St Albans City ’s five match winning run came to an abrupt halt on Saturday as Arlesey Town progressed through to the 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy when coming out on top 2-1 in an uninspiring encounter at Clarence Park.
After taking an early lead through Curtis Ujah the Saints gave their poorest performance of the season and fell to goals from former Saint Drew Roberts, from the penalty spot, and a well-crafted effort put away by Chris Dillon early in the second half.
City manager David Howell will be looking for his side to bounce back quickly with Lowestoft Town visiting the Park in the FA Cup next weekend, 6th October, certainly a repeat of Saturday’s display will see the Saints departing the two national knock-out competitions in consecutive weekends.
With injury continuing to rule out James Gray, Ujah returned to the City defence after completing a three-match ban while Barry Hayles was restored to the attack in place of Simon Martin.
Arlesey, level on points with St Albans in the Premier Division of the Southern League, included four former Saints in their starting XI.
The match lacked spark from the start and seldom seemed to rise above pedestrian pace, and with both sides conceding possession all too easily it was a frustrating afternoon for the 335 spectators.
The opening 45 minutes were littered with free kicks awarded in part by petty fouling by the players and also courtesy of a fussy referee, Neil Davies, whose first appearance at the Park won him few admirers.
Goalmouth skirmishes were scarce early on with the only threat at either end coming via flick-on’s following free kicks.
City took a good 15 minutes to find any rhythm and when they did were rewarded with the opening goal three minutes later.
Richard Graham swept a low corner from the City right to David Ijaha on the edge of the penalty area, his blistering drive was parried by the possibly surprised Nathan Abbey and as former City defender Luke Thurlbourne tried to control the bouncing ball Ujah soared in to hammer home the Saints 30th goal of the season.
City looked to build on their advantage but were rocked in the 23rd minute when skipper Danny Gordon was adjudged to have pushed Leon Hibbert in the penalty area when challenging for a Sol Davies free kick.
Roberts, who scored three times against St Albans last season, added another when despatching the spot kick, right-footed, beyond the outstretched hands of the diving Nick Jupp.
With Shane Blackett and Ryan Frater, one of eight former Saints in the Arlesey squad, dominant in the heart of the Blues defence neither Lewis Toomey nor Barry Hayles could make much headway.
Toomey was more successful when picking up the ball close to the halfway line and advancing before sending a decent shot just wide of Abbey’s right hand upright. Abbey, another of the City old boys, displayed perfect handling throughout and provided a reassuring presence for the visitors.
Following a good spell for Zema Abbey’s side City hit back with Toomey collecting Richard Graham’s ball in from the left and sending a dangerous effort across the face of the goal.
Three minutes from the interval Roberts led a swift Arlesey counter-attack and looked to have sent Chris Dillon clear only for Moussa Diarra to get the ball away for a throw-in with an excellently timed slide tackle.
The Bedfordshire side continued to press for a second goal with Roberts moving clear down the right and crossing to the unmarked Dillon.
After cutting inside Jupp the Town marksman saw his low shot cleared from the goal line by the fully extended leg of Gordon who quickly regained his balance to head away Jeanmal Prosper’s goal-bound header from Roberts’ cross.
Gordon’s heroics ensured the teams went in level at the break but any hope of the second half seeing an improvement on the dull opening 45 minutes was quickly extinguished.
Maybe not too surprisingly City’s first good chance of the half came courtesy of an error with Frater slicing the ball high into the air. Sean Shields was first to pounce and with a powerful drive from an acute angle pulled a superb save out of Abbey.
Howell sought to inject some life into the game with a 57th minute double substitution that saw Hayles – frequently on the wrong end of refereeing decisions – and Graham replaced by Chris Henry and Martin.
Maybe indirectly but the changes were quickly followed by a goal as Arlesey took the lead a minute later with a goal that was of a higher quality than this game deserved.
Henry lost possession to Proper deep inside the City half, the ball was moved quickly onto Aston Goss and then Roberts and from his first time right-footed cross the ball bounced in front of Jupp’s goal for Dillon to finish with some aplomb at the back post.
Five minutes later Roberts received the ball from Dillon and chipped a teasing effort just over the Hatfield Road goal.
During the final half hour neither keeper had to deal with anything of great concern although one promising City move saw Martin cross low towards the near post to Henry whose back-heel set up Shields. The wingers ground shot was pushed away by Abbey.
Henry seized on the loose ball and this time set up Martin for a shot that Davis did well to block on the goal-line.
Ten minutes from time Arlesey could have removed any doubt of their progress following a good cross by Roberts only for Hibbert to head softly through to Jupp.
City’s final hope evaporated when Shields sent a low free kick bobbling wide of the target. |
