A needlessly conceded penalty just five minutes into Tuesday’s Blue Square South meeting with Staines Town at Clarence Park set St Albans City on the path to a fourth successive defeat as the Swans coasted to a 3-1 victory in a match that saw visitor’s striker Leroy Griffiths sent off and eight other players booked.
Despite the flurry of cards this match was far from dirty yet few, if indeed any, of the bookings dished out by referee Ian Crouch were contentious decisions.
The sending off of Griffiths was certainly the low point of a splendidly warm evening. Speaking after the match, Castle said the experienced Staines forward apologised to his team although the recipient of his elbow, James Fisher was in no condition to accept the apology as he admitted through a swollen mouth that he could not remember the incident.
Fisher went to hospital shortly after the final whistle to have stitches inserted into the wound.
St Albans showed two changes from the weekend defeat at Chelmsford with Paul Hakim making one of his midweek guest appearances in attack alongside Gary Cohen, while former Tottenham Hotspur youngster David Galbraith made his debut wide on the left of the midfield.
Dropped from the side were James Quilter, who was suffering from shin splints during the Chelmsford match, and on-loan striker Craig Calver.
Staines manager Steve Cordery also made two changes from the side that recorded its fifth consecutive draw at the weekend with Griffiths and Chris Bourne coming in for Scott Taylor and Dean Thomas. Joining Griffiths up front was one-time City striker Richard Butler.
City, as has been their wont so many times during these early games, started the game most positively and with Staines equally attack-minded an open 90 minutes appeared on the cards. Gary Cohen, searching for his first goal of the season, turned swiftly only to shoot well over as City looked to record a fifth consecutive win over the Swans.
But a moment of utter madness by Adam Everitt on five minutes allowed the visitors to take a firm grip on the game. A Howard Newton corner was knocked out of the penalty area by Cohen only for Bourne to chip the ball back into the box where Everitt, most bizarrely, stuck up an arm to concede a penalty when the goal was under only minimal threat.
Griffiths swept the resulting spot kick to Paul Bastock’s left as the City keeper fell to his right.
As City’s already fragile confidence took another blow, Staines positively grew in self-belief and played a good amount of slick passing football.
But City could have been level within six minutes when Galbraith, the owner of a highly creative left foot, landed a corner towards the edge of the penalty area where Mark Peters headed the ball forwards to Hakim who was just unable to redirect it inside the near post.
After a quiet spell Staines took complete control midway through the half with some flowing football. Bastock had to move sharply to deny Griffiths, and Butler should have hit the target after Alex Bailey’s knock back to Bastock fell short following Griffiths touch to a long punt by goalkeeper Louis Wells.
On the half hour mark the Swans moved closer to recording their third win in Blue Square South.
Again City were punished when failing to fully clear a corner when Andre Scarlett’s cross was knocked out only as far as Newton whose powerful drive from just inside the penalty area flew over Bailey, to the left of Bastock, and into the goal via the keeper’s left hand upright.
By now City looked in danger of falling apart, Peters was cautioned for stopping Griffiths from getting away by grabbing his foot with a hand whilst grounded and skipper Ryan Frater was booked when going through the back of Butler with an ugly challenge.
As if life could not be any more onerous for City they conceded a third goal on 37 minutes that fell somewhere between genius and a fluke.
Scarlett split the home defence with a wonderful diagonal ball down the right of the home defence, Bourne took the ball in his stride and in a confined space evaded a couple of tackles before unleashing, from a tight angle, what was either a fierce drive or a misdirected cross that again fizzed to Bastock’s left and into the Hatfield Road goal.
Further damage to City’s goal difference appeared on the cards but other than for bookings to Town defender Simon Jackson and City’s Cohen, the half petered out without further mishap.
Referee Crouch took some abuse as the sides left the pitch, and a greater amount at the final whistle, but it was difficult to have any genuine gripes about his handling of the game, especially compared to a couple of other recent refereeing performances during City matches.
The goals Staines scored prior to the break were the first conceded by City at the Hatfield Road end of the ground this season and after the interval the manner in which Town approached the game suggested they were content with their haul.
City, determined to gain some credit en route to a sixth successive winless match, certainly held the upper hand during the second half but with Galbraith, far from fully fit after missing pre-season, fading their attacking intent lacked penetration.
Indeed it was Staines who came closest to finding the target after the resumption when the lively Newton fed Bourne whose attempted lob over Bastock went narrowly wide of the target.
The rare sight of a City goal in open play, it has happened just four times so far this season, almost occurred on 58 minutes when Peters intercepted a throw by Town left left-back Dominic Sterling and headed the ball through for Hakim to race clear.
Hakim, looking for his first goal in seven games, burst into the penalty area and shot crisply to Wells’ left only for the ball to thud into the near post.
Drew Roberts, withdrawn from the attack to play on the right of the midfield, as Castle ditched his 4-3-3 formation in favour of 4-4-2, won a free kick just outside the apex of the penalty area on 73 minutes. Jamie Thurlbourne, on for Galbraith, curled the dead ball to Wells left where the diving keeper could only help the ball on its way into the goal.
The goal sparked a spell of indiscipline in the Staines ranks with Gareth Risbridger, Bourne and Newton all collecting bookings within ten minutes of each other before Griffiths, on 78 minutes, was dismissed following his bloody assault on the dazed Fisher.
As Staines settled for what they had City went close to further reducing the deficit on a number of occasions although Wells had precious few direct shots with which to contend.
Calver showed some nice touches after replacing Fisher – one exchange with Hakim in particular almost produced a goal – but at the opposite end of the pitch Bastock had to be alert to deal with a drive from Scarlett.
Hakim had cause to feel aggrieved when a penalty was not forthcoming after he was bundled to the ground by Swans skipper Danny Gordon while the closest City came to scoring during almost eight minutes of added time was when Jamie Thurlbourne’s bouncing free kick into the goalmouth was missed by both Calver and Hakim but only just diverted away from goal by Wells right knee. |