Tom Davis attacks the wing
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After four months of a seemingly endless plunge towards unavoidable relegation St Albans City, on the back of the first Boxing Day and New Years Day double in their history, head into 2005 in buoyant mood with Colin Lippiatt’s resurgent Saints on the brink of moving out of the bottom three for the first time since the early days of this desperate season.
In handing Cambridge City a second defeat in a week Lippiatt’s side climbed two places off the foot of the table and in keeping a third successive clean sheet will be confident of maintaining their upward progress in the coming weeks. In a match that was more entertaining than the first meeting at Milton Road, it was the Saints who again deservedly took all the points through Tom Beech’s first league goal for the club.
Over the two games Cambridge were a disappointment but maybe that does an injustice to a St Albans defence that was outstanding and virtually nullified the Whites attack in both games. Beech collected the man of the match award on Saturday but it is hard to believe that any of the City back line were far behind him.
St Albans were minus the ill Ben Walshe, and Scott Cousins was also sick and unlikely to be used despite being on the bench, thus leaving Lee Charles as the only fit outfield player available.
The match almost had a sensational start when a foul by Rob Miller on Lee Clarke saw Nick Roddis clip the free kick into the visitors penalty area where Ben Martin hit a speculative looping volley over Cambridge keeper Duncan Roberts and onto the top of the Hatfield Road crossbar, barely 42 seconds had elapsed since kick off.
Both sides made a lively start but it was the Saints who should have gone ahead on 17 minutes when Matt Hann sent the offside looking Beech away but his crisp angled drive just evaded Roberts' left hand post. Shortly after Clarke showed his class in chesting down a ball in the box and shooting swiftly only to be denied by Glenn Fuff’s superbly timed block.
With an increasingly strong wind and rain to their backs Cambridge began to exert pressure and looked to further improve the best away record in the Division but other than for a fierce drive by Dave Sadler, well palmed away by the diving Paul Bastock, there was little serious threat to the home goal.
On 39 minutes Hann received a Chris Seeby throw and crossed to the back post where Lee Summerscales cleared only as far as Tom Davis whose delightful 30-yard drive dipped late and clipped the stanchion to Roberts' right. Two minutes later the lively Hann, playing against one of his former clubs, shot over after Matt Langston had blocked an effort from Beech.
Although the first half had been pretty even overall it was the Saints who posed the greater attacking menace and with the adverse weather conditions supposedly in their favour a fifth home league win in almost 14 months was now within their sights.
St Albans certainly began the second period encouragingly with Seeby going close following a Hann corner but, to their credit, Cambridge also suggested they knew where the goal was. A good move saw Dave Sadler play the ball out to Carl Williams but his firm low drive was kept out by the impressive combination of Gary Elphick and Martin.
Within the space of two minutes the game produced two sublime pieces of skill firstly when Seeby weaved his way in from the left touchline past four bemused Cambridge players before he overran the ball and moments later Hann, receiving a pass from Martin, turned and let fly with a wonderful shot from 25-yards that again left Roberts stranded as it thudded into the face of the crossbar.
Cambridge replied with a rasping drive from fully forty yards by Fuff that was taken with the minimum of fuss by Bastock but the game was now moving inexorably towards a goal and it was the Saints who came up with the goods on 65 minutes.
Hann played a corner in from the City right to that was knocked away as far as Davis, he laid it off to Martin who slid a perfect ball down the right for Hann to drive in a low cross that flew up at the near post off the sliding Steve Dell and took a deflection on its way across goal to Beech who was able to plant the simplest of headed goals to Roberts right.
Former Saints manager Gary Roberts sought to flatten St Albans party mood with three swift substitutions but it took a save by his goalkeeping namesake following a diving header by Clarke from a Davis free kick to keep the Saints at bay.
Despite managing to exert some extra pressure on the home goal Cambridge could make little headway where it mattered with Dean Hooper and Seeby limiting the visitors threat from wide positions while Elphick and Martin continued to strengthen their resolute central partnership. In the middle of the pitch Ram Marwa formed a terrier-like partnership with Roddis.
It was not until the game moved into the first of almost four minutes of added time that Bastock was truly tested, firstly when he had to deal with a dangerous free kick from Dell, which he punched to safety, and then more importantly with a low shot from the edge of the box by Josh Simpson that he smothered to secure his third successive clean sheet; the Saints best return since Gary Roberts shared the managerial duties at Clarence Park with Steve Cook at the start of the 2002-03 season.
Report by Dave Tavener |
