A little light that started to shine brightly at the end of a troubled week for St Albans City was extinguished within two second half minutes as Arlesey Town shrugged off a two-goal deficit to snatch a Southern League Premier Division point with a 2-2 draw at Clarence Park on Saturday.
The composure that City exhibited as they protected the first half goals scored by Rob Haworth and Jerome Walker was blown away by Arlesey’s quick-fire double and St Albans looked to be heading for bigger problems as defender Ryan Watts was dismissed for an off the ball incident.
That City faced such problems during the latter stages was something of a surprise given how completely ineffective the visitors had appeared during the opening 45 minutes.
Saints manager David Howell made three changes from the side that started in midweek against East Thurrock United but two of these, Nathan Ralph (recalled by Peterborough United) and Tobi Jinadu (injured) were forced upon the City boss.
The remaining alteration saw Nathan Haisley relegated to the bench as Matt Cutchey (central defender), Barrie Matthews (midfield) and Sean Shields (wide midfield) were all recalled.
Matthews wasted no time in announcing his return as he went into referee Nick Cooper’s notebook within 20 seconds of the kick off following a rash tackle on Chris Marsh.
City began encouragingly and on four minutes Town keeper Mark Osborn tipped over an effort from David Ijaha after former Saint Ryan Frater had cleared weakly from a Sean Shields cross.
Eager to end a run of three defeats in their previous four league games City took the lead on 18 minutes with a goal that caused muted protests on the pitch from Arlesey defenders.
Saints right back Reece Yorke launched a free kick from virtually on the halfway to the edge of the six-yard box. Osborn challenged nervously as Haworth rose with him.
After failing to make contact with the ball Osborn fell dramatically to the ground. Haworth dusted himself down to start the goal celebrations but if City’s leading marksman did get a touch then it may well have been from his hand – clearly accidentally – rather than his head.
Five minutes later a Ryan Moran cross picked out the unmarked Haworth but in stretching to reach the ball the striker hooked the ball wide.
The greater threat continued to come from the home side with Reece Yorke drilling a shot high over the target before a second goal was added on 31 minutes.
Ijaha swept the ball out to the right to Hart who darted to the goalline before cutting it back to Walker whose second touch, a cleanly struck right-footed drive, flew past the former City trio of Frater, Derek Brown and Dave Deeney before eluding the diving Osborn for his fourth goal of the season.
St Albans suffered a blow ten minutes from the interval when a suspected thigh injury led to Haworth being replaced by James Bent. The loss of Haworth’s physical presence seemed to have detrimental effect on the Saints attacking prowess.
Arlesey came out for the second half with far greater attacking intent but the City defence, which has conceded an average of two goals per game all season, looked solid against an unimpressive Town attack.
But as the half went on it bore certain similarities to City’s midweek nightmare. On that occasion East Thurrock notched up a dozen efforts on goal compared to the Saints three during the second 45 minutes and on Saturday Arlesey ran up 11 attempts on the home goal. The pressure told eventually.
Striker Chris Dillon became an increasingly influential figure as both he and Deeney went close from distance while City keeper Nick Jupp pulled off a spectacular save to his left from a Lee Allison free kick.
Brown did his best to help his former club with a couple of back passes that caused problems for Osborn but City were unable to take full advantage of either opportunity as the keeper’s poor clearances went straight to the home side.
Midway through the half Osborn made a good save from a Ryan Moran header following a Sean Shields corner and on 71 minutes – seconds after Town boss Zema Abbey made a double substitution – that save took on greater significance as the deficit was reduced.
Arlesey broke at speed down their right, courtesy of a long ball from Frater, with substitute Jordan Patrick cutting a pass back to Stuart Sinclair whose near post cross was prodded home by Dillon who had edged goal-side of Moran.
A minute later parity was restored when Patrick was picked out free on the left side of the penalty area and from his low first time cross the incoming Marsh had a simple task in steering the equaliser, right-footed, to the right of Jupp.
City’s cause suffered a further blow on 80 minutes when referee Cooper was called over by linesman Peter Conn who deemed, contrary to the views of the players that saw the incident and certainly the player himself, that Watts had kicked Mawer and as such the referee had no option but to dismiss the Saints defender.
Although stretched City held out well during the closing stages with new signing Kgosietsile Ntlhe (pronounced ‘in-clare’), a 17-year-old defender on loan from Peterborough, pulling off a vital block to deny Dean Sinclair.
After the match Howell revealed that the injured duo of Haworth and Bent are both likely to be missing for a couple of weeks. |
