St Albans City bowed out off the FA Trophy with barely a whimper on Saturday as Ashford Town (Middx) made light of their lower standing in the football pyramid to chalk up a comfortable 3-1 1st Round Qualifying victory at a sun-kissed Clarence Park.
Whilst there can be no disgrace in losing to a better side, as City clearly did, it may be time to express some concern when that side comes from a lower Division, as Ashford do.
St Albans dominated the early stages and racked up a succession of corners and once ahead through Ryan Moran’s well-executed early goal looked on course for a routine victory.
Unfortunately David Howell’s side then gave the appearance of believing the job to be done and by the time Ashford had drawn level City were already too aloof of reality to be able to wrest control back from a Town side that possesses a phenomenal work-rate.
City made their first change for three games with Sean Shields stepping in to replace the suspended Ryan Watts.
Ashford were without leading goal scorer Dan Brown who is currently in America savouring the delights of Disneyland.
After a quiet opening few minutes City soon established an early dominance.
On eight minutes Shields latched onto a poor goalkick by Town keeper Paul McCarthy and headed towards the edge of the penalty area before unleashing a decent effort that McCarthy sprung high to his left to claw away.
Danny Hart seized upon the rebound but his near post header was again saved by McCarthy while the unmarked Jerome Walker screeched for a square pass.
The pressure was maintained with Moran seeing his header knocked off the goalline by Samad Kazi following a Shields corner.
Ashford, from the Central Division of the Southern League, first worried City when the lively Peitro Palladino got behind the home defence and forced Nick Jupp to save close to an upright.
A goal looked to be on the cards and it arrived on 17 minutes when McCarthy did well in diving to his right to save Moran’s header from City’s fifth corner, taken by Shields, only for the City defender to quickly latch onto the loose ball and, from the most acute of angles, squeeze his shot past McCarthy and two defenders to put City ahead.
With that goal the zest seemed to drain from City’s play and by the half hour it was evident that Ashford were more than capable of fighting their way back into contention.
Jupp smartly saved a free kick from Mark Bitmead, a player who just never stopped running, but on 31 minutes a quickly taken Ashley Lodge corner was helped on by Bitmead for the unmarked Jack Mullan to sweep home.
A minute later Palladino stretched to poke the ball past the advancing Jupp with Bitmead knocking the ball into the Hatfield Road net only to be called back for offside.
As the half drew towards its close the Middlesex side began to prise City open with increasing ease. Palladino sent a dipping effort just over the bar before using his far from considerable height to head against Jupp’s right hand post following Ed Thomas’s deep corner.
The half time interval provided St Albans with an ideal opportunity to regroup and reclaim the upper hand, but nothing could have been further from the truth though as Ashford continued to torment their hosts with neat passing moves.
Howell replaced leading scorer Bakare with Paul Furlong during the break but the change did little to unsettle the visitors.
Either side of Bitmead forcing Jupp to make two saves a long throw by James Mann sailed over the City keeper and was hacked from the goalline by Kgosi Ntlhe as Palladino waited to pounce.
When Ashford took the lead on 61 minutes it was hardly a shock.
Shane Graham attempted an audacious volley from 18 yards only to completely miss the ball but before City could clear Mullan swooped to drive past Matt Cutchey and Jupp to nudge the visitors closer to a deserved victory.
Mullan’s next contribution was to race back and block a goal-bound effort from Walker.
Midway through the half Shields cut in from the City right and fired a low angled drive to the edge of the six-yard box that Furlong helped on its way into the net only for linesman Keiran Bailey to wipe it out due to the striker being offside.
Ashford wasted no time in looking to increase their slender advantage and a slick passing move ended with Jupp making a good save to deny Bitmead.
City responded positively with Walker and Hart working the ball inside to David Ijaha whose crisp shot was punched over the top by McCarthy.
On 73 minutes though there was no escape for City as Thomas rolled the ball across the edge of the penalty area to Graham who, this time, made a clean connection and sent the ball at pace past Jupp and into the York Road net.
The final five minutes and then seven minutes of added time, were open as City, far too belatedly, pushed forward but the nearest they came to a goal was when Shields appeared to be brought down by Graham – a penalty was not forthcoming – and a header by substitute Nathan Haisley that McCarthy clung onto in some style.
But, fittingly, it was Ashford who had the final word with Mann’s free kick just drifting the wrong side of Jupp’s right hand post.
Ashford’s victory sees them add £2,200 to the £2,000 prize money collected for beating Maidstone United in the previous round. |
