St Albans City made light of the 43 places separating themselves from high flying Torquay United at Clarence Park on Saturday to move impressively through to the 5th Round of the inaugural Setanta Shield as the only Blue Square South side definitely through to the last sixteen.
Torquay, with former Saint Elliot Benyon leading their attack, made several changes from their recognised starting line up but still enjoyed a good share of the possession only to make little headway against the excellent central defensive pairing of Ben Martin and Ryan Frater as the Saints chalked up what, remarkably, is their biggest win for more than a year.
City’s third home win in succession – following on from a run of one win in the previous 20 matches on home soil – was built upon two goals of vastly contrasting fortunes. On four minutes Torquay clearly thought the competition was called the Santa Shield as they handed the Saints a most welcome present in the form of a bewildering own goal.
Gulls defender Kevin Richardson sought to head back to his keeper Scott Cousins’ lofted through ball. Richard Butler gave chase, forcing United keeper Simon Rayner to race from his penalty area only to hammer the ball into retreating team mate Mark Ellis, the duo could only look on in embarrassment as the ball bobbled its way into the Hatfield Road goal.
The second goal, on 38 minutes, however, was one to treasure. Cousins was again involved as his free kick from wide on the City left was headed away by Kevin Hill but only as far as Paul Bruce. With time and space on his side the midfielder brought the ball down then, from 30 yards, unleashed a wonderful half volley that flew inside Rayner’s left hand post before the keeper could scurry across his goal.
Other than for the goals, clear chance were scarce for either side but there was no lack of honest commitment. Even so Torquay, particularly through Benyon in the second half, had opportunities to save the tie.
Shortly after the interval Cousins denied Benyon on the goalline while Nick Eyre, whose handling was virtually impeccable once again, saved a header from the striker who scored six times in 13 games for the Saints. But Benyon was also guilty of a bad miss later in the half. A generous deflection left him facing just Eyre but his low shot was too soft and too close to the keeper to haul United back into contention.
The unfortunate Ellis, on loan from Bolton Wanderers, was guilty of an equally wasteful miss with a close range header over Eyre’s goal following a Matt Hockley cross.
City were not without chances but during the entire match the combined tally of on target efforts from either side amounted to a miserly six. City boss Dave Anderson made a minor tactical alteration before the game opting to play Lee Clarke in a slighter deeper role with the right-sided Hassan Sulaiman pushing forward.
The City skipper, especially in the second period as St Albans attacked the York Road goal, revelled in his new position and made three dazzling surges from just inside his own half into the Torquay penalty area. From the last such foray Clarke swayed around two defenders before clearly being impeded by Chris Robertson. Still he went on only for Rayner to save his shot but more surprising was that referee Ian Cooper decided against pulling play back for a penalty. |
