The ink had hardly dried on his contract when Brian Stein demonstrated his remarkable craft with devastating effect. After weeks of indecision when he was being courted by a cluster of other non-league clubs, Stein proved he has the hallmark of a quality striker by slamming in a majestic hat-trick to send City gliding into the next round of the Herts Senior Cup.
The way they crucified Hemel’s defence was a warning to their opponents this season that they look an intimidating force to be reckoned with.
But the game nearly never took place because of the appalling state of Hemel’s pitch and only after it was scoured by players and officials did the game finally go ahead.
Nails, screws, pieces of piping were found which could have caused serious injury to players. But despite the hazards St Albans decided to go ahead and play the game.
“We could have turned around and said we wouldn’t play on that pitch because it was a disgrace” said City Joint manager Allan Cockram. “But we cleaned what we could see and thankfully nobody was injured but there was a lot of rubbish on the pitch that could have caused a nasty injury that was cleared before the game”,
As a contest this cup-tie was over by the interval with City completely outclassing Hemel in almost every department.
Stein rapped in his first with a rasping shot from the edge of the penalty area after 13 minutes before Steve Clark headed in a second from Martin Duffield‘s corner.
Hemel pulled a goal back but Stein restored City’s two goal advantage before the interval with a low drive following a quick exchange of passes with Duffield.
City might have had double figures in the second period they dominated the game for so long but they had to be content with just two more goals.
Stein’s strike that brought him his hat-trick was a carbon copy of his opening goal which gave the goalkeeper no chance.
More goals looked like coming but the rush never arrived and the fifth goal came two minutes from time when Clark pounced to tap the ball home from a cross. |