Adam Parker on the attack
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David Tavener reports from Clarence Park
Having blasted his players performance as unacceptable following the midweek drubbing by Welling, Steve Castle, the St Albans City manager, looked lost for words as he left his troops in clusters all over the pitch and made a lonely walk towards for the dressing room just minutes after the Saints scrappy Nationwide South defeat by Hayes on Saturday.
Hayes deservedly stretched their unbeaten run against the Saints to an eleventh game if only by virtue of the fact that one of their two on target shots of the afternoon found the back of the net and the Saints solo accurate effort did not.
More worrying for City than the poor record against Hayes is the statistic that says City have won just three of 18 home league games under Castle and just one of the last dozen.
In an effort to improve that record Castle dropped Chris Seeby and Gary Crawshaw while injury ruled out Spencer Knight. In came Miguel De Souza, Lee Clark and Matt Hann but the trio failed add any real life to a performance that was far too reminiscent of many last season for comfort.
A share of the spoils would not have been an unjust outcome given each sides amount of possession but whenever the Saints moved into the final third of the pitch they appeared toothless and with every passing game the need for a strong physical presence to play alongside Clarke becomes ever more apparent.
Prior to the interval there were just two noteworthy goalmouth incidents, the first of which saw Hayes striker Josh Scott have his shot blocked after delaying too long while the second, a superbly struck Adam Everitt free kick, was smartly palmed over by James Robinson.
With Adam Parker again pushed forward to partner Clarke City lacked a genuine cutting edge but his persistence caused several anxious moments for the Missioners captain Matt Gray who was fortunate to only receive a yellow card following a series of misdemeanours.
The second period saw the Saints offer more of an attacking threat but their finishing was wayward as Clarke headed wide and Hann fired over while Parker had an effort blocked and another turned out for a corner by keeper Kevin Davies after the ball had taken a deflection which had sent it wide of the target in any case.
Hayes had shown the way to goal in the 55th minute when Stuart Goodall cut in from the visitors left and, unchallenged, sent a perfectly placed right-footed shot from 25 yards high across Robinson and into the far top corner of the Hatfield Road net.
Hayes had opportunities to increase their lead and were almost given a helping hand when City substitute Ben Martin marked his league debut with a dreadful back pass that ended up with Scott eventually shooting over after Robinson had blocked Kieran Knight. Martin was also fortunate not to concede a penalty after twice appearing to clamber all over Knight, but with Gray doing likewise at the opposite end to Clarke and De Souza two wrong decisions by referee Mark Scholes, who had a poor game, did indeed make for a right.
Another chance went begging for Hayes when Dean Hooper put in a last ditch interception as Knight looked set to score but any hopes City had of staving off another defeat evaporated five minutes from time when Darren Sarll struck a glorious drive from 30 yards that swerved viciously but was somehow beaten out by Davies who did well to get up and block Hann’s follow up but received an injury for his troubles in so doing.
St Albans City: J.Robinson, D.Hooper, S.Cousins, G.Wraight (B.Martin 65), M.De Souza (G.Crawshaw 72), C.Zoricich, R.Thomas, A.Parker, L.Clarke, M.Hann, J.Southon (Sarll 53), subs, Seeby, Jackman
Hayes: K.Davies, P.Collins, A.Everitt, Y.Yeboah (J.O’Connor 73), M.Gray, J.Case (M.Molesley 81), S.Goodall, K.McKenna, J.Scott, K.Knight (A.Yoki 90), K.Warner, subs, G.Woodcock, A.Goldman
Report by David Tavener |
