Danny Morgan shoots
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St Albans City’s dream of celebrating their centenary with a return to the Blue Square Premier slipped further into the ether on Saturday as a youthful Fisher Athletic, heavily beaten in their two previous games, gained a fully merited victory at Clarence Park to leave Ritchie Hanlon’s Saints firmly rooted to the foot of the Blue Square South table.
This was a match City not such much needed to win but expected to do so, that they failed does not bode well for the remaining 36 games this season and until such time that the clubs senior players get a grip on self-discipline there must be some doubt as to whether the Saints can recover from the slide towards oblivion they are currently set on.
Hanlon, sufficiently buoyed by the draw at Braintree, named an unchanged side but any confidence gained from that game quickly evaporated as Wayne Burnett’s youngsters appeared a more cohesive and dangerous outfit.
Jeff Goulding, highly impressive for the visitors, met a Ross Gaynor cross well only to be superbly denied by the outstanding Nick Eyre who was up quickly to thwart Goulding again after former Saint Shaun Batt returned the ball into the goalmouth. Eyre enjoyed a moments good fortune on 17 minutes when Gaynor’s low free kick from 25-yards rebounded off the foot of the post and onto the diving City keeper before rolling out for a corner.
Gaynor was thwarted once more, this time by Leo Roget, before City, on 26 minutes, mustered their only on target effort of the day with Danny Morgan firing low to Simon Overland’s right following good work by Lee Clarke and Hassan Sulaiman. Clarke then headed tamely wide from a Paul Bruce free kick before being laid out by a somewhat late arriving Overland who escaped unpunished.
A knee injury to Bruce paved the way for Scott Cousins first appearance of the season on 35 minutes but other than for an enticing cross from Cousins that Roget headed powerfully yet wastefully over the bar the supply from the City midfield to the attack was next to nothing.
Morgan, clearly oblivious to the offside law, stayed onside once only to clip the ball well over after being set up by Clarke and Matt Hann while two successive Michael Harvey back passes caused problems for Eyre. The keeper retrieved the first one just before the ball crossed the goalline while the second led to a rushed clearance that Gavin Heeroo seized upon but drilled over from 30 yards.
Just prior to the break Goulding somehow screwed his close range shot over the target and twice inside the opening four minutes of the restart Fisher should have scored only for the impressive Batt and Romauld Bouadji to shoot tamely through to Eyre.
City, growing increasingly ineffective as the game wore on while Fisher stuck to a pleasing passing game, created just two openings after the interval but both times Roget failed to direct his header on target. The Saints second half discipline was simply woeful as their bookings tally for the season rose to a shocking 18 with Orsett official Gary Jerden giving cautions to four of Hanlon’s team.
The deciding moment arrived on 54 minutes when Fisher broke swiftly following a City attack with Gaynor sending the free Nicolas Plumain clear and from his low cross from the left a suspiciously offside looking Goulding stroked home his fourth goal of the season.
What self-belief City possessed vanished with that goal and but for a fine save by Eyre, who received the Saints Player of the Month award prior to the game, after Goulding had been put away by Luke Hickie’s excellent chipped pass the defeat could have been more emphatic.
Report by David Tavener |