Paul Hakim battles through the histon defence
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Clarence Park was not the place for the faint-hearted on Saturday as St Albans City spluttered their way towards three more Conference South points against a Histon outfit eager to avenge a five-goal drubbing dished out by the Saints in January and also to keep alive their own fading play-off hopes.
City, playing in front of their largest league gate of the season, did their best to aid the Stutes cause with an error strewn performance that was light years away from the goal-blazing form that has carried them to within touching distance of the Conference National.
That is to take nothing away from Histon for on the day Steve Fallon’s side were the better and more inventive XI but just when the nerves were beginning to jangle in this corner of Hertfordshire the Saints were able to rely once more upon a defence that has not been breached for 457 minutes.
Sticking with the side that drew at Farnborough, Colin Lippiatt, moments after being presented with the Manager of the Month award for March, must have been pleased to see his team make early inroads down either flank through the excellent Paul Hakim and more subdued Matt Hann. But those early scares aside, Histon quickly settled to play some fine football.
Possibly the pivotal moment came as early as the eighth minute when Jamie Barker and Daniel Bloomfield linked well down the Stutes left with the latter cutting the ball back to Ian Cambridge whose deflected shot wrong-footed the diving Paul Bastock. With great agility, the City keeper twisted sharply and from almost nowhere threw out an arm to punch the ball over the York Road goal.
Two minutes later the brilliant Bostonian was out smartly to save at the feet of Neil Andrews, both players required treatment after a clash of knees with the Histon captain being replaced on 20 minutes. Having struggled to find their renowned rhythm City scored the decisive goal on 27 minutes with a classic route-one goal. Ian Cambridge wandered offside midway into the City half and from Bastock’s long kick Lee Clarke rose to head the ball square to Ram Marwa who chested it down before poking his eighth goal in 12 games to the right of the sprawling Lance Key.
Seconds later a good run by Hakim almost produced a second goal only for Clarke to be brought down right on the 18-yard line. Ben Walshe’s free kick caused more problems to the Clarence Park squirrels than the Histon keeper.
When Adrian Cambridge wasted a quickly taken free kick on 34 minutes City launched a brilliant counter-attack that ended with Key diving to his left to concede a corner from Hakim’s drive.
The second half was a familiar scene with most of the 45 minutes spent in one half of the pitch, but for once it was City on the receiving end. Histon dominated the midfield and it seemed just a matter of time until the decisive through ball was found, that moment looked to have arrived in the 65th minute.
A spell of sustained Histon possession ended with Robbie Nightingale firing in a powerful shot from 20 yards that the injured Bastock parried and managed to recover himself to block Bloomfield’s follow up only for the striker to then shove the ball into the net via an arm. Fortunately for City referee Matthew Stewart crowned a fine personal performance by spotting the infringement.
Two minutes later Hakim, more innocently, suffered the same fate when he blocked an attempted clearance by Steve Jackman and raced away to score only to be hauled back for the use of an arm. In quick succession Bloomfield and Nightingale had efforts charged down and on 69 minutes Histon bellowed, unsuccessfully, for a penalty as Bloomfield, not for the first time, went to ground as Bastock attempted to smother a through ball.
A rare City break saw Clarke head on a Bastock kick to Hakim who did well to get to the goalline only for his cut back to be intercepted. Three minutes into added time Key, in a desperate act to resuscitate the visitors dying play-off ambitions, went forward for an Adrian Cambridge corner and helped get the ball down to Nightingale whose shot ricocheted through to Bloomfield who, unbelievably, clipped his shot over the bar |
