Simon Martin holds off a Bognor Regis defender.
For all the match pictures, visit www.leighpage.co.uk
|
St Albans City put their early season blues behind them on Saturday as they eased to their first victory of the season with a comfortable success at Clarence Park over a disappointing Bognor Regis Town side, which, on this evidence, is overly reliant on the goalscoring prowess of last seasons, Conference South top scorer Luke Nightingale.
But whilst Nightingale was firing blanks, at opposite of the Park the Rocks keeper Craig Stoner pulled off a series of fine saves to deny City the margin of victory their play warranted. St Albans may not have attacked with the flair and threat seen during the second half of the thrilling encounter with Cambridge City but with new signing Djoumin Sangare and Patrick Ada forming a solid foundation at the heart of the defence there was little likelihood of Bognor ending a run of one win from their previous 11 visits to the Park.
Saints manager Colin Lippiatt wisely opted for a back four with Scott Cousins and the excellent Chris Seeby flanking the central duo. Further stability was given to the backline through player/coach Nick Roddis who slotted in well in a deep lying midfield role.
Early on, however, Jack Pearce’s Bognor side threatened to cause City problems with long passes for Nightingale to latch onto, fortunately for the Saints the two occasions the one-time Portsmouth striker broke through he was pulled up for offside.
After a lively opening to the game City began to get on top with Stoner making the first of his impressive interventions when blocking a low drive from Dean Cracknell who had been set up by Tom Davis. Lee Clarke, who almost matched Nightingale goal-for-goal last season, put a header over the bar from a Mark Graham corner on 14 minutes while a clean strike by Seeby following a Cousins pass was smothered low down by Stoner.
Bognor almost scrambled a goal when Nightingale touched the ball onto Richard Hudson whose cross bounced in the goalmouth and was headed back into the middle by Dan Beck but pounced on by Paul Bastock before Bognor could take full advantage.
City responded with a thrilling run in from the right by Seeby who, after cutting between three players, tested Stoner with a crisp rising shot. Bognor’s best chance of the half went begging when the free Ben Watson could only glance across the face of the goal a Beck cross.
St Albans homed in on victory on 42 minutes when Sangare won the ball well ten yards inside the Bognor half and fed it to Graham who switched the play out to Davis on the City right. The former Fulham player whipped in a good cross that was met beyond the back post by Clarke whose downward header bounced up high into the goal to the left of the keeper. Not only was it Clarke’s third goal of the season but also the third with his head.
City ended the half in full control as Stoner was forced into stopping a 30 yard effort from Clarke and a more testing drive by the impressive Cracknell. Soon after the restart Stoner was again coming to his sides rescue as he denied Cousins and then Clarke after the Saints leading scorer had smartly chested down a Roddis free kick.
Bognor, through Nightingale, had two good opportunities in which to restore parity but squandered both with Bastock making routine saves when the Rocks striker should certainly have tucked away the second with minimal fuss.
For a while City appeared as if they were going to be equally wasteful as Simon Martin failed to make a clean contact close to goal following a Graham cross, and when City did get a strike on target – as Clarke did after Martin had battled for a cross – Stoner excelled to push the ball over the bar.
But on 78 minutes, shortly after Nightingale’s worst miss, City sewed up the points with a majestic goal. Martin exchanged passes in front of the main stand before taking the return pass inside the penalty area and cut in from an acute angle to stylishly chip the ball over the diving keeper and into the York Road net for his 57th goal in 147 games for the Saints.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |
