A stupendous goal from right back Damian Batt greeted Dave Anderson in his first match as manager of St Albans City on Saturday but there was precious little else to convince the new boss that a record of just two victories in 27 matches is about to be consigned to the pages of history.
The first half, in particular, was a woeful affair. Welling United, another side perilously close to the foot of the Blue Square South table, should have put the game beyond doubt by the interval while City failed to muster any attempts on goal until the 51st minute.
Anderson rang the changes from the FA Cup defeat to Bishop’s Stortford with six alterations to the starting XI and Lee Clarke named as a lone striker. Clarke’s current astonishing run of one goal in 28 games was hardly likely to cause Welling sleepless nights and the frequency with which he went deep to seek possession suggested that goal number two is still some way off.
Both sides fielded loan keepers from Brentford with City’s 17 year old debutant, Sebastian Brown, being called into action on five minutes to thwart Ross Montague as the Wings striker sought to force home Marlon Patterson’s poor chip into the goalmouth.
But Welling, without a goal in their three previous away matches, nudged City closer to a fourth successive defeat on 17 minutes when a long Jerome Boyce free kick was arrowed from close to the goalline towards Brown’s right hand upright for Montague to stab home his first goal for the Kent club.
Patterson who, along with Leon Soloman and Fabian Quintyn, posed problems for City throughout the afternoon squandered a good chance to double the Wings advantage while a flurry of five corners produced nothing better than a glanced header wide by player/manager Neil Smith.
City could only improve after a truly dire first 45 minutes and six minutes after the restart, following a partially cleared Batt cross, Paul Bruce sent the Saints first goal attempt of the afternoon in the general direction of the cricket pavilion. A clearer chance went begging five minutes later when a Scott Cousins free kick was headed firmly down but well wide by Ram Marwa.
Just after the hour Brown failed to make a firm contact to a Patterson cross but did well to recover and block Quintyn’s point blank effort after Tony Sinclair returned the ball into the middle. City rallied with a spell of pressure that resulted in three successive corners but Welling held firm and on 72 minutes, a tad fortuitously, added a second goal.
Patterson swept a fine ball down the left for Quintyn to seize upon and after cutting into the box the Wings frontman cut the ball back for the unfortunate Bruce to run into his own net from eight yards.
As some home supporters headed for the exit Anderson’s boys hit back two minutes later with an excellent goal. Hassan Sulaiman clipped a good diagonal ball up to Marwa whose cushioned header allowed Batt, from 25 yards, to drive a glorious strike that ricocheted off Clark Masters’ left hand upright and flew just inside the opposite post of the Hatfield Road goal.
Sadly, for an increasingly apathetic home support, this was not the spark for a stirring fight back. Instead, had Brown not displayed his promising talent in blocking Quintyn and then whipping the ball from the toes of Omari Coleman, and Batt and the excellent Hasim Deen not blocked shots from Quintyn and Coleman respectively, then the Saints could have slithered to a far heavier reversal.
Report courtesy of The St Albans & Harpenden Review. |
