Lee Clarke in action.
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St Albans City’s bid for promotion from the Conference South was given a further boost at Woodside Park on Monday as Colin Lippiatt’s free-scoring Saints completed a seasonal double over county rivals Bishop’s Stortford and chalked up a third impressive win in eight days.
Although a goal in arrears at the interval to a Stortford side victorious only once in its previous ten league games, City were a cut above the fading Bishop’s and that the result was only put beyond doubt in the closing minutes was due to the Saints being less than clinical in front of goal.
Stortford looked set to make a sensational start when Steve Morison tried his luck from almost 40 yards only to see Paul Bastock spectacularly tip the ball over, disappointingly the wonderful moment was wiped away by an offside flag.
But the Bishop’s were ahead on five minutes when a loose square ball by the talented Scott Cousins allowed Alex Martin to nip in ahead of Aaron Barnett and free Morison who coolly slid the opening goal to Bastock’s left as the keeper dived to his right.
Thereafter Stortford were in retreat as City laid siege to the home goal but were thwarted by indifferent finishing and by having wave after wave of attack cut short by a staggering number of fouls conceded by the home side. Chances went begging as Simon Martin just failed to reach a Ben Walshe cross while both Martin and Lee Clarke were beaten by the speed of a Chris Seeby cross as it flashed across the face of the goal.
Walshe, a constant thorn in Stortford’s right hand side, overran the ball when well placed, drilled another good opportunity into the side-netting and sent a well struck 30-yard free kick into the foot of Andy Young’s left hand post.
Although penned back for almost the half, Stortford were a threat on the break with Roy Essandoh and Morison causing problems while substitute Scott Forbes was denied when Bastock smothered the ball at his feet. Another good chance went unclaimed by City just prior to the interval when Walshe put a good ball in from the left that Martin, who had a decent game, headed well over.
City lost Barnett during the interval when he was physically ill having suffered a blow to the head just prior to the break, his replacement, Patrick Ada, slipped seamlessly into the back four and such was the minimal disruption to the Saints that they were ahead within nine minutes.
Seeby and Hann took an eternity to get the ball in from the right before the later sent over a low cross that ended with Dean Cracknell laying the ball off for Lee Clarke to score for the third successive game, this time with well placed curling effort to Young’s left.
Four minutes later, the 54th, following a spell of Bishop’s pressure, City broke swiftly. Once at the edge of the penalty area Cracknell fed Clarke whose drive was blocked but, with Young grounded in anticipation of that shot, Cracknell showed great awareness to head the falling ball well wide of the sprawling keeper to score against his former club.
Somewhat surprisingly City adopted a more defensive mood once ahead when Stortford were clearly deflated and expecting the worst. Instead, Martin Hayes struggling side enjoyed their best spell of the entire two holiday games between the clubs but other than for a couple of goalmouth scrambles an equaliser was seldom a realistic proposition. Certainly the safety first tactics employed by the dominant Nick Burton proved effective from City’s point of view.
The points were finally secured five minutes from time when a Clarke shot, following an excellent move involving Cousins and Walshe, was deflected for a corner. The left-footed Walshe swung the ball towards the near post where the diminutive Hann beat Young to head in his 11th goal of the season, via the underside of the bar.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |
