a certainty. City really needed to capitalise on their dominance at this time but Ansell and Corey Campbell both squandered clear cut chances whilst Randall went close from distance. Campbell's miss, on 46 minutes, proved costly three minutes later as Craig Davidson sent a good pass up to Wayne Vaughan whose soft effort was spilled by Batty for Duffy to claim the equaliser. City responded with a powerful effort from Piper that Harrison tipped over but following Clark's first goal on 62 minutes - his first against the Saints since October 1990 - City simply threw in the towel. That said Clark's second goal was either a masterpiece or fluke as following a knock down by Vaughan he sent the ball into orbit from 30 yards then wheeled away in delight as Batty stood and watched it drop behind him and into the goal.
The second half mauling was completed in the final minute when Mark Rooney offered no resistance as Andy Jones challenged for Harrison's long kick and then rounded Batty before planting the ball into the Hatfield Road goal to complete Canvey's second successive three goal triumph at Clarence Park.
Report by Dave Tavener |