St Albans City’s dream of FA Cup glory lies shattered for another year following a 1-0 defeat at Clarence Park on Saturday to a highly efficient Lowestoft Town side that produced the one piece of magic required to settle a closely fought encounter.
The deciding moment came just on the hour when Trawlerboys right-back Dan Gleeson did well to stop the ball from going out of play and clipped it inside to Lee Smith whose exquisite dummy took City defender Ryan Watts out of the game.
Smith then slid a perfect pass into the path of the over-lapping Gleeson whose deep cross was brought down at the far post and hammered left-footed into the Hatfield Road goal by Joe Francis.
That moment aside the game lacked great drama yet was seldom dull, although the dominance of the Lowestoft defence did give the feeling that a City equaliser was not a genuine proposition.
City showed one change from the side that went out of the FA Trophy the previous weekend with French central defender Moussa Diarra very unlucky to be dropped as Danny Gordon moved into the centre of the defence and Watts returned from injury at left-back.
Lowestoft, currently riding high in the Premier Division of the Isthmian League, started positively but it was City who created the better openings prior to the interval.
That said, the Trawlerboys were almost ahead inside the opening minute when the troublesome Chris Henderson turned and clipped an inviting angled ball just across the face of the home goal that eluded Jack Defty at the back post.
City responded positively with Lewis Toomey firing over and Sean Shields putting a tame effort through to Town keeper Jake Jessop.
Shields forced a fine save out of Jessop with a more powerful shot on 12 minutes and the Lowestoft custodian thwarted City again when beating away a cleanly struck effort from David Ijaha.
City looked to use the speed of Toomey to get behind the visitor’s defence and the striker’s persistence almost paid off when he beat Sam Gaughan to Richard Graham’s lofted through ball and then rattled the crossbar with a wonderful shot from 22 yards.
Toomey gave Jessop further problems on 26 minutes when he pushed the ball past the keeper who had raced from his penalty area and unceremoniously upended the Saints leading goalscorer.
Referee Tony Power, whose calmness throughout was in stark contrast to the histrionics witnessed in the visitor’s dug-out all afternoon, deemed the offence to be worthy of no more than a yellow card.
The ensuing free kick came to nothing and gradually City’s threat began to wane and Lowestoft started to build some momentum.
Watts sent a free kick sailing high over the Town goal while Francis just failed to turn in a Henderson cross and close on half time a dangerous Stuart Ainsley free kick was stabbed into the side-netting by Francis.
Having held the upper hand in regards to threats on goal during the opening half City were not at the races after the break and gave the tall Jessop little more than looping crosses to deal with while the excellent Lowestoft defence dealt competently with anything outside the six yard box.
As the Trawlerboys moved forward with greater confidence Henderson headed softly through to City keeper Nick Jupp and then drilled the ball over the bar following a knock down by Defty.
A minute later, the 59th, Francis showed Defty how it should be done much to the delight of the large contingent of visiting supporters who had travelled across from Suffolk.
Six minutes later City did apply a spell of sustained pressure on the Lowestoft goal but a shot by Shields, blocked on the edge of the six-yard box, was the only direct threat to the Town goal.
Further pressure was exerted when Graham’s cross from the City left was collected by Shields who, despite clearly being pulled by Smith, got in a shot that Defty blocked.
A second penalty appeal went unanswered when Watts tumbled over the outstretched leg of Town skipper Gleeson.
Saints boss David Howell looked to the speed of substitute Chris Henry to inject some urgency into City’s somewhat laboured attacks but with Toomey by now silenced and Barry Hayles making little impression hope was fading fast.
Lowestoft, in fact, saw out the closing stages in relative comfort and even almost eight minutes of added time did little to offer City an escape route. City certainly saw plenty of possession but very rarely have they come up against such an impressive and impregnable obstacle as constructed by this Lowestoft side. |
