Ram Marwa leads the charge at Cambridge.
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St Albans City’s bid for the Conference South championship suffered a devastating blow during an astonishing encounter at Milton Road on Tuesday night as strife-ridden Cambridge City overhauled a 3-1 deficit to climb into the play-off positions.
In knocking four goals past the Saints for the second time this season Gary Roberts enterprising side showed their promotion capabilities and made light of the doubt cast over the club following the recent sale of their ground.
From an early goal down the Saints stormed into a handsome lead but can have no complaints in succumbing to the Whites for the second time this season after a performance in which their passing was poor, were lax with their marking and unable to keep possession in their usual fashion, Cambridge were all the things St Albans were not.
The hosts were ahead inside four minutes when Paul Booth challenged for a high ball then slid a perfect pass through the heart of the City defence for Robbie Simpson to score with a low shot through Paul Bastock’s legs.
Within another four minutes the game had taken the first of several twists as St Albans took control. On six minutes Paul Hakim, in for the injured Simon Martin, touched a pass inside to Ram Marwa who, from fully 35 yards, sent in a glorious drive that dipped prodigiously as keeper Alan Calton scampered back unsuccessfully to protect his goal.
Moving forward with pace and precision St Albans were ahead two minutes later when a low Ben Walshe free kick from 25 yards was parried by the sprawling Calton for Marwa to blast home a quick-fire second. More goals beckoned with Hakim going close while Dale Binns, giving Chris Seeby a torrid time, went on a scintillating run past three players before delivering a dangerous low cross that somehow went unaccepted through a cluster of legs close to goal.
Already Cambridge were exploiting gaps in the Saints defence yet it was the visitors who struck for a flattering third time on 36 minutes as Seeby released Hakim with an excellent low through ball that the striker took in his stride prior to slotting his eighth goal of the season past Calton from 18 yards.
Had St Albans been able to hang onto that lead until the interval the chill wind would have been to their backs after the break and surely victory would most likely have been theirs but 95 seconds into added time a spell of pressure from the Whites ended with Craig Dobson’s cross being missed by Greg Lincoln but when Binns immediately returned the ball into the penalty area Lincoln, still ground, was able to hook home a fortuitous second goal for Cambridge.
Three minutes after the restart Patrick Ada made a dreadful hash of a routine clearance and Cambridge seized the initiative and swiftly switched the play to Booth who put a good ball into substitute Michael Gash whose low shot benefited from a deflection off the diving Bastock before clipping the inside of the back post and rolling into the goal.
Cambridge completed their remarkable come back in the 56th minute when Gash superbly controlled Craig Pope’s pinpoint pass and unleashed a powerful drive to the right of the exposed Bastock.
Despite threatening more goals the rest of the half failed to deliver and both keepers had a relatively quiet time although Lee Clarke went close with a header from a Walshe corner and Calton, with the aid of the crossbar, unconvincingly kept out a Hann corner but it was a half that Cambridge comfortably controlled by working as far the more cohesive unit.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |