Matt Hann
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St Albans City appeared to be cruising towards their first away Nationwide South victory since the opening day of the season at Hornchurch on Tuesday before a dreadful lack of discipline helped cement their position at the foot of the table.
Having bossed the opening 45 minutes and led through Lee Clarke's fine early strike, City simply self-destructed after the break much to the relief of the Urchins former City manager Garry Hill. Dean Hooper, back as captain after missing the Margate match, was dismissed for the second time this season for twice showing dissent to the referee while three other City players were also booked with two of them being for dissent.
The amazing turnaround in second half fortunes was a bolt out of the blue as City controlled the early stages with some sweeping moves and periods and of sustained possession that never allowed Hornchurch to get into the game. With the experienced Paul Bastock making his debut between the sticks City were quickly into their stride and a goal to the good inside five minutes.
Clarke played the ball wide to Ben Walshe who headed for the by-line before feeding Matt Nolan, with a carefully laid ball into Clarke's path he set up the Saints leading scorer to add one more to his tally with a rising from 18 yards.
Although City created few clear goalscoring opportunities their patient and precise build-ups were highly impressive. Hornchurch caused Saints no discomfort until midway through the half when David Hicks missed a free header in front of goal from a Danny Hill corner. City quickly returned to the offensive with Walshe and Scott Cousins linking well before the latter's excellent ball was miscontrolled in the penalty area by Parker but the Urchins were not yet safe as the erratic Abidon Baruwa fumbled the ball a couple of times before finally getting a firm grip as City tried to force the loose ball home.
Parker squandered a good chance to double City's advantage on 39 minutes when he headed wide from a Walshe corner but it was Hornchurch who finished the half stronger although they failed to get on target any of three good chances created.
Within minutes of the second half starting it was evident that City had sacrificed their passing game for aimless hacks upfield which made life extremely difficult for Clarke, Walshe and Nolan whilst also allowing Hornchurch to have far more of the play than they could have anticipated at half time.
Despite enjoying a greater share of the play the Urchins were not really troubling the Saints but all that changed on 67 minutes when Hooper and Clarke quite stupidly directed needless dissent at referee Tony Mason and were both cautioned. Evidence of City losing their cool seemed to inject fresh impetus into Hornchurch's play but other than for a poor header by Chris Carruthers from a Jan-Michel Sigere cross the Saints still appeared the most likely winners.
But with just 15 minutes remaining Hornchurch ended a run of three consecutive defeats when, from Carruthers twice-taken free kick from 20-yards, Bastock got down well to parry the shot but could do nothing to stop the ball rebounding into the goal off the shins of Ben Martin.
City suffered a further setback on 83 minutes when Hooper took exception to having a free kick awarded against him and was shown a second yellow card before seeing an all too familiar red.
Both sides could have secured victory in the closing with Clarke and Roddis both snatching wide at chances created by Nolan before the best opening came the way of Parker who failed to turn in Cousins free kick. At the opposite Adam Locke set up Danny Shipp for crisp low drive that Bastock stretched to push around the post and in added time the Saints new-boy safely gathered Hill's long-range effort.
Report by Dave Tavener |
