Paul Bastock pulls off a save.
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A sending off, two mass melees, fancy dress superheroes a plenty, a muted rebellion and outstanding goalkeeping all merged together as the curtain came down on St Albans City’s home Blue Square South campaign with a 1-0 defeat to Woking at a sun-kissed Clarence Park on Saturday.
This was another in a series of sterling performances by the depleted Saints in the closing weeks of the season but it was Graham Baker’s Cardinals who provided the cutting edge, just, to cling onto the final play-off position through Harry Arter’s goal just six minutes after Gary Cohen was controversially dismissed.
Going for a bouncing ball Cohen clearly misjudged his challenge on Woking right-back Ricky Anane and was ready to accept a yellow card for his misdemeanour. But referee Simon Knapp seemed to lose all semblance of balance as the Woking bench erupted, with the particularly vocal Jimmy Dack, Baker’s assistant, leading the charge. On the pitch too calm went out of the window with Anane giving Cohen a hearty two-handed shove in the chest. As players tangled close to the touchline on the halfway line the personnel in the two dugouts also locked horns.
When a measure of order was restored Cohen received the second red card of his St Albans career and James Fisher went into the book. There was also more space to be found in the dugouts as the Bristol based match official sent Dack to the stands, not that it quietened him down, and also ordered City’s Reserve team manager, Darren Gibb, to another part of the stand.
Up until this flashpoint the game had been hugely enjoyable. Woking showed themselves to be a fast and skilful side, playing the ball to feet and without any doubt searching for the victory required to maintain their promotion push. As for the Saints, as with many recent displays, they displayed a fighting spirit that does credit to both manager Steve Castle and his players. City were at their best before the interval and generally matched the Cards up until the break. St Albans were forced into making one change for the first time in three games as a slight injury pushed Mark Peters back onto the bench. Jake Argent was called in to fill the gap with the Leyton Orient youngster joining Ian Dunn in attack.
After employing a 3-5-2 formation with some success over the previous two matches Castle was forced to revert to 4-4-2, although he changed it again during the second half. The game, on a long overdue wonderfully warm day, was bright from the start with Peter Smith darting through the Woking half before being cynically bundled over by Anane. The first clear opening fell the way of the Cards with Anane and Moses Ademola creating an opening for Craig Faulconbridge who miscued completely inside the penalty area.
Faulconbridge was closer with a header from a Nicky Nicolau cross while City keeper Paul Bastock and central defender Adam Everitt combined to thwart Aswad Thomas on the edge of the six yard box, the ball ran loose to Ademola who hammered it high and wide. City looked to have broken the deadlock on 16 minutes when Everitt met a Smith corner with a clean header only for Cards keeper Ross Worner to pull off a stunning save to his right, before the ball could be completely cleared it was returned to Everitt on the edge of the penalty but his shot looped high over the target.
Two minutes later Bastock produced one of several fine saves as he flung himself to his right to push away Giuseppe Sole’s exquisitely placed 20-yard free kick. As Woking continued to enjoy a spell of pressure Bastock was called into action again to save to his left as Ademola drove the ball powerfully towards the Hatfield Road goal.
City hit back to exert some pressure of their own and were within an ace of breaking through when James Fisher crossed from the right touchline towards the back post where Cohen got up well only for Worner to fingertip his header onto the crossbar.
Ademola gave Smith a testing first half and got another good cross into the box on 34 minutes that Bastock did well to gather cleanly as it bounced, at speed, through a cluster of players. The game though took a dramatic twist on 38 minutes when Cohen was despatched – at least it meant he would not be late for the start of his own stag party later in the evening.
A minute before the interval Woking seized the upper hand with a smartly executed goal. Ademola superbly edged wide of Smith before sending a low cross towards the edge of the six yard box where Arter clipped a right footed shot to the right of Bastock and into the net. St Albans almost produced a shock in the short time remaining with Argent getting across his defender to meet another Fisher cross only for his header to fly across the face of Worner’s goal.
Argent was also instrumental in the creation of City’s clearest opportunity of the day as, on 48 minutes, he slipped a deadly pass through the middle of the Woking defence that gave Ross Dedman a clear sight of goal. Worner was alert to the danger and moved swiftly from his line to limit Dedman’s options and the 17-year-old slid his shot just wide of the keepers left hand upright. Dedman quickly put that miss behind him to have an outstanding second half even when he was moved from midfield to central defence as Castle shuffled the pack.
Woking failed to dominate as they would have liked against the numerically challenged Saints but a well-worked move on 52 minutes saw Sole play a corner to Nicolau on the edge of the penalty area and from his chip into the penalty area Tony Sinclair looked certain to score with a close range header until Bastock produced one more memorable diving save high to his left.
As the half wore on the neat passing of the first half was replaced by a longer more untidy game with both sides losing possession far too easily.
Even so, Woking created a number of reasonable chances but Tom Hutchinson, Thomas, Nicolau, Sole and Arter, twice, all fired well wide or over the home goal. Woking were clearly uneasy in the closing stages and Baker responded by urging his side to hold the ball by the corner flags. It was not something they did with any great success.
Smith, who has made a grand impression on the Saints since joining from Poole Town in November – his debut coming City’s 1-0 win over Woking at Kingfield - went on a surging before being blocked by Thomas. The talented left-back twisted inside and scooped the ball across to Peters who headed it inside to Fisher whose header was caught comfortably by Worner.
Woking had a golden chance to kill the game off when substitute Joe McNerney burst clear of the defence only for Bastock to continue his master class in goalkeeping by falling to his right to save.
Before the minute was out Smith led another City attack but an unkind bobble just as he shaped to shoot led to the ball heading for the Clarence Park trees. As referee Knapp brought proceedings to a close another unsightly free-for-all exploded on the edge of the pitch. Castle urged his side to head down the tunnel before a serious incident could fully erupt.
After the game Smith was presented with the Supporters Player of the Year trophy and in the clubhouse collected the Player’s Player of the Year award. Gary Cohen’s goal against Bromley won the Goal of the Season award and Steve Castle picked up the Wagstaffe Simmons Clubman of the Year award. Rob Magwood won the April Player of the Month trophy. Other sideshows during the day saw a multitude of Woking supporters, making up City’s highest attendance of the season, dressed as superheroes and others less obvious characters. A number of postcards calling for the resignation of City chairman John Gibson were also distributed. |
