St Albans City created a piece of unwanted club history on Bank Holiday Monday as defeat to Maidenhead United in a truly dreadful game at York Road means that for the second successive season the Saints have failed to win any of their opening five league matches. Never before has the club started two successive seasons so poorly but with a tad of good fortune that run may have been averted at the home of the Magpies.
The turning point of a dire encounter, which all too often saw the option of good passing football sacrificed in favour of the long ball game, came seven minutes from the interval when a deep Jonathan Hunt free kick on the City right was met at the back post by Ben Martin only for the giant defenders header to be whacked to safety after smashing into the crossbar of one-time City keeper Shane Gore.
That flash of excitement was akin to finding a petrol station still selling fuel at under £1 a litre, so few were the genuine goalmouth incidents of note. Maidenhead, just like last Saturday’s opponents Chelmsford City, are enjoying an unbeaten start to the season. But any similarity between the two sides ends there and it is hard to believe, on this evidence, that Maidenhead will sample life so high for too many more weeks.
City, on the other hand, can also only dream of such a lofty perch and for as long as the side looks so toothless close to goal then increasing pressure will mount on the defence to provide the platform from which points will be accumulated.
City handed debuts to two players with Gary Cohen replacing the injured Rod Hicks. The former Gretna and Grimsby Town player went to the right of the midfield with Jonathan Hunt switching over to the left. Tobi Jinadu also made his first appearance when replacing Hunt at the end of the first of three minutes of added time. Not surprisingly the imposing central defender, sent on to add welcome muscle to the attack, was unable to change the course of events.
Martin’s header was the highlight of a half that saw City enjoy the greater share of the play as they attacked down the slope but that it took until the 24th minute for either side to win a corner gives an indication of the tame nature of the play.
Certainly Cohen, who has been troubled by injury for quite some time, struggled to make an impact. The London-born player, who has also had spells with Watford (as a youngster), Scarborough, Workington and Australian side Manly United, was clearly out of match practice with a loose first touch allowing United players to frequently dispossess him with ease.
But when he did get it right Cohen unsettled Maidenhead and on 39 minutes he won a free kick close to the corner flag. Hunt cut the dead ball back to Ben Bowditch, along with Martin one of City’s better performers, whose curling shot from 20 yards rose just the wrong side of Gore’s goal.
With both goalkeepers proving themselves adept at being extra defenders by making clearances from well outside the penalty area, chances continued to be few and far apart during the second half. Lee Clarke, set up by Paul Hakim, fired over for City while Richard Pacquette, after a good turn, did likewise at the opposite end.
Ben Martin proved a handful to the home defence just after the hour when Maidenhead struggled to clear a Hunt free kick. The ball fell to Martin on the edge of the box and his shot, that headed goalwards after being thumped into the ground, appeared set to fly through a crowded penalty area and inside Gore’s right hand post only for the keeper to dive late and just succeed in clawing the ball to safety.
Cohen’s contribution was curtailed on 59 minutes when Tom Youngs was hauled off the bench, City added to their attacking strength on 77 minutes when Simon Martin came on for midfielder Sean Ridgway.
After a quiet start to the second period Maidenhead started to pose a threat with the introduction of Bobby Behzadi. On 68 minutes his crisp effort from 30 yards appeared to catch Paul Bastock unawares but the veteran keeper got down well to his right to parry the ball wide of the goal. Pacquette was quickly onto the loose ball and drove it across the face of the goal but with only City’s James Fisher in attendance there was no danger to the Saints.
This was the start of a purple patch for the Magpies and after two shots were charged down in quick succession Pacquette went close with a fine diving header from a Dale Binns cross. On 79 minutes the decisive blow was landed as Behzadi threaded an excellent ball through the middle of the City defence that the unmarked Pacquette seized upon and drove firmly to Bastock’s right for his fourth goal of the season.
In the 11 minutes remaining City were able to muster little to suggest that their fourth goal of the season was just around the corner although a header into the goalmouth by Ben Martin, following a Hunt free kick, offered some hope until Simon Martin was pulled up for fouling Gore as he caught the ball.
With added time already under way Jinadu was given scant time to save the day but in reality the Saints hopes of scoring against Maidenhead for the first time in 407 minutes had long since vanished. |
