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28.10.2006 at 15:00 The Warren Attendance : 376
Yeading
2 - 1
St Albans City
Referee : David Phillips (Chichester) FA Cup / 4th Round Qualifying

Goalscorers
Nevin Saroya (pen)(7)
Danny Allen-Page (25)
Tom Davis (pen.) (90)
Opening squads
Delroy Preddie
Bobby Behzadi
Ben Hudell
Nathan Bowden-Haase
Nevin Soroya ©
Adam Everitt
Danny Allen-Page
Bradley Quamina
Jefferson Louis
Marvin Morgan
Marlon Patterson
Paul Bastock
Tom Davis
Gary Elphick
Matt Hann
Ranbir Marwa
Paul Hakim
Lee Clarke
Ben Walshe
David Theobald
Elliot Benyon
Chris Seeby
Substitutes
Richard Goddard
Liam Collins
Jeff Goulding
Fouhade Belaid
Luke Blackmore
Dean Cracknell
Ben Martin
Simon Martin
Nick Roddis
Dane Harper
Substitutions
Fouhade Belaid -> Ben Hudell (46)
Jeff Goulding -> Marvin Morgan (68)
Richard Goddard -> Adam Everitt (86)
Ben Martin -> Gary Elphick (75)
Simon Martin -> Ben Walshe (82)
Dean Cracknell -> Ranbir Marwa (88)
Yellow cards
Adam Everitt (23)
Marvin Morgan (54)
Bradley Quamina (66)
Fouhade Belaid (72)
Ben Walshe (71)
Red cards
Nevin Saroya (booked 29, 85)
Delroy Preddie (booked 13, 90)
Paul Bastock (6)
Match report
In tossing away an FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round tie that was theirs to be won, St Albans City waved farewell to a small fortune as a plum 1st Round proper visit to Nottingham Forest is now Yeading's reward at the end of a match which was packed with many of the ills that blight our national pastime. Blaming referee David Phillips would be easy, some would even argue unjust, but it was not he who set the tone for the afternoon by laying the blow that led to Paul Bastock's swift departure and neither was it the Chichester-based official who repeatedly went through the back of the opposition in the manner Yeading's backline did.

Certainly Mr Phillips could have acted sooner than wait until five minutes from time to brandish the first of two red cards in the direction of home players but the blame for such nasty, niggly, ugly football ultimately lies at the feet of the players. This was once the Beautiful Game.

City showed five changes from the side that went down meekly to Grays Athletic the previous weekend while temporary Yeading boss Tony O'Driscoll - who was chairman at the time Colin Lippiatt was manager at Chesham United - made just one alteration to the side that thrashed Cambridge City in their most recent outing.

On another warm, and far from autumnal, afternoon Yeading enjoyed a bright start with Danny Allen-Page finding Jefferson Louis who sent in a good cross that would have provided a simple opportunity for Marvin Morgan to open the scoring had Gary Elphick not made an excellent intercepting header. Elphick, along with fellow defenders Dave Theobald, Chris Seeby and Ram Marwa, gave a good performance throughout the game; it was further up the pitch that City had problems.

But no amount of good defending could account for what happened next. Paul Bastock, after initially fumbling the ball, gathered a Ben Hudell free kick and ran to the edge of the box to clear downfield. His way forward was blocked by Ding skipper Nevin Saroya who deliberately moved into his path, Bastock responded by appearing to strike the Yeading skipper around the head. Certainly that is how the referee saw it and rushed in to brandish the red card and award a penalty. From the press box, which was not close to the incident, Mr Phillips looked to have called it correctly although Bastock claims that he merely tried to push Saroya out of his way. One can only assume that the referee did not see the original incident otherwise he, although still bound to dismiss the keeper for violent conduct, would have awarded City a free kick. With no goalkeeper named amongst the substitutes Lee Clarke went between the sticks but as a now shirtless Bastock departed the scene Saroya, who was involved in a number of unsavoury incidents, sent the stand-in keeper the wrong way from the spot kick to open the scoring.

It was Bastock's first straight red card of his career; he has previously gone for two yellow cards, while Clarke admitted he had never previously kept goal in senior football. If the wheels were not quite off then certainly the wheel-nuts had been loosened and there was no handbrake.

City's response was commendable against a side that can do nothing wrong at present having dished out defeats of 3-0 and 5-0 to Farnborough Town and Cambridge City respectively since manager Johnson Hippolyte walked out. St Albans dominated the rest of the half but the cutting edge was most definitely blunt. The Saints main threat came from inswinging Ben Walshe free kicks from out on the Saints right that caused no end of problems for the extremely indecisive Ding keeper Delroy Preddie.

Twice in three minutes such free kicks towards the back post eluded a cluster of outfield players while Preddie, from the second one, nudged it past the post with Elliot Benyon close by. Having already taken an eternity over a goal kick Preddie picked up the first of eight Yeading bookings (two of which became reds) on 13 minutes when wasting time over the taking of a free kick.

The visitors had a scare on 21 minutes when Clarke moved forward confidently to collect Bradley Quamina's through ball but spilt it allowing the troublesome Morgan a shot on goal that Marwa did well to block. Four minutes later and Clarke was not so fortunate as this time he made a complete hash of Morgan's harmless looking near post cross with the ball somehow squirming its way through his hands and past his body for Allen-Page to tap home. The Yeading man kept his celebrations low-key as it seemed the Saints were on the verge of a second successive drubbing.

Although seeing plenty of the ball accurate City attempts on goal were nonexistent with a shot comfortably wide from 25 yards by Tom Davis highlighting the Saints problems in the final third of the pitch. That the game was interrupted by non-stop free kicks also hindered City's efforts to play a passing game. The worst incident came on 29 minutes when Saroya went high over the ball on Walshe; it was only due to Walshe riding the laughingly called tackle that he is not now sitting in bed sharing grapes with his visitors. Saroya was booked, he was fortunate it was not a straight red.

Three minutes later Benyon received a pass from Walshe and turned neatly on the edge of the box only to shoot gently through to Preddie. City survived an anxious moment when Saroya returned a deep corner into the goalmouth where Clarke failed to smother the ball and as it bounced up Morgan headed wide from close in. A swift counterattack saw Matt Hann send Benyon clear in the box but as the on-loan Bristol City striker clipped the ball goalwards his shot was blocked by Preddie who had moved smartly from his goalline. The half ended with Clarke once again struggling to get to a cross that was hacked to safety before one more Walshe free kick curled and bounced within a whisker of the back post.

The scene as the players walked from the pitch at half time were remarkable as Lippiatt, usually so restrained when it comes to criticising match officials - the chap we had for the Gravesend match excluded - let Mr Phillips have it with both barrels. Even Sir Alex would have blushed.

The second period began ominously for St Albans as Morgan, with quite a stiff breeze behind him, picked the ball up inside his own half and ran by some pretty weak challenges into the City box before Clarke did well to block the eventual shot for a corner. On 56 minutes a positive run by Seeby, playing his 150th game for the club, won a free kick on the edge of the home penalty area. Preddie parried Walshe's shot with Saroya blocking Elphick's follow up. As the City defender lay on the ground in the goalmouth Nathan Bowden-Haase appeared to stamp on him without being spotted by any of the officials.

Given the astonishing start and unseemly finish that acted as bookends to the game the second half was, in all truth, a dull non-event. Louis and Jeff Goulding missed the target with headers for Yeading while Marwa shot wide and an excellent Seeby run fizzled out peacefully but overall there was little to retain ones interest. All that changed on 85 minutes.

Simon Martin, sent on with just eight minutes of normal time to play, sent Benyon on a run that was terminated by another Saroya foul that, a touch belatedly, earned the tall defender his second dismissal in successive seasons against the Saints. Hann struck the free kick to Preddie's right with the keeper doing enough to turn the ball wide.

At the end of the first minute of added time fellow substitutes Ben Martin and Dean Cracknell combined to find Benyon whose run into the box was terminated when Bowden-Haase clipped the teenagers heels. Davis ignored the off the ball shenanigans to maintain his 100% record (four out of four) from the penalty spot with a well placed effort high to the keepers left. Preddie was none too chuffed at finally being beaten and smashed the ball out to the corner flag. Seconds later he followed it as the referee took a dim view to his petulance and showed the irate keeper a second yellow card.

In six minutes and 36 seconds of added time City looked increasingly capable of saving the game but the nearest they came to beating striker-cum-keeper Louis was a sliced shot wide at the back post by Ben Martin following good work by Seeby.