St Albans City reclaimed the summit of the Conference South on Tuesday night but it was hardly a triumphant return as they struggled to overcome an out of sorts and recently goal-shy Thurrock side that went down to ten men while scoring their first away goals since the turn of the year.
City will gladly take the three points from a bone-shakingly raw night made worse by a biting wind blowing icy cold rain into the faces of anyone brave enough to adorn the Hatfield Road terrace but it was a win achieved with one of their poorest display of the season.
Thurrock, goalless in their six previous outings, started brightly but with their first serious thrust it was St Albans who opened the scoring on three minutes. Chris Seeby ran deep into the Thurrock half with one of his typically meandering runs before being tripped some 25 yards from goal. Ben Walshe carefully measured the distance then beat visiting keeper Glenn Knight with a perfectly placed away swinging left-footed shot high to his left.
City were keen to exploit a poor first half performance by the Thurrock custodian with Walshe having a second well judged free kick unconvincingly turned round the post by Knight who then missed a Matt Hann free kick with his hands but the ball rolled out for a corner off his midriff.
Although displaying little of the form that has made them serious title contenders City went two-up on 41 minutes following a spell of sustained pressure with Walshe applying most of the trickery. From an inswinging Walshe corner on the City right Ram Marwa notched his fifth goal in four games with an exquisite glancing header.
City began the second period attacking the York Road goal with a series of moves that justified their lofty perch. Twice central defender Nick Burton was denied his first goal for the club and Simon Martin headed against the woodwork from a Seeby cross. On 56 minutes the game appeared to have been put beyond doubt when a Hann free kick, conceded by Jimmy McFarlane on his former Thurrock team mate Martin, saw Martin exact full revenge when rising at the far post to head in his tenth league goal the campaign.
Five minutes later substitute Kris Lee reduced the arrears when poking the ball home after Paul Bastock had excelled to stop David Sadler’s wickedly deflected free kick from crossing the goalline.
Thurrock’s cause looked hopeless two minutes later though when Steve Heffer was dismissed after raising a hand into the face of Tom Davis who fell to the ground. To their credit the Fleet’s remaining ten-men simply upped their workrate and caused City no lack of embarrassment although St Albans’ oft seen habit to concede ground cheaply when in a winning position aided the Fleet’s cause.
As City gifted possession with alarming regularity Thurrock grew in confidence but the Saints still had four good chances to increase their advantage. Each came the way of Hann but three times he opted to go solo when he had unmarked team mates to his left screaming for the ball. Knight saved two efforts, one struck the stanchion while the other rebounded narrowly wide off him as a defender tried to clear his lines.
Thurrock showed no such generosity a minute from time when former Spurs youngster Mark Janney collected an excellent ball wide to the right and cracked powerful low cross towards the near post that Bastock parried but could not stop Lee from pouncing for his second point-blank goal of the night.
Match report by Dave Tavener. Kindly supplied by The St Albans Observer. |
