St Albans City’s indifferent form in the run up to the festive season continued at Westleigh Park on Saturday as Havant & Waterlooville ended their nine match run without a Blue Square South victory with a comfortable 2-0 win over Steve Castle’s Saints.
Despite sliding to a third successive league defeat, all without scoring, City have clung on to ninth position in Blue Square South but now trail the final play off place by a growing nine points.
With their next two games being against Alan Devonshire’s fourth placed Hampton & Richmond Borough – starting with the Boxing Day fixture at Clarence Park - the Saints need to quick return to form if they are not to lose touch with the leading pack.
Havant have greatly under-performed this season but on this evidence look capable of climbing up the table, a play off place, however, appears to be beyond Shaun Gale’s side.
St Albans, looking to end a run of one point from three games, brought Lee Clarke into the midfield in place of Luke Thurlbourne while Simon Martin lined up alongside Paul Hakim in attack in place of the unavailable Gary Cohen. Sam Hurrell returned on the left as Hassan Sulaiman took a seat on the bench.
Havant included former City defender Gary Elphick while striker Paul Booth had to be content with a place on the bench where he was joined by the likes of Luke Nightingale and Ian Simpemba. Just seven minutes had passed when Simpemba was thrown into action to replace Guy Butters who was sidelined by a strained hamstring.
The Hawks, without a home league win in almost four months, started brightly with former Stevenage Borough winger Charlie Henry cutting in from the left and testing the flu-ridden Paul Bastock with a low drive, and City survived an anxious moment when the muscular Robbie Matthews threatened to get the better of Ben Martin but was pulled up for a push on the City captain.
One of the consistent themes of the match was the amount of pushing undertaken by both teams, certainly Ryan Frater had his hands full in containing Matthews and referee Justin Amey did not always please the home support when occasionally penalising the Hawks striker for backing into the City defender.
St Albans’ best moments came during the opening 20 minutes and on 11 minutes even got the ball into the home net direct from a Jonathan Hunt free kick only for Simon Martin to be pulled up for a foul on keeper Kevin Scriven.
Havant hit back with a positive run by Craig Watkins that won a free kick off Frater just outside the penalty area. A quickly taken dead ball set Henry free inside the box but his low shot was crucially blocked by the outstretched legs of the diving Bastock.
The pressure was maintained with Brett Poate clipping a cross towards the near post that Watkins beat Bastock to but Henry was unable to keep the loose ball in play and City escaped.
City’s clearest chance of the half came on 14 minutes when Simon Martin, down the visitors left, touched the ball inside to Hakim who neatly twisted past Elphick and darted into the penalty area where his low shot was deflected away by Scriven’s left boot. It was just about the only time City got the better of the impressive Elphick all afternoon.
Three minutes later and another good chance went begging. Hunt played the ball out to Fisher on the right and from his excellent cross Simon Martin found space on the edge of the six-yard box only to send a woeful header high over the bar.
A goal continued to look imminent and the Saints almost snatched a bizarre lead. Neat passing by James Quilter, Simon Martin and Clarke ended with Hurrell chasing Clarke’s through ball. Scriven charged wide of his area to clear but then looked on anxiously as the ball thudded into Hurrell and rolled along the goalline before drifting out for a goal kick.
The Saints squandered another good opportunity when Simon Martin won a free kick 18 yards out only for Adam Everitt’s shot to bounce well wide of the target. But Everitt was not the only player to waste such a good position, it was a situation that neither side was able to take full advantage of despite several chances.
City’s inability to accept any of the openings to have come their way thus far looked to be costly on 29 minutes when Matthews received a good ball in from Henry and went down inside the penalty area under a challenge by Frater.
To Frater’s dismay Mr Amey pointed to the penalty spot but City’s mood lightened when Jamie Collins’ right-footed penalty struck the inside of Bastock’s right hand post and bounced across the face of the goal before being cleared.
But the reprieve was to last just seven minutes before the Saints fell behind to a cruel goal. Henry’s inswinging corner from the Hawks left was scrambled away but only as far as Watkins and the striker who scored a hat trick in the FA Trophy in midweek struck again as his low shot took a couple of deflections, including one off the unfortunate Frater, past the bemused Bastock.
Just four minutes later and City’s task became increasingly daunting courtesy of some truly shocking defending. The Saints escaped when Frater carelessly gave the ball away but when Fisher did likewise seconds later there was no way out as Gary Holloway cracked a fine drive from 20 yards low to Bastock’s left for the second goal.
City, whose collective effort and determination was praised by Castle, sought to make a quick response and only an excellent diving save to his left by Scriven denied Hakim his tenth league goal of the season.
The second half was a far tamer affair with City making few inroads into a now confident Hawks defence and the destiny of the points was scarcely called into question. At times, as they did in the first half, St Albans played the ball around quite smartly, but any threat on the home goal tended to come from a more direct approach.
Havant altered their attacking options for the second period with Booth replacing Watkins and, on the hour, Nightingale taking the place of Steven Walker. An audible groan from the main stand suggested that the introduction of the former Bognor Regis Town forward was not met with universal agreement from the home supporters.
With both defences gaining the upper hand it was not until midway through the half that a clear opening was created when former Stevenage player Holloway sent Matthews clear. Bastock did well to block the striker’s firm drive with Frater completing the clearance.
The game seemed to be drifting aimlessly when City almost poached a freak goal. Clarke, clearly short of match fitness but still a high quality ball player, threaded a ball through the home defence to which Hakim gave chase.
Scriven moved swiftly from his area to clear but as the ball crashed into the advancing Hakim the keeper could only look behind him in horror as the ball looked bound for the net only to crash into an upright and away from a gaping goal.
With 11 minutes remaining City made a double substitution, which included a debut for Brentford teenager Rob Nicholls.
In the closing stages Havant went close to adding a third goal on two occasions when the lively Henry whipped inviting low crosses across the face of the visitor’s goal, but neither was turned home.
Three minutes from time City had one final opportunity to set up a tense finale but the chance was lost when Fisher’s good low cross into the goalmouth was sliced over the crossbar by Simon Martin. |
