Despite fielding a reasonably strong side on Tuesday night St Albans City slithered to one of their most humiliating home defeats in the Herts Senior Cup for many a year as South Midlands League side Oxhey Jets stormed into the last four with a sensational 3-0 victory at Clarence Park.
City made six changes to the XI that started Saturday’s dramatic match with Bromley but the side that took to the pitch on Tuesday still, theoretically, had enough experience to see off an Oxhey team that also defeated the Saints by three goals when they met in the same competition just over two years ago.
On another cold night City actually looked the more dominant side during the early exchanges but had no firepower whatsoever in attack and Steve Castle’s decision to go with a lone striker did appear to backfire completely.
Perhaps the most damning statistic regarding City’s performance is that during the entire 90 minutes they failed to muster a single effort on target. Oxhey Jets were little better in that they had just three shots on target – fortunately for the sparse crowd each one found the back of the Jake Palmer’s net.
Whilst City certainly lacked any cutting edge up front they were equally inept in other areas. There was no desire to shoot when close to the penalty area and the number of passes that failed to reach their intended target was virtually beyond calculation.
The only St Albans player to emerge with any credit was 18-year-old Craig Mortimer who went on several good runs down the right wing and crowned his performance with a number of decent crosses. Given that this is an area in which City have struggled for good delivery all season the teenager did his long-term prospects no harm at all.
Playing towards the Hatfield Road goal City had the better of the opening 45 minutes but failed to force visiting keeper Chris Walker into making a single save. But the keeper did have an anxious moment when Mortimer exchanged passes with Simon Martin before sending a teasing cross in front of goal that just eluded the incoming Sam Hurrell.
And Hurrell was also involved when challenging Walker for a skied cross from Chris Seeby. Under pressure from Hurrell the keeper completely missed the ball allowing Hector Mackie to score only for the effort to be wiped out for an alleged foul on Walker.
Just a minute from the break City had a let off when a spell of short passing went awry with Frater gifting the ball to Paul Turner inside the centre circle. Turner advanced before trying to chip the ball over Palmer only for his effort to dip the wrong side of the crossbar.
Without a league win since early in November the Saints have relied on the County Cup for positive news over the past two months but any hope of that run continuing faded on 47 minutes when Oxhey broke swiftly following a City corner.
Turner led the counterattack before sliding the ball out to Adam Lowton who beat Palmer with an angled shot along the ground to open the scoring.
Simon Martin was finally given a striking partner on 57 minutes when Inih Effiong replaced Jonathan Hunt who had been playing in a more central midfield position than previously so far this season.
With 14 minutes remaining Seeby stretched to control a long pass across the pitch by Hurrell before going on a run that ended with a shot narrowly wide of the target.
Ten minutes from time Oxhey virtually booked their place in the semi-finals when Nathan Roberts arrowed a superb pass through the middle of the home defence that Jamie Arthur latched onto and went wide of Palmer before firing past a retreating defender for the second goal.
A defiant note was struck a minute later when Mortimer went close from 25 yards but in the 90th minute Oxhey Jets maintained their deadly accuracy with a third goal from three shots on target as Lowton swept home following Athur’s fine through ball.
As if seeing their interest in cup competitions extinguished for another year was not sufficient to upset the Saints then the sight of Lee Clarke on crutches will have damaged morale. Clarke has been carrying an injury to his right knee for several weeks and caused further damage to it during training on Monday night.
Although the full extent of the injury is not yet known it is feared to be cartilage trouble, something that throws serious doubt on Clarke chances of taking any further part in City’s season. |
