St Albans City's return to the Herts Charity Cup after a year's absence ended in an embarrassing defeat last Friday as a team, not lacking in first team hopefuls, disintegrated against the highly promising and polished youngsters to have progressed through Stevenage Borough's EFCO youth development scheme.
The Saints fielded five players - Andy Futcher, Richard Goddard, Richard Evans, Joe Lyons and Ryan Moran - believed to be very much a part of Kevin Mudd's first team squad but it was Borough's youngsters, many of whom played in the Stevenage Reserve side which defeated City twice in three Capital League matches last season, who caught the eye at an almost deserted Clarence Park.
City were thankful to goalkeeper Lee Clark for going in level at the interval as twice he saved at the feet of the impressive Paul Armstrong. Boro keeper James Hassell also demonstrated his agility when stretching high to tip over Fabio Valenti's well placed free-kick while City's best move of the half ended with Evans striking an upright after exchanging passes with Darryl Constantine.
Having been on the back foot for much of the opening half City started the second period more brightly and went ahead on 62 minutes with a well controlled low 20 yard volley from Moran after a Futcher free-kick had been half cleared. The lead was held until ten minutes from time when a near post Borough corner glanced off the head of a City defender and was put into the York Road net by the diving Armstrong.
Moran went close to restoring City's advantage at the start of extra time following a cross from Chris Jones but thereafter the added 30 minutes saw City lose control of the game, their composure and, ultimately the tie. Boro went ahead on 111 minutes with a possibly fortuitous goal from left back Mark Duckett whose misdirected cross looped over Clark and drifted into the far corner of the goal. But there was no disputing the quality of the third Stevenage goal in the final minute as Armstrong slipped the ball out to Robert Miller and then raced into the middle to calmly slide home the return pass.
Report by Dave Tavener |